# Product Design and Product Designer: demistifying buzzwords

- Link: https://www.solmesz.com/articles-en/product-design-product-designer-demistify-buzzwords
- Published: 2024-04-11T18:04:08-03:00
- Author: Sol Mesz

[(Leer en español)](https://www.solmesz.com/es/articulos/que-es-product-design-que-hace-un-product-designer)

**Product Design** and **Product Designer** are two trendy terms that are often 
used without a clear understanding of their meaning. The main problem with both 
is that because they include the word “design,” they are often associated with aesthetic
aspects, leading to many misconceptions.

## What is product design?

Let’s start by defining Product Design. I like the definition from the [Interaction Design Foundation](https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/product-design),
which defines Product Design as “the process of combining user needs with business
objectives.”

## What does a Product Designer do?

The definition of Product Designer is more complicated. It is generally thought 
that the Product Designer, like the UX designer, “moves pixels on the screen and
makes the product pretty.”

In addition, since Product Design is considered the next level of seniority from
a UX Sr., the Product Designer becomes a Sr. UX Sr.

This misconception is due in part to:

 * The inclusion of “designer” in the title, which leads to the role being associated
   with aesthetic aspects
 * A lack of understanding of what UX is (no, UX is not the new cool name for graphic
   design)
 * High market demand, which leads to the use of “cool” role titles to make the 
   position more attractive

## What skills does a Product Designer need?

In contrast to a UX Designer -whose main focus is on the experience, a Product Designer
in addition to attending to the experience, also has to incorporate product and 
business needs in their decision-making process.

Therefore, a Product Designer needs to widen their skillset and develop:

 * Product vision
 * Business vision
 * Critical thinking
 * Knowledge of metrics

 What is the difference between a Product Designer and a Product Manager?

If the Product Designer needs to incorporate business and product perspectives, 
then how is Product Design different from Product Management?

To answer this question, we need to take a step back and [understand what a product is](https://www.solmesz.com/articles-en/what-is-a-product).

> **A product is an artifact that creates value for the user with a positive impact
> on the business (link to the article what is a product).**

Mitch Clements, in his [excellent article “Value before usability”](https://uxdesign.cc/value-before-usability-7279c75f2cf5)
introduces a the idea of “primary” and “secondary” ownership which help to understand
the difference between both roles.

![Difference between Product Designer and Product Manager](https://www.solmesz.com/
wp-content/uploads/Product-designer-vs-product-manager-En-600x338.jpg)

> **While both focus on creating value, the Product Manager has a primary focus 
> on business value, while the Product Designer has a primary focus on user value.**

But since the purpose of a product is to create value for the user with a positive
impact on the business and both functions do not work (or should not work) in isolation,
the idea of secondary ownership comes into play.

Thus, while the Product Manager’s primary responsibility is business value, they
still have _secondary responsibility over user value_. Similarly while the Product
Designer has primary responsibility over user value, they still have _secondary 
responsibility over business value_.

## In summary…

 * **Product Design** is “the process of combining user needs with business objectives.”
   In other words, it has nothing to do with visually designing a product.
 * The **Product Designer** is not a UXer with more experience, but rather has a
   broader perspective because in addition to considering aspects of the experience,
   they also consider aspects of the business and the product.
 * And to do that, they must add **critical skills to their profile**: business 
   vision, product vision, metrics, and critical thinking to provide effective and
   impactful solutions.

I hope this helps to clarify the concepts of Product Design and Product Designer
and to dispel some of the misconceptions that surround them.