Product Management vs. Product Design

Cagan argues that many product teams neglect design, leaving products with weak user experiences because the design roles that shape usability and emotional appeal are missing. He lays out four design roles that work with product management: interaction designer, visual designer, rapid prototyper, and usability tester. He explains that large companies generally need all four, while smaller teams can combine roles. He also distinguishes which roles can be outsourced, arguing interaction design should stay in-house while visual design and usability testing can be contracted. The piece matters because a good product requires close collaboration between product management and design.

01Key takeaways

• A good product requires close collaboration between product management and design, so teams should deliberately staff design roles.
• Interaction design needs sustained, in-house involvement from discovery through launch because many detailed decisions arise along the way.
• Visual design shapes emotion as well as appearance, so it deserves real attention rather than being bolted on before QA.
• Prototypes should be disposable experiments, not code meant to be reused in the production product.
• Informal usability testing with target users can be a cheap, effective way to validate ideas.

02Key sections

The design gap in practice

Readers reported that their companies barely do design, with engineers or product managers improvising it, or design added late. Cagan sees the design community failing to reach the teams that need it most.

The four essential design roles

Interaction designers map user needs to flows and wireframes, visual designers craft the look and emotional tone, rapid prototypers build disposable concept tests, and usability testers evaluate whether users can accomplish their goals.

Team sizing and role combination

Large consumer companies need all four roles, while enterprises gain differentiation from better UX. Small startups can combine roles, as one example team did with three people covering four functions.

What to outsource and what to keep

Cagan advises keeping interaction design in-house because it requires deep, continuous user knowledge. Visual design and usability testing can be outsourced, and prototyping can borrow an engineer if kept separate from production code.

03From the post

“A partnership dedicated to teaching best practices to product teams and product leaders”

04Frameworks mentioned

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