When we talk about the most valuable skill for a product designer, the conversation usually turns to craft, tools, or taste. But ask the people designers work with every day and a different theme rises to the top: communication. In this post, I asked a few teammates across design, research, engineering, and data to share what they believe is the single most important skill for a product designer. Here’s what they said.
“The ability to communicate effectively is the most valuable skill for a product designer. You could be the best designer in the world, but if you can't properly communicate your idea and what problem it solves, those around you probably don't understand how great the design is and your design won’t go far. As a manager, the most effective designers communicate with me and their cross-functional peers regularly. They are able to give me regular updates on their work, discuss setbacks they are having, convey their process, and flag the type of support they need from me. A product designer should also be able to communicate through storytelling. Instead of jumping to the solution, how do you help your audience understand the beginning and middle? The ability to receive and provide clear and concrete feedback is another facet of being an effective communicator. Designers who are able to do this well usually have solid cross-functional relationships and are able to work through difficult situations.”
- Kaitlin Fink, Design Manager
“A strong desire to learn from others is the most valuable skill for a product designer. They should be able to ask questions to uncover user problems while also leaning into their own expertise and perspective as a designer. By being curious, a product designer can begin to bring others into their design process thus encouraging an inclusive, collaborative environment.”
- Lexi Davirro, Design Researcher
“The most valuable skill a product designer could have would be communication. A designer could develop an amazing design, but without being able to communicate reasons for design decisions or not being able to answer questions about their design can slow down the whole development process. Also, communication from the early stages to the late stages of the design is important so the designer doesn’t go down a route that is not technically possible or would be technically expensive to develop.”
- Mitchell Woodhouse Mckenzie, Frontend Engineer
“The most valuable product design skill is a combination of understanding a user's goals within the product and how they actually behave. I imagine data as a way to help to diagnose existing customer pain points and opportunities. When this is passed to product and design, the solution should functionally solve the problem and either complement the way users already behave in the product or actively change their behavior. If a feature isn't intuitive to users, they either won't use it or will work around it.”
- Courtney Blaylock, Data Analyst