What do designers really want from product managers?

The truth revealed!

The relationship between designer and product manager is an interesting one. We work closely together, and there is much overlap between what both people do and bring to the table. Pair this with no shortage of opinions and throw in a little sprinkling of ego and we have a party!

• Both designers and product managers need to understand the business goals and user needs and have organizational awareness.
• Both think about potential features to build, if and how we should build them, and who they serve.
• Both people think about design and interactions — and in some cases both actually do design.

While our job descriptions draw a neater line in the sand, in reality, that line is much more blurred. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the interplay can create some interesting if not tense moments.

To start, I can tell you that we like ourselves some autonomy. We enjoy using our heads to really think through problems and come up with neat, clean and innovative solutions.

The designs we make is an output of our problem-solving skills.
— click to tweet this

On that note, we really, really, really need to understand the problem we’re solving — and we need you to clearly and calmly describe it to us. Once we thoroughly understand the problem, we can go about our business of thinking of ways to solve it with design. We love to see the problem as it ties into the broader vision, so help us put the pieces together!

It’s not that we don’t want your input, we do! We even like to design with you, from the beginning — and we like it when you visualize your thinking through drawings.

We would just prefer that you’re not prescriptive and go about developing a feature without us.

We know you like to strut your stuff in Balsamiq, Axure or the mockup tool of your choice. You should do whatever it takes to help you think through a problem. Designers need freedom in solution thinking though.