A product designer may also be referred to as a User Experience Designer, Customer Experience Architect, User Interface Designer, Interaction Designer, or Information Architect depending on the type of company, the size, and diversity of the design department and the particular individual’s area of expertise.

While companies can always benefit from a product designer, they play a particularly important role during key stages of product development. During the initial design and proof-of-concept phase, they can translate the goal of the product into a functional user experience and provide requirements feedback regarding what must be in place for users to achieve their goals.

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As a product grows and adds more features and functionality, they can ensure the user experience is intuitive and reduce points of friction. And once a product is mature they can help refine the user experience and make the product more efficient to improve page load speeds, etc.

Product designers are seen as a luxury for some companies that might delay adding someone in that role until further in their lifecycle, while others might hire a product designer before they even add a product manager. Product design can also be outsourced relatively easily, so many companies rely on outside consultants and agencies for this function.


How do You Become a Product Designer?

A product designer needs a unique toolbox to do their job, spanning from the “arty” to the “techie” aspects of the role. They obviously must be creative, but they also must be effective communicators and storytellers to explain their vision for the product design.

As an advocate for the customer, they must understand the business environment while also having the courage to say “no” when a decision could negatively impact the customer experience. “Customer empathy” is another common thread when it comes to describing the product designer role in this context.

Design thinking is pretty much a given for the role, as product designers will be asked to develop user stories (including worrying about edge cases), storyboards, and mockup interfaces. Product designers may also be tasked with performing user research.

Visual design tools such as PhotoShop and Sketch are go-to’s for many product designers, as is CAD software when it’s relevant. Mastery of design suites is a prerequisite for most roles as they will rely on them for both prototyping and delivering finished assets to the engineering organization, as is an understanding of color palettes, typography, and layout.

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