Building your design career ladder
A product designer is indeed a very outstanding job title. The title "product designer" always sounds fantastic, regardless of the product — whether it's a new flagship from Apple or a small CRM for your local cafe. And at least half of us have no idea
It's even harder to figure out the next step in your career. I often meet new designers and people with experience, and most of them ask the same questions over and over again:
What do I do to move forward in my career? How do I grow?
In The jobs of the product designer, I wrote about the role of product designers in the overall product development process. But we just touched the tip of an iceberg.
There's much more to growing as a product designer. There are plenty of options to choose from. Today, I'm gonna break it down for you so that you can choose your own path and succeed as a product designer.
First, let's talk about directions. There are two core directions you can grow as a designer:
Individual contributor (IC), or
Manager
But my experience proved that you can't move into manager unless you've worked as IC. To manage other designers, you must understand the design process, UI, UX, interactions, and more.
"You know who the best managers are? They're the great individual contributors, who never ever want to be a manager, but decide they have to be manager because no one else is going to be able to do as good a job as them." ― Steve Jobs
It's better to choose whether you want to be a manager or professional IC once you're on the senior product designer level. But we'll talk about it in a bit.
Now, let's dive into the IC.
What is IC in design?
An individual contributor in design is a product designer who does the actual design work. They're people who create and refine products to make sure they provide a great user experience.
To create cutting-edge new features or improve existing ones that will delight customers, they collaborate with teams of engineers, product managers, and other specialists.
At its core, a product designer is a problem-solver. A product designer uses various aspects and design methods to create and implement a plan that resolves user experience problems.
During the initial design and proof-of-concept phases, they will translate the product's objective into a realistic user experience and offer relevant feedback on what needs to be in place for the users to achieve their objectives.
There are 3 primary levels of the product designer ladder as an individual contributor:
Associate product designer
Product designer
Senior product designer
Associate product designer
The first step on the career ladder is to become an associate product designer.
The responsibilities of an associate product designer in this role are not entirely their own; instead, they must rely on product managers or other product designers with more experience.
Their work typically entails sketching concepts, making wireframes, and producing straightforward mockups.
They collaborate closely with product managers, engineers, and researchers to narrow down and analyze user needs and pain points.
They create unique solutions that meet these needs while also achieving business objectives and use their design expertise to define, build, and validate exceptional user experiences.
There is a lot of room for development as an associate product designer. Before a product is created and released, they can fine-tune their own sense of design, learn more about user psychology, and become more familiar with different aspects of the design process.
They also have the opportunity to participate in and observe various stages of the product development process, depending on how an organization operates.
Product designer
Product designers are involved in every stage of the creation process. They are in charge of running user tests and gathering feedback, working with various teams to define product specifications, wireframing new features, prototyping interactions for these features, creating visual designs, and finally communicating these designs to the rest of the team.
A product designer must ensure that the final product satisfies customer needs and business objectives. They interview potential customers, test their designs with users, and create prototypes.
Senior product designer
To create products and services that achieve the company's goals, a senior product designer must collaborate with customers to evaluate their needs, wants, and desires.
Senior Product Designers work with a project management team to identify opportunities for generating revenue by analyzing consumer demand and market trends.
A senior product designer reviews customer feedback to adjust the product's features as needed. They collaborate with engineers to produce top-notch prototypes for testing.
Managing design positions
Now, when you're a senior product designer, it's up to you to either move to management and become:
A product design manager, and then
A head of design
Or keep working as IC and become:
A staff designer, and then
A principal designer
Product design manager
A Product Design Manager is in charge of creating high-quality standard products, frequently working with engineers and specialists. They will coordinate with various parties, manage teams responsible for product design, establish goals and guidelines, comprehend project requirements, and perform various other tasks.
Instead of working on actual designs, product design managers take on the managing responsibilities and DesignOps and contribute to the product design strategy.
The product design manager might help with UX and user research, design systems, and product vision. But most commonly, they mentor designers on product and individual performance, communicate with leadership, and oversee the major KPIs of the team and product.
Head of design
A Head of Design creates a creative vision for the entire company, not just the design team.
They set the standard for quality and establish systems for putting that vision into action.
They enable the development of brand and experience principles and ensure that those are correctly interpreted in the team's output.
The Head of design is the leading advocate for design inside and outside the organization, sharing its work, extolling its virtues, and outlining its goals.
And occasionally, this representation entails standing up for design in the face of rules, regulations, and red tape that restrict the team's creativity.
These were the managing positions of the product designer career.
Individual contributor design positions
Now, let's get to the IC growth path.
Principal designer
Principal Product Designers have a long history of producing high-quality products in addition to their expertise. Additionally, they consistently exhibit strategic product and business thinking and regularly critique and discuss the work of their peers to improve it.
They will be trusted by the Head of Design to execute the design vision while leading the product design team by example.
Making product roadmaps, overseeing project budgets, and ensuring the team has everything it needs to succeed are all part of the principal product designer's duties.
They also need to ensure the team is carrying out projects correctly and meeting the expectations of all stakeholders.
Staff designer
You're expected to lead design teams, mentor other designers, and collaborate more closely with the company's executive team at this level.
Staff Product Designers have extensive knowledge of the design process and are experts in a particular field. They are also knowledgeable about the history, today's trends, and guiding principles of their area.
Staff Product Designers play a significant role in the company's overall strategy, so they must be excellent communicators and listeners who can quickly and clearly assimilate concepts.
In addition, they must be able to make decisions quickly while collaborating closely with their team to deliver high-quality products that exceed organizational objectives.
Conclusion
The career path of a product designer is a dynamic and evolving process.
But one constant in a product designer's career path is the requirement to constantly learn new things and put them to use.
The information in this guide is intended to give you a better understanding of what to expect along the way, what it takes to succeed, and why product designers are crucial for businesses.