Good Product Designer / Bad Product Designer

Inspired by good product manager/bad manager by Ben Horowitz.

There are many traits and practices that distinguish good product designers from bad product designers. The following is my perspective, as a product designer in a high-growth startup environment, on some of the most important differentiators.

Know your customers and users

Fundamental to product design is knowing our users and their experiences. Good product designers truly understand their customers and the journeys they are on. They have a clear understanding of their user personas and are deeply aware of the user’s “job to be done.”

Good product designers are champions for their users. They design with empathy. They deeply understand the customers’ perspective and the realities of how they interact with the product. They advocate for what’s best for the users, and are able to articulate real users’ needs and solutions.

Bad product designers rely on their own opinions and personal ideas to form solutions. They are not interested in learning about users; instead, they focus their attention on the visuals, ignoring the real user’s experience and needs in favor of designing for themselves or for their business stakeholders.

Be a domain expert

Like good product managers, good product designers understand the product, the competitors, and the market. Good product designers don’t just ask “why,” but also do the work to answer the “why” themselves. They understand the full lifecycle of the product beyond just features: from customer acquisition to conversion to ongoing retention. Good product designers constantly acquire domain knowledge and apply it to support their design decisions.

Bad product designers wait for product managers to provide product requirements. They design features without asking the relevant questions. Instead of being curious to learn about the product domain, they make excuses for why they don’t consider it important to do so.

Understand the product and its usability

A good product designer knows the ins and outs of how their product area works, of the different user flows and the interactions involved, and knows the reasons behind each experience and behavior. Using research and domain knowledge, they go beyond fulfilling the needs of customers, considering ease of use and efficiency, as well as accessibility and discoverability. A good product designer knows how the product is built. When providing solutions, they take into account the technical implementation and limitations, and the design constraints and trade-offs. This understanding allows them to adapt quickly to feedback or requirements, and to create an experience that’s delightful, innovative, and meaningful.

A bad product designer spends too much time moving pixels around instead of addressing the real problems. They often create more work for engineers without any added benefit for users. They care more about their own aesthetics than making it easy for users to use the product.

Think holistically and measure success

Good product designers keep the big picture in mind. They understand business goals and company objectives, how their design contributes to those goals, and how to measure the success of their design solutions. They strive to create a seamless experience, considering the entire process from discovery to implementation to launch. A good product designer designs for scale. They adjust and plan for the growth of the design team, the complexity of design components, or the ever-changing needs of the business, users, and technology. They do not reinvent the wheel but improve and build upon existing knowledge.

A bad product designer only cares about the feature that is immediately in front of them. They are not aware of other product areas. Instead of aligning success to user behavior, they measure success purely via velocity, user interface, or personal satisfaction. They tend to react to problems and challenges without having the full context. In the long run, they create more design debt than they build design equity. Bad product designers think their job is done once they’ve handed over the design to engineering.

Value feedback

Good product designers have zero ego. They seek feedback early and often, and from different sources in order to get a variety of opinions. They iterate quickly and rely heavily on testing with users. A good product designer does not claim ownership of their design. They know how to evaluate and prioritize different types of feedback.

A good product designer also knows how to give effective feedback to other designers, as well as to product managers and other stakeholders.

Bad product designers disregard negative feedback. They feel hurt or personally attacked when they receive critical comments. Bad product designers think their design is done on the first pass, and refuse to iterate.

Comfortable with ambiguity

A good product designer is comfortable leading with confidence through ambiguity. They know when to dig deep, ask questions, and challenge product managers. At the same time, they also know when it’s time to stop questioning and lead with solutions, even when they don’t have all the answers. A good product designer is never a blocker. They are able to navigate and pivot quickly without sacrificing the quality of the design.

A bad product designer refuses to change their process when things are unclear. They create friction, refuse to collaborate, and become a blocker instead of a team member.

Great collaborator

Good product designers are great partners to product managers, engineers, and cross-functional stakeholders. They are comfortable leading the design thinking process with their peers in product and engineering. They also facilitate design discussions, seek opinions, and share design iterations with cross-department teams such as sales, customer success, and marketing. They create trust among their team members by succinctly articulating the design’s impact.

Good product designers have the curiosity to learn. They are humble and not afraid to ask questions. They are able to assess their own knowledge, identify any knowledge gaps and seek to close those gaps when necessary.

Bad product designers work in a silo. They avoid sharing designs and interacting with stakeholders and team members. They prefer to work in a waterfall style and do not value cross-functional team effort.

Be a good product designer

It’s easy to be a bad product designer. It takes constant practice to be a good one, but it’s worth it for yourself, your team, and of course, your users.