This is the skill most “good” designers are missing
Hint: it’s product thinking
Eight years in the industry, working at two major consumer tech companies has taught me one thing: how to spot the difference between a good designer and a great designer.
As I talked about in my article “Advice on your design portfolio”, the main skills hiring managers are looking for are craft and product thinking.
But a trend I’ve seen in hundreds of interviews is that a candidate is strong in craft, but weak in product thinking. Or strong in product thinking, but weak in craft. The designer who is strong in both is often the one we hire.
I call the person who is strong in craft but weak in product thinking a “good” designer. This is because at first glance, they do look like a good designer. They often have a well manicured Dribbble account with animated prototypes and isometric screen layouts. Their portfolio website is polished with high-fidelity mocks of finished products.
The problem? These are also features of a great designers portfolio. So what’s the difference? How do you differentiate a “good” designer, from a great designer?
Product Thinking
As you start to peel back the onion, the portfolio will be missing substance. Look for answers to the following questions:
- What is the human problem you’re solving?
- How do you know it’s a real human problem? (i.e. what research insights or data back it up?)
- Why does the business care about this? What business metrics or outcomes might the solution affect?
- What was the actual outcome of this work? Was it successful? Did you meet or exceed the business metrics? If not, why?
- Do you have rationale for each design decision, big and small?
If answers to these questions aren’t evident, chances are they are missing one of the hallmark skills of a great designer: Product Thinking.
Product thinking is a composite skillset, made up of a few key skills:
A great designer is a storyteller
They can communicate their point-of-view and persuade others. They can craft a story about the user and their problems and paint a picture of a future vision for the product. They can run design sprints that involve the team and create shared understanding.
Recommendation:
Before pushing a single pixel, open up a text editor and start by designing with words. Who is the user? What is their problem? What solutions might solve their problem? What is their journey? What are their emotions along that journey. Tell a story about the user using your product before designing it.
A great designer is intentional
Design is an iterative process. You start with some insights and intuition and design a solution to a problem. Through the process you will receive feedback from your team, leadership, and users. Each piece of feedback will lead to further refinement of the design. A good designer can communicate the rationale for each iteration. They can also explain the placement, color, and interactivity of each UI element and how each helps solve a human or business problem.
Recommendation:
When designing, things move fast and it’s not uncommon to have dozens of iterations of a single screen or feature. Since it can be hard to remember what you were thinking and why for each iteration, add a note next to each iteration so you can go back and remember. Keep a separate artboard where you store all past iterations for quick reference.
A great designer is outcome-oriented
A common mistake is to focus on the human problem to the detriment of the business problem, or vice verse. All products have both and a design solution should keep both in mind. The human and business problems should create a common thread throughout the portfolio. A great designer states the problems up front and references them when rationalizing a design. In the end, they summarize whether they solved the problems.
Recommendation:
Before starting a project make sure you understand the human and business problems. Sometimes these two things are at odds which creates a tension you should be aware of when designing. Make sure you have a business goal and metrics and you understand how the design can affect that. If you don’t meet or exceed the business goal, be retrospective and determine what you can do in the future to improve.
Product thinking is the skill that differentiates the great designers from the rest.
Are you a hiring manager? Next time you look at a portfolio, that at first looks solid but gives you pause, ask yourself if this person is a good product thinker.
Are you a designer? If you feel your craft is solid but you could improve on product thinking, then work on storytelling, intentionality, and focus on human and business problems.
And if you’re currently interviewing or just getting started on your job search, check out my Product Design Interview E-Book at www.uxinterviewtraining.com. Also download my free Product Design Portfolio Template that’s compatible with Keynote and Figma.
