Getting started as a Product Designer (2024)

I wrote this article for Not Only — But Also, a platform that connects young creatives with different roles in the industry.

When I tell people that I’m a Product Designer, some common responses I receive include:

So…what does that mean?

What kind of products do you design?

Do you design chairs?

Until recently, Product Design referred to industrial designers who worked with physical objects. Now, it has become the term of choice for digital companies seeking ‘full-stack’ designers with a range of digital skills. In this article, I’ll dive into what Product Designers do, what the different concentrations are, and how you can get started in the industry.

Product Designers are responsible for designing, improving, and implementing digital experiences that satisfy user and business needs. They tend to own the end-to-end process of designing a digital product, from research and conception to usability testing and implementation. There are two important aspects of Product Design:

Product design is fluid

The digital sphere is constantly evolving and composed of different disciplines working closely together. When working as a Product Designer, you learn highly-transferable skills that can be applied to many career paths. For example, you could start in Visual Design then move into UX once you’re more knowledgeable about user-centered design. Or, you could move from Interaction Design to Design Engineering once you improve your coding chops. It’s also possible to pivot into different fields altogether, since Designers, Engineers, and Product Managers collaborate so closely.

Product Designers are ‘T-shaped’

Product Designers tend to be generalists who have wide skills with deep specialisations. There are many skills required for the role, including user research, information architecture, motion design, and frontend development. However, don’t be overwhelmed and discouraged: you’re not expected to master everything! Focus on your strengths, your passions, and your goals to carve your niche and define the shape of your ‘T’.

Your academic and professional background can play a significant role in defining your concentration. For example, with a writing background, you could be a strong UX writer or content designer. If you’re a visual artist, you might be brilliant at crafting beautiful interfaces and product illustrations. If you have worked in customer support or social work, you could thrive as an empathy-driven UX researcher.

Regardless of your specialisation, every Product Designer needs to practise design thinking. Design thinking is a problem-solving framework that focuses on people: it centers the need of users and pushes us to make decisions based on data, rather than our own beliefs and assumptions. It’s a flexible, non-linear process: you might repeatedly test, iterate, and improve your designs in response to new insights. This highlights a key aspect of Product Design: your ability to synthesize information, communicate decisions, and think critically are as important as visual design skills.

Let’s explore some of the different concentrations in Product Design:

UX Research

UX Researchers gather data about users, problems, and environments to guide design and product decisions. You would serve as an internal champion and advocate for user needs. A normal day could include: planning and executing interviews, field studies, and user tests; synthesizing insights; and producing deliverables (such as personas, experience maps, and reports). UX Researchers need to be empathetic, meticulous, and skilled with handling qualitative and quantitative data.

User Experience Design

UX Design is the entire practice of creating efficient, functional, and delightful experiences. You might collect and synthesize research insights before creating design experiences that satisfy both user and business needs. In UX Design, asking the right questions is as important coming up with answers: ‘Why are we solving this problem? Who are we impacting? What are our constraints? What is the full user journey?’ A typical day might include mapping workflows, creating wireframes and prototypes, testing your designs, and integrating your findings back into your work.

Interaction Design

There’s a large overlap between UX and Interaction Design, but the two aren’t completely synonymous. Interaction Designers focus on how users interact with products and services, in terms of both the overall flow and specific elements (such as copy, motion, gesture, and sound). You would be responsible for micro-interactions as well as ensuring that the overall experience is consistent and informative.

User Interface (UI) Design

UI Designers craft interfaces that help users accomplish tasks with minimal friction and maximal delight. You would skillfully manipulate elements like typography, colour, motion, and content to drive user actions and support the overall product goal. The best UI Designers make interfaces ‘invisible’: they create such simple, intuitive, and functional product experiences that you might not even notice that you’re using it.

Visual Design

Visual Designers engage, excite, and inspire users through imagery, content, and branding. Unlike UI Designers, Visual Designers don’t solely focus on interactive interfaces. You could be tasked with designing web pages, illustrations, branding, and environmental designs. Successful Visual Designers need to be creative, proficient in a variety of tools, and skilled at communicating decisions behind their work. To set yourself apart, consider learning skills in motion design, illustration, data visualisation, and 3D design.

UX Writing

UX Writers shape product experiences by crafting copy to guide and support users. As a skilled wordsmith, you would set the tone for users while creating a cohesive experience across the entire product. Like interface design, great UX writing can be hard to notice when it is clear, concise, and functional.

As a Product Designer, you can easily pick up technical skills on the job or through self-led learning. However, great Designers are also distinguished by several soft skills:

Empathy

Product Designers use an empathy-led approach to center user needs when tackling complex problems. By taking the time to understand your users and put yourself in their shoes, you will be in a better position to deliver solutions that meet their needs. By creating deliverables based on research, such as personas and journey maps, you can also help other team members empathize with users.

Self-led learner

Proactive Product Designers commit ourselves to a lifetime of continuous learning and self-improvement. We take charge of our own development and eagerly await new challenges.

Every single day, I learn something new in my role, whether it’s a new development tool or a better way to communicate with team members. The digital industry is constantly evolving, and there’s an endless stream of new technologies, tools, and methods that Product Designers need to stay on top of.

Skilled communicator

Product Designers are skilled all-round communicators (including visual, written, and verbal communication). You need to confidently articulate the process and decisions behind your work. When challenged by team members, users, and decision-makers, be prepared to draw upon a body of research, industry insights, and design philosophies to back up your decisions.

Data-driven decision-maker

Designing and developing digital products is a costly process. As such, Product Designers need to ensure that design decisions are based on data, feedback, and user insights rather than unfounded assumptions. At the start of a project, define a set of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound) goals to guide your work and measure outcomes.

Product Designers generally love to spend time online and share their knowledge. As a result, there’s an abundance of free resources to help you get started or improve your craft. A great example is Degreeless Design, which summarizes what one person learned at design school through a collection of resources.

1. Learn

• Attend workshops, conferences, and events. Many of them are remote-friendly and free to attend.
• Read books. Some of my favourites include: The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug, and the A Book Apart series
• Take an online course. Some great free courses include Hack Design and The Gymnasium.
• Read articles. There are so many great articles out there! I found it easier to read deeply on specific topics whenever questions came up in my work, rather than trying to cover all the bases in one sitting. Check out: Norman Nielsen Group, Smashing Magazine, and UX Collective.
• Listen to design podcasts to learn from industry leaders and explore new developments.
• Enrol in a design bootcamp if you prefer learning in a structured environment. They have varied price tags and flashy websites, so be sure to speak to past students to evaluate different options.

2. Practise

You can consume every design resource out there, but when it comes to improving your craft, nothing beats working on live projects. However, this can be a frustrating catch-22: most employers ask to see a portfolio of past work, even when hiring for entry-level roles. How might you gain design experience before landing your first paid gig?

• Initiate your own projects. Use a prompt generator for inspiration, or design a solution that addresses challenges that you face in your daily life.
• Participate in hackathons to collaborate with others and produce solutions within tight time constraints. Meetup, Facebook, and Eventbrite are good sources for local hackathons.
• Apply for design internships, especially if you are a student or recent graduate. You get to work on projects with live clients, while also securing references and recommendations that make it easier to land full-time roles. To find internships, attend career fairs, look on job boards, or contact companies/recruiters directly via email or LinkedIn.
• Offer pro-bono work to local businesses and nonprofits. This also offers the chance to work on live clients and secure a work reference at the end. Platforms like Designers Available or Designers of the People showcase pro-bono opportunities, but I also recommend reaching out to local businesses and organisations that you care about.

3. Document and showcase your work

• Document everything! While graphic design portfolios focus on the final product, Product Design is all about the process. Capture all of your doodles, research, and rough designs. When participating in a workshop or hackathon, take plenty of photos. If your final product was built and released, ask your users to provide some quotes about your product. All of these tidbits will be invaluable for building your design portfolio.
• Your design portfolio communicates what kind of designer you are, how you make decisions, and what you’re like to work with. It’s a critical part of the recruitment process, and many employers will look at your portfolio as their first point of reference.
• There are plenty of resources out there to help you build your portfolio. Take a look at other designers’ portfolios to learn about how to structure your content, how to write about your work, and how to visualize your deliverables.
• Consider tailoring your portfolio to the specific roles and industries that you’re interested in. However, it’s also important to show breadth of work and a combination of personal, professional, and academic projects (if you have them).

3. Apply for roles

• Identify suitable roles. Update your CV and ensure that it’s cleanly designed. Talk about your impact in concrete, measurable terms: e.g. ‘I organized a design workshop involving 12 people. Our solution increased user satisfaction scores by 20%.’
• Write personalized cover letters for each role you’re applying for. Mention your skills, relevant experience, and interest in the company. This can be time consuming, but recruiters are usually looking for a human touch rather than blanket statements. If you don’t have extensive industry experience, talk about your current learning path and your motivations for moving into Product Design.
• Many employers use automated systems to scan your CV and cover letter for relevant keywords, so be sure to highlight skills that are relevant for the role.

4. Interview

When interviewing for Product Design roles, you will typically advance through several stages:

1. A recruiter screen. A recruiter or hiring manager will invite you for a short call to learn about your background, understand your motivations for applying, and iron out administrative details like salary expectations. They’re looking for relevant experience, communication skills, and interest in the company. To succeed, do your research about the company, ask relevant questions, and practise answering common interview questions.
2. A call with a member of the design team. A design leader will dive deeper into your experience, skills, collaboration style, work preferences, and future goals. This is also a chance for you to learn more about the company, the design culture, and how you might fit in. They might ask to see your previous projects. When showcasing your work, take your listeners on an engaging journey and highlight the key design decisions that were made.
3. A take-home design exercise. This is usually a short exercise to test your visual design and problem-solving skills. You will be given a project brief and a few days to complete it in your own time. If you feel like anything is unclear in the brief, or that the exercise demands an unreasonable amount of time, contact the hiring manager. Here are some tips for succeeding at take-home tests.
4. A live design workshop or challenge. This is a chance for your potential teammates to see how you respond to live problems and high-pressure situations. You will be presented with a design challenge and asked to come up with a solution in a limited timeframe. This is typically a collaborative exercise where you will build upon the insights of your interviewers. For this step, practise makes perfect! Read resources, perfect your framework, and practise with friends.

Employers are looking for design craft, product thinking, cultural fit, proactiveness, and potential for growth. You might be asked to complete additional steps, such as critiquing existing apps or meeting the CEO. Interviewing is a skill that you will improve with time and experience. Even if you get rejected for roles, think of it as a learning experience that will build your skills in the future. Don’t be afraid to re-apply for roles later and keep in touch with the people who interviewed you.

5. Network

Networking no longer means schmoozing over canapés and exchanging business cards. In Product Design, networking is much more dynamic and fun. Here are my tips for making the most out of design networking:

• Identify designers who inspire you. Why does their current role appeal to you? How did they get there and what challenges did they face? Reach out to these designers via LinkedIn, Slack, and email to introduce yourself. I’ve connected with some brilliant designers this way. The worst that can happen is that they ignore your message (which really isn’t that bad!)
• Find a mentor. This can be anyone in the industry who is more experienced than you and willing to provide advice and guidance. I’m passionate about closing the gender gap in technology and mentoring underrepresented emerging designers, while my mentors range from product managers to past professors.
• Join active design networks such as Facebook, Slack, and LinkedIn. Some of my favourites include Ladies, Wine and Design, and the Design Social Club Slack group.
• Identify your passions and incorporate them into your design practice. There are rich networks for Black designers, LGBTQ+ designers, and designers who care about social justice.

To sum up…

Through grit, perseverance, and proactivity, you can grow as a Product Designer and gain a breadth of interdisciplinary skills. Design is a collaborative sport: put yourself out there, harness the amazing online resources, connect with people who inspire you, and give back to others when you have the chance.