Looking to flex your design muscles, but don’t know where to start? Check out these insider tips as we dive into the skills, experience, and key components needed to succeed as a Product Designer in today’s job market.
Product Designer job description:
Product Designers are typically responsible for all aspects of product design and are closely tied with product development, marketing, and graphic design. This includes, but is not limited to user-experience, interaction design, packaging, user research, and design management. As a Product Designer, you will be required to collaborate with product development teams to create and implement strategic, comprehensive product visions, and be involved in each step of the design process, from pre-production to proofing through post-production.
What skills do Product Designers need?
When considering a role in product design, candidates should have experience working closely with developers, product managers, and other designers. They also must be willing and able to solve problems alongside engineers to build high performing, user-centric products for web and mobile, and be fluent with how digital products work. Having both user experience and user interface experience for most jobs is non-negotiable. This may consist of creating a responsive design for web and mobile and understanding browser and mobile capabilities, along with UX best practices.
What experience do Product Designers need?
If you're looking to get product design experience, a degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communication or other design related degree is highly recommended. There are also UX/UI boot camps or programs available. If you're just starting out in your career or you're not sure how to transition into a Product Designer role, it is recommended to start working closely with and shadow a UX Designer and slowly work your way into product design within a company.
What are hiring managers looking for in Product Design talent?
While you don't need a Master's to get a job as a Product Designer, you will most likely need at least a Bachelor’s Degree in a design related field. Some hiring managers require 3-5 years of product design experience, plus an understanding of CADD software programs, but having a Bachelor's and UX/UI experience working across web, tablet, and mobile will suffice. Browsing through our job database, we noted that hiring managers may also look for experts in visual design, spanning UI, brand, iconography, and art direction, in addition to a strong understanding of motion, interaction, and service design.
How to succeed as a Product Designer:
It is extremely important to stay organized while maintaining a visually appealing portfolio as a Product Designer. As a Freelancer, an up-to-date, well-maintained portfolio, knowledge of user experience trends, and having a clean aesthetic will definitely come in handy when searching for future jobs. Product Designers want to be able to show the UX process behind and the final visual product of all projects. If you are a quick thinker with the ability to problem solve effectively, you will absolutely thrive in a product design environment. Take a look at our Product Designer job openings today! Click here to access our free Job Toolkit for everything you need to know about today’s most in-demand jobs.