Working with designers as a product manager
Located in: Product
The design process
Many PMs are frustrated when working with a designer, they are often unable to provide a timeline on the creative process. Sometimes things take days and other times it'll take weeks. So how does a designer approach the problem? [1]
- Break it up into smaller chunks of work. Generally starting with the user flow then either moving into wireframes or breaking up the user flow into chunks.
- Iterate on the idea at least 5 times but up to 20. At this point the designer is aiming for diversity, there shouldn't be any censoring.
- Show the work and get feedback.
- Iterate on the feedback
Things to watch for
- Reinventing the wheel - When “Let's be innovative!” wins at the expense of “Let's do things effectively and quickly!” [2]
- Not Sharing their work early
- Bike Shedding
- Focus on the entire experience not just the happy path
Providing feedback on a design
Questions to ask yourself when reviewing the design:
- Does this solve the problem?
- Is it too bold or not bold enough?
- What is the first thing you notice? Is that what you want a user to notice?
- Are the key actions obvious enough?
- Are there any copy, images, etc that can be removed and deliver the same impact?
- Does the hierarchy make sense?
- Are things consistent with the rest of the product? Are there any patterns we should reuse?