Reclaiming the “product” part of product design

It’s planning season at Dialpad and this week we’ve been discussing our next big release.

In years past as an IC designer, much of the planning was done by others and trickle down to me, where I’d focus on its execution. There were still a lot of unknowns, but most of the big decisions had already been made.

However as a manager, now I’m exposed to the discussions about what to do and why. It’s both interesting and intimidating to be a part of these conversations.

As folks present their plans, they’re challenged from multiple angles.

I can already sense how much I’ll have to learn. I know I need to be more comfortable with conversations like these. It’s part of a product designer’s job.

It reminded me of a podcast where Femke said that product designers have to reclaim the product half of their title. That a product designer’s role is both design and product, not just design.

Hell yeah!

This topic has been on my mind lately. I wrote about. I spoke about it at Parcel Unpacked. And I’m constantly reminding my own team about it.

We can’t call ourselves product designers and only be skilled at UX, or UI, and visual design. In the era of Ai and tech layoffs, we can’t lean solely on our hard skills and craft.

We must fight for the user, but also consider the business. Or risk a reckoning similar to what happened to UX researchers…

Judd Antin wrote a somewhat controversial article arguing that UX Research hasn’t done enough to justify itself. He double-down on it on Lenny’s podcast.

If you’ve been following the tech layoffs these past two years, you may’ve noticed how UX researchers have been impacted more than most.

You might not agree with everything Judd wrote, but he has a point when he says that researchers need to be more business savvy and can’t just fight for the user.

We all do.

Designers, if we don’t adapt, we’re next.

Ai is already eating away at these makers aspects of our jobs and companies are laying off scores of folks to save a buck. If we can’t show how our work contributes to the business, our jobs at risk.

If we understand business and strategy, and incorporate them into our work, we’ll be harder to replace.

This is part of the job.

If we want an invite to those planning meetings, we have to earn it. We can’t ask someone else to do this part of the job for us.

As Femke says, it’s time to reclaim the product part of our titles.

Stray Links 🧶

For the first time ever, humanity is investing more money in solar than oil. Climate scientists hail 2023 as ‘beginning of the end’ for fossil fuel era.

Since YouTube banned the monetization of climate denial on the platform, creators are shifting to “new denial” strategies that include attacks on solutions and even claiming global warming will be beneficial. Big yikes.

Visual Electric is an Ai image generator made for the creative process. Unlike other image generators, this one feels like you’re actually working with the tool instead of doing trial and error using a chat interface.

I ❤️ this short list of interface quality of life improvements from Anthony Hobday.

How we redesigned the WeTransfer emails, an oldie but a goodie on building a system of emails.

Someone used Netscape Composer to make a website in 2024 and the results were pretty solid!

Thanks for reading ✌️
- Ted (@tedgoas)