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Qualities of a seasoned product designer

When I was hiring for Product Designer roles, I checked if they had these qualities.

  1. Critical thinking

  2. Systems thinking

  3. Creative problem solving

  4. Storytelling

  5. Research

  6. Craft

  7. Collaboration and communication

Critical thinking #

The ability to articulate the hypothesis in a given design, feature, or direction.

System thinking #

The ability to frame the problem from multiple perspectives, the ability to see how data from interaction can scale and map to the bigger data story, the ability to make sense of user intent, workflows and mental models in the architecture of the experience.

Creative problem solving #

Good problem solvers tend to exercise divergent thinking by looking at the problem from every angle.

Storytelling #

The ability to persuade, educate, or explain by distilling complex concepts into a narrative that others will remember or understand.

Research #

Someone who thinks like a researcher and have conducted behavioral research.

Craft #

To me craft is expected. A designer must have a certain level of craft and all the things that goes with it such as understanding design patterns, prototyping, etc.

Collaboration and communication #

Someone who can ideate to extend the thinking of engineers and data scientists. Someone who is a trusted ambassador for the team. Humility is important.

P.S. #

Of course, all of these qualities apply in ideal state. If the specific candidate for product designer role was lacking in some of them during the hiring process but had the potential to improve, I made sure they had the time and resources to learn in the particular areas (if they were hired).

Sooo, the list above is an answer that you get if you ask me “What is a seasoned product designer like?”.