By Exporter Do you love dissecting products to understand their work? Do you often find yourself making the best out of waste material, or just fidgeting with things to make something pretty, or efficient? Does that curious mind keep wandering all over the internet, watching the making of product videos?
If the answer to all of the above is a big “YES!”, then I think there’s an amazing product designer in there, waiting to be discovered.
Now that these mini signs have nudged you in the right direction, let’s understand the basics such as:
- Who is a product designer?
- Skills required to be a product designer.
Read along to know all about it and find out the answers to your questions!
Answers to these will enable you to align your interests with your career choice. Making you aware of the skills you’ll need to acquire to become a successful product designer.
Who is a product designer?
Product Designers are multi-skilled professionals. They create an end-to-end product experience in close collaboration with Product Managers and Engineers.
They have involvement in all stages of the product development process. A product Designer is an “end to end” designer whose main task is to transform ideas into useful and valuable products.
A product designer is responsible for the experience of a product, usually taking direction on the business goals and objectives from product management.
Skills required to be a Product Designer
Designing a product is not just about creativity. As a product designer, you have to combine creativity with problem-solving skills and communication. Product designers heavily depend on collaboration with the rest of the team. A designer needs to understand the way technicalities work, how business people think and to find a common language with them.
It requires understanding the market opportunity and user needs, making it a mix of a few interpersonal soft skills and hard skills such as:
Primary Soft Skills:
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Ability to influence others
When you’re part of a team, you need to have the synergy to create a dialogue. You need to be honest with each other because you’re dependable on each other.
You should be able to influence your stakeholders about everything you do around your product.
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Excellent communication
Explaining your vision, negotiations, conducting effective meetings, giving and receiving feedback.
You need to be able to get a message across in a fast and appealing way, this makes all the difference. We interact with coworkers, users, employees, and of course the client during a project. Being a great communicator is the key to actually getting things done.
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Ownership
Taking responsibility and owning it end to end. A product designer leads design projects and often needs to be his/her own “boss”. Therefore, empathy, soft skills, and self-organization are necessary.
Primary Hard Skills:
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User Empathy
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes while working on a problem statement, understand all the factors at play.
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Design thinking
Principles of product design to build a superior UI/UX with your product designer.
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Data Literacy
Read, understand, and communicate with data so that you make the right decisions.
Curiosity is everything designers need to:
- be able to explore
- discover new things
- do research
- learn from competitors
- learn from others
- be able to think far ahead
- have a blue sky thinking
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Domain Knowledge
Deeply understand the domain you’re working in to analyze your target audience, explore competition and accordingly develop strategies.
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Critical Thinking
Critical, analytical, and strategic thinking is the key to becoming a successful designer. Learn how to analyze problems, find their root cause, and evaluate the results.
Last but not the least, to deliver successful products a Product Designer should compile knowledge and experience from different experts within the company into something tangible and workable.
One of the major Product Designer skills is to be INTRAPRENEURIAL within the company.
*intrapreneurship: to act like an innovative entrepreneur within a company. Intrapreneurs are assertive and action-oriented people who take the initiative to pursue an innovative product or service.
Skills that need to be built to become a successful Product Designer:
Necessary Skills:
- Design Thinking
- Interaction Design
- UX DESIGN and UI DESIGN
- Prototyping
- UX Research
- Usability Testing
- Design Systems
“Nice to have” Skills:
- User Research
- UX writing
- Service Design
- CX Design
- Visual Design
- User Data Analytics
- Motion Graphics (basics]
Software Skills:
- Figma
- Sketch
- Adobe XD
- Principle
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
To sum it up, accessible visual design and aesthetics paired with effective user research is the mantra to be a successful designer.
Product Designing is a famously renowned profession in the modern business world. We are evolving every day, and the need for problem-solving, technologically advanced, and smart designs is growing.
How can ISDI help:
If everything you read has intrigued and struck the strings of your creative mind, and got you thinking about taking up a career in product designing, we’re going to help you achieve your dream.
Product Designing is the perfect blend of Science and Arts. It is a product designer’s job to merge both fields in their work.
ISDI offers various design programs such as Design Thinking, Strategic Design, Communication Design, Product Design, and Management. Pursuing one of the degree programs, that is, Bachelors in Design (BDes) – 4 year program or Postgraduate In Design (PGDI) – 11 months program. Either of the programs are an alternative for a career in Design.
The ISDI campus is located in the business district of Mumbai, the commercial center of India. ISDI consists of a curriculum that is based on that of the Parsons School of Design, experienced and industry-leading faculty, practical project-based training, all situated in a state-of-the-art campus. ISDI is just the right place for someone looking to start a career in fashion design.
