To be a successful product designer you need to acquire the right balance of technical and essential skills. Numerous articles talk about the various technical skills that you should have to master product design such as visual design, user research, information architecture, content writing, and coding. However, only a few refer to the essential skills that are also required to be a great product designer.
The evolution of product design shows a rebalance of technical and essential skills. Sometimes there is even a preference for essential skills, which were called soft skills during the industrial revolution. More and more well-known design companies are hiring designers with great communication skills who trust their process over designers with outstanding portfolios. Managers of these companies are seeking designers who can communicate clearly and align on other teams’ goals.
To conduct user research, brainstorm with a group, and participate effectively in a standup, the product designer should be able to demonstrate qualities that go beyond technical skills which aid in the creation of an elegant and efficient interface. An expert in Sketch might not be a good communicator or vice versa. Tools can be learned but essentials skills are developed over time.
The top essential skills which a product designer should seek to develop are:
- Collaboration
- Empathy
- Communication / Articulation
- Growth Mindset
1. Collaboration
According to a recent hiring survey conducted by InVision (results gathered from 1,635 hiring managers in 7 countries), 98% of hiring product managers ranked ‘collaboration’ as a top soft skill agreeing that a designer needs to be able to work well across teams to effectively solve problems.
The product design process is mainly dependent on the efforts of multidisciplinary practitioners and there is no denying the fact that without collaboration, product design is almost impossible. Product designers need to continuously and effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams, users, and stakeholders. They do not consider themselves a solitary creator evolving as a free electron. Unlike an artist who may want to get their message across without compromise, a product designer can incorporate multiple constraints in its design.
My experience as a product experience designer in the healthcare field has taught me that to be an effective collaborator you need to:
- Proactively seek out and provide feedback.
- Aim to establish your influence rapidly in a new environment.
- Learn to negotiate effectively on requirements without coming off as confrontational.
- Build cross functional collaboration by connecting with other designers, developers, managers, and executives.
2. Empathy
Empathy is the ability to fully understand, mirror, and share another person’s expressions, needs, and motivations. According to the Nielsen Norman Group, empathy enables us to understand not only our users’ immediate frustrations but also their hopes, fears, abilities, limitations, reasoning, and goals. It allows us to dig deep into our understanding of the user and create solutions that will not only solve a need but effectively improve their lives by removing unnecessary pain or friction. Instead of just designing an accessible website, practicing empathy is using a screen reader while blindfolded to complete a task on your website.
To create an effective solution for the user, the designer needs to have the flexibility to let go of their preconceived notions of what the solution should eventually look like. A designer with honed empathy should be able to effectively use their design thinking skills to craft an experience which solves the user’s needs successfully.
“Empathy is at the heart of design. Without the understanding of what others see, feel, and experience, design is a pointless task.”
— Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO
Here are some ways to incorporate empathy into design thinking:
- Observe how users interact with their environment. Capture quotes, behaviors and other notes from ethnographic research.
- Engage users by interacting with them during interviews or through activities like diary studies.
- Immerse yourself into the user’s experience by creating empathy maps or journey maps for a deeper understanding of the user’s perspective.
A product designer not only understands the pain points and the motivations of its users but also the needs of the individuals with whom they work.
3. Communication / Articulation
The ability to communicate and present your ideas to your team or stakeholders backed by experience and research is a highly important skill for a product designer and can be applied to the design process. Whether it’s your client, product manager, or developer, you should always be able to effectively and fluently communicate project requirements, business goals, work processes, product visions, and so on.
To develop better communication skills, you should:
- Always ask the right questions to understand the problem you are trying to solve. Doing so will only make you a better designer and will help you lead a proper business conversation.
- Articulate your design process effectively backed by research and data.
- Be confident about your design decisions.
- Become a good storyteller.
4. Growth Mindset
Mindset defines who you are as a professional and as a person. It is made up of values that you deeply hold about yourself, your work, and others.
The growth mindset helps you to see possibilities and opportunities and not to be blocked by your failures. This mindset thrives on challenges and the ability to not perceive failures as evidence of unintelligence.
“In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work — brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”
– Dweck, 2015
To develop a growth mindset, you should:
- Be Growth-oriented — see your mistakes as a natural part of opportunity and learning.
- Be comfortable with ambiguity — learn ways to solve vaguely defined problems or business goals.
- Be brave in uncertainty — be comfortable voicing your opinion even if it is unpopular.
- Reflect transparency and ownership — own up to your mistakes, ask for help when you’re stuck, identify action plans on how to improve your performance.
In short, a designer with a growth mindset will have the ability to take feedback positively, adapt quickly, and constantly seek opportunities for improvement.
Hard skills or technical skills can be learned through disciplined practice while the essential skills need to be genuinely reflected in your daily conversations and interactions. They can be strengthened and developed just like hard skills, but it takes putting yourself into uncomfortable positions, asking for help, and accepting feedback. Magic happens when you learn to combine both skills in your work. Product experience designers are gaining more influence in organizations and their roles are being looked as more strategic in nature. As these roles evolve, having a combination of essential and hard skills opens up more opportunities for a product designer to make a larger impact to the organization.
About me: I’m a Product Experience Designer on the Fusion team at Optum. As an enterprise accelerator, we continually iterate, test and refine our offerings which range from upfront strategy, to prototyping and experience design, to readying teams for agile development. My background in human centered design and research helps me build engaging healthcare experiences with a human centered approach.Want to know more? You can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erummatinkhan/
A Fusion publication. We are employees of UHG and these views are our own and not those of the company nor its affiliates.
