How to Get Started in Product Design (With No Experience)
What is Product Design?
Product design is the process of identifying real people with real problems, and using an iterative human-centered design process to create and validate solutions to those problems — thereby helping those real people achieve some sort of goal. Today, the term is mostly applied to the tech industry. So when we write about products, it’s digital products like apps or websites that help you accomplish something like Facebook or Google Maps.
It’s not as exclusive as you think.
One common myth about the product design world is that we designers started designing when we were babies. We grew up with a pencil and a notebook in our tiny plump hands and have been human-centered-design geniuses from diapers on. This is just simply not the case. In fact, many designers in the tech community came from a variety of backgrounds — and that’s a good thing! I’ve seen folks come into the product design field from education, marketing, social work, coding, food service, graphic design, customer support… you name it.
In product design, it’s not about the tools you know, it’s the process you employ to help a potential user achieve a goal.
