Product Designer Track
For designers on the team. Read Core first.
Status: Early. Most of this track is still being written. Core applies fully — what follows is the design-specific layer on top.
How to Think
A designer is accountable for whether the user gets the outcome, not whether the screen looks polished. The work isn't done at hi-fi handoff. It's done when someone unfamiliar with the product can use it without friction.
The smell is perfecting Figma while engineering is blocked. Or treating handoff as the finish line. Get a working version into hands fast, then tighten. Sit with engineering when they implement. Sit with users when they try it.
If your design ships and you don't know whether it worked, that's a feedback loop you didn't close.
What to Read
Coming soon:
- Designer Onboarding & Project Onboarding Template
- Design Mental Models
- Design Process: research, ideation, spec, polish
- Design Reviews & Critique
- Prototyping
- Working in the Codebase / Design System
- Design as Communication
- Working with Eng & PM
- Designer Levels & Competency Matrix
If you're a designer reading this and a section is missing, that's the gap. Tell me, and we'll write it together.
Going Deeper
- Julie Zhuo — The Year of the Looking Glass — design management and craft
- Nielsen Norman Group — nngroup.com/articles — usability research, evergreen
- Brian Lovin — brianlovin.com — design quality and reviews
- Frank Chimero — frankchimero.com/blog — design philosophy and taste
- Adam Wathan & Steve Schoger — Refactoring UI — practical visual design
Related: Product Engineer, Product Manager