Product Designer’s Core Competencies

Below is what I took away over the years at Yahoo designing mobile products, managing a group of the most passionate designers, and as an individual contributor, being a student and learning from so many great mentors.

It’s what I believe how to be a great Product Designer. But before you read the core competencies, I have a short story to share about my time at Yahoo…

I left Yahoo with no regrets. Contrary to popular beliefs, Yahoo is absolutely a great place to work for. Around every corner of the office, there is someone smarter than you and more experience than you. I didn’t need any challenges to push myself, the company culture and team atmosphere automatically forces you to always be on your A game.

As a designer in such an organization like Yahoo, I grind and dig my way to the seat at the table. I learned from the harshest design review rejections to the ecstatic accomplishments of launching 5 different mobile apps on both iOS and Android within 2+ years time.

So thank you Yahoo, you made me an infinitely better designer than when I started here 4 years ago.

Product Designer’s Core Competencies

Great understanding of structure, layout, compositions, grids, typography, colors, and devices.
Have fun with the product personalities and show some characters in the design.
Understand how to design for emotional and meaningful triggers that creates product values.
Be daring and creative when it comes to out of box solutions and concepts.
Telling the ‘why’ of the design and not just the ‘what’. Being a storyteller is much more important than being a UI designer.
Able to quickly adapt to changes and variables. Pushback when needed. Be 100% committed to decisions made.
Seek and welcome feedbacks and reviews immediately and consistently.
Think in terms of ‘context’ and not what is the “best” or most “simple” design.
Start with users, stay with users. Have empathy.
Be hyper-focus on solving problems, addressing needs, identifying opportunities. and creating values.
Having a mindset that design is never done, it is never finished.