The Importance of the Design Function
Photo by Ronaldo Taveira at stock.xchng.
Product Managers come from many different areas of the business. Common backgrounds include business analyst, sales engineer, and developer. However, I don’t think I’ve ever met a product manager from the creative side of the house (graphic design, plain old design, etc). That’s not to say they’re not out there, I just haven’t run across them.
It is kind of funny (or scary) then that product managers often find themselves involved with the design aspects of the product. Probably more so in technology product management than elsewhere. I know when I first started in product management as a product analyst, I was expected to crank out UI flows and mockups (I didn’t know the term “wireframe” at that point). I tried my best, but this was definitely not my forte. I mean, my art teacher in middle school actually told my parents (and me) during a parent-teacher conference that I would never be an artist. In college, I always deferred any UI work to other team members when we did group projects. I took care of making things work behind the scenes.
I do think it is important that product managers understand the concepts behind great design and especially interaction design (usability). I have actually attended several UIE conferences and have learned a great deal by reading books such as “Designing the Obvious” and “Don’t Make Me Think.” However, product managers don’t have time to be responsible for the design and associated deliverables. And to my previous point, most product managers don’t even have the skill set to do this type of work effectively. Neither do most developers.
At the same time, the design function is an integral part of any product development initiative. It is essential to producing a successful product that people want to use. If you solve a significant market problem but provide a poor user experience, adoption is not going to be great. This requires staff that has a good understanding of creating effective designs and experiences. There’s no way around it.
If your company does not have a design function, start lobbying for it now, because it can take some time (budgets and all that…). In my experience, design should either be its own department or, in a smaller company, it should belong in the development department, since design is part of the solution.
Once you have a design function, it is important that the hand-off from product manager to analyst to designer to developer is well-defined. Ideally, the product manager (or analyst, if you’re lucky enough to have one of those) works closely with the designer to convey the business rules and constraints. The designer runs the design by users, product management, and developers to get input. Once the design is fairly nailed down, development can start working on the functionality. This process can occur iteratively feature by feature (or story by story).
Bottom line: Technology companies need designers just as much as automobile manufacturers and apparel companies. Don’t underestimate the power of great design.
When I was on my MBA a ‘few’ years ago I was one of only 2 out of 200 who came from a design background. We have so much to learn from design in our NPD and problem solving as well as in building compelling products.
I suspect that many in management and PM are a little scared of designers and perhaps the designers are a little scared of them too.
I came to product management from an interaction design background. So did Jeff Lash, who runs the Ask a Good Product Manager blog. But I agree, we’re rare.
Most companies who have been my clients have a design organization, but they tend to be focused on graphics (”make it pretty”) vs. interaction (”make it intuitive and usable”). When there are interaction designers, they are often more junior than product managers, which means they have an uphill battle influencing the final product.
When interaction design and product management can work together as peers, throughout the requirements and prototyping phases, the result is better for everyone. More exposure to different types of thinkers leads to more well-thought-through consumer experiences, more standard interfaces (which means easier to QA and support), and a better end-to-end product.
I couldn’t agree more. I actually go as far as to say that really good interaction designers and ux people are an integral part of top class product management. I maintain that the best way to build products is with a great engineer, a great ux person and a focused and evangilising pm. On the question whether designers can be good pm’s? I am sure they can in certain circumstances and a viusal/creative person is only going to add to the effectiveness of being able to visualise and evangilise the product you are aiming to build.