Level Up Your Product Design Game by Taking This Single Action
Level Up Your Product Design Game by Taking This Single Action
Hi, it’s Arek! Welcome to Fundament, a newsletter that enables growth in UX and product design. Not subscribed yet? Join for free now:
A few weeks ago, I sat on a call with one of my mentees. We discussed potential steps this person could take to gain more experience, learn new skills, and eventually open a few doors to better jobs. They were doing UI/UX design but wanted to transition into product design someday.
Hold on, what do you mean by transition?
I strongly believe product design has a distinct flavor, and I love to ask my newly met mentees (and candidates during interviews) this question: What makes product design different from UI/UX and classic UX design?
If you struggle to tell the difference the same way as all my mentees (and candidates), I’ve got you covered:
Less experienced designers have a vague idea of product design. They know it’s somehow broader and different from classic UX design, and they know having previous experience in UI/UX or UX design would be beneficial. They understand the basic principles of visual design, know UX metrics and methods, and can plan and execute user research activities.
However, they find it difficult to locate the right resources to help them comprehend what “product” means in “product design.” My mentee was no different. They asked me to outline a clear path for transitioning from UI/UX into product design.
So here’s my advice: learn the product by acquiring a PM certificate.
It’s not a joke.
I mean, not in the sense of learning everything that product managers do. Just get the basics to understand the core concepts of this discipline and what are the attributes of product-led organizations.
However, if at some point you realize that product management could be your new thing, take the same path as Pati Walencik, which we interviewed a few months ago. Get inspired:
Well, if you are still reading this and thinking I’m not insane (thank you!), you might be wondering how to make an action. Here are the three things you can do starting today, depending on your current job status:
I’m a part of an organization employing product managers (ideally a product-led or transitioning into being one).
I’m not yet a part of such an organization, and I want to invest a small amount of money into my personal development.
I’m not yet a part of such an organization, and I’m a bit skeptical about these concepts, so I just want to dip my toes for now.
Let’s explore potential efforts for each scenario.
Spend more time with PMs
Product managers are responsible for creating the product's vision, which must align with the customer’s voice, business needs, and technology constraints. They are great communicators who work in cross-functional teams and often across different teams. PMs don’t particularly manage people in their product teams but rather ensure everyone’s on the same page and working towards the same goal: making the product valuable for the customers and profitable for the business.
Product designers can vastly contribute to fulfilling this goal and also to creating the product’s vision. We are very close to our PMs, especially if we work in the product trio setting (Product Manager, Design Lead, and Tech Lead). Such an environment creates a unique ability for designers to gain much product wisdom.
We should be making friends with product managers from our organization. Observe what they do, and even ask them to mentor us in a way. There’s a lot to learn from them. Here are some core concepts to learn:
What are the business and product metrics, and which ones are at the heart of our product? Why our North Star metric is what it is?
How do we decode our ideas into a product’s vision and effectively communicate them to stakeholders and product teams?
How is the vision translated into the product roadmap, and when should it be communicated to the customers?
What do we do to ensure our customers get the value from using our product, stick to it, and are happy to pay us?
How do we work in a cross-team setting with Sales, Marketing, and Engineering and connect all the pieces so that our organization functions like a well-oiled machine?
The more we understand about the product and its mechanics, the greater our contribution to its success.
Acquire a PM certificate
If you are in a transition period from other fields or UX design into product design and don’t see product managers daily, you might want to spend some energy on acquiring a PM certificate. Even if you are already in a product-led organization, it’s not the worst idea either.
I took a class on product-led organizations from Pendo last summer, and it was a hit in the bull’s eye. This course helped me understand how it might look to work in a company in which the product is at the center of interest of literally everyone, including sales. Before taking that class, I didn’t see the value of cross-team collaboration in creating great products. Maybe I have never worked with great PMs before. Luckily, I do now.
Below, you will find a list of various product management courses. Most are free, and most offer certificates. You don’t have to take all of them. Glance at their curriculums and pick the one that resonates most with you:
Product-led Certification Course from Pendo – FREE (
$149) – productledcertified.comProduct Management Basics Certification Course from Pendo – FREE (
$149) – productledcertified.comProduct Analytics Certification from Pendo – FREE (
$149) – productledcertified.comProduct Led Fundamentals from ProductLed – FREE – productled.com
Product Management Career Path from LinkedIn Learning – 30-day free trial – linkedin.com/learning
Mastering Product Management from Reforge – $1995 annually (with access to all Reforge on-demand courses) – reforge.com
Read about product management
In cases when you can’t be around PMs yet and you don’t particularly want to invest too much time and energy into taking an online class, start with reading about product management. There are plenty of PM newsletters that bring enormous value and wisdom. Some of them are free, and some have paid plans. It’s up to you to make the investment or not, but I’d recommend subscribing to any of the following:
Product Compass by Paweł Huryn – FREE and Premium – productcompass.pm
Lenny’s Newsletter by Lenny Rachitsky – FREE and Premium – lennysnewsletter.com
Untrapping Product Teams by David Pereira – FREE – substack.com
Product Growth by Aakash Gupta – FREE and Premium – aakashg.com
Product design is beyond screens
Understanding that product design is not only about moving rectangles in Figma and talking to your users from time to time will enable you to be successful in this field and contribute to the success of the products you were hired to work on. Comprehending product and business mechanics is one of the major skills a product designer should acquire.
There are many ways to achieve it, and depending on the current job scenario and other factors, it could involve getting a product management certificate, spending more time with PMs from your organization, or reading about products and product management.
I’m genuinely curious how your career will evolve in a year after you take the action I proposed today. Let me know in the summer of 2025!
Upcoming events (and a discount code!)
WaysConf 2024 – Krakow (19-20 Sept 2024)
WaysConf is the largest event for product designers and makers in CEE. The conference has evolved to embrace professionals from diverse backgrounds, including researchers, designers, developers, and managers.
Fundament became a media partner of this year’s edition. As a result, we can offer our subscribers a 15% discount code for both online and offline tickets: fundamentdesign15
With a mission to promote unique and empowering conversations on digital design, WaysConf brings together the brightest minds in the industry for a dynamic and inclusive conference experience. Attendees can expect inspiring keynote speeches, engaging workshops, and networking opportunities with like-minded professionals.