The PM 🤝 Design Partnership

Katie Dill, a design leader who has worked with hundreds of PMs, offers five practical tips for building a strong product management and design partnership. She argues that PMs and designers share the same goal of serving customers but approach it differently, so friction is common. Designers need protected, uninterrupted time and their expertise should be trusted. The PM's role is to coordinate the team around shared problems and goals, bring designers in early, and invest in a north star vision. Treating design and business goals as one system helps teams prioritize experience quality. Framing the relationship as a partnership rather than ownership sets up better collaboration.

01Key takeaways

• Trust designers' expertise on user experience and protect their uninterrupted time for creative flow.
• As PM, clarify problems, goals, and constraints so every discipline can contribute its strengths.
• Bring designers into planning early; they add user insight, storytelling, and faster high-quality execution.
• Scope north star visions by complexity, fidelity, time horizon, and stakeholder buy-in, then break them into incremental steps.
• Frame design goals as sub-goals of business outcomes so both sides can prioritize and sequence work together.
• Hold regular conversations about how you will work together, and refer to your counterpart as a design partner.

02Key sections

Why PMs and designers clash

Both roles aim to understand customers and build products that succeed, but they use different methods and rhythms. Recognizing this overlap helps turn friction into complementary strengths.

Trust and protect designer expertise

Creative work is non-linear and hard to time, so PMs should respect designers' judgment and give them uninterrupted focus. Designers should generally be deferred to on user experience decisions when hiring was sound.

Be the conductor and include designers early

PMs should align the team on problems, mission, and goals, then let each expert contribute. Involving designers from the start produces richer solutions faster than handing work down an assembly line.

Use north stars with clear constraints

A north star visualizes the future product and guides long-term alignment. Scope, fidelity, time horizon, and stakeholder buy-in should be set based on how complex the problem is.

Connect design goals to business goals

Consistency, usability, accessibility, and delight are not separate from business outcomes; they drive conversion and loyalty. Shared goals and reserved roadmap time for experience work keep teams aligned.

Build collaboration through conversation

Successful partnerships rest on empathy, transparency, and respect, plus frequent check-ins. Saying 'my design partner' instead of 'my designer' signals a more inclusive relationship.

03From the post

“This week’s newsletter is brought to you by… The Browser is one of my most favorite newsletters. Why? Because every issue brings me joy. How rare is that. I even broke my rule of avoiding sponsorships because I love The Browser so much. Inside each issue, you’ll find a hand-picked selection of the most interesting, best-written, and most get-your-brain-juices-flowing articles on the Internet. Even if you just read the capsule summaries of each selection, your day will be brighter. Special offer for subscribers of this newsletter: Try an entire month for free, no subscription needed! Click the button below to claim this offer. Get one month of The Browser free Q: I’m having a hard time working with the designer on my team. Do you have any advice for working with designers? When I think about a designer who embodies ideal collaboration and thoughtful partnership with product management, I think of my former colleague Katie Dill. Katie and I worked together at Airbnb where she led much of the product design team. Katie then went on to lead design at…”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.