What is a Product Designer?
Simply put, a product designer is someone who designs a product for a company, and employs digital tools, research, and aesthetic design to create the best experience possible for a user.
What is the typical background of a Product Designer?
Product Designers can come from a variety of backgrounds, like graphic design, computer science, marketing, or art, among others. More senior roles may require several years of experience in product design specifically, rather than in a specific major or field of study.
What are some of a Product Designer’s responsibilities?
- Provide design for accessibility: Product Designers are responsible for putting together a user experience that’s intuitive, and easy to follow for their end users. They may also need to make sure their product can be used by everyone, and design accessible modifications (like colors or font sizes, for example).
- Oversee concept to completion of a product: Product Designers are responsible for bringing product ideas from concept – like a prototype or wireframe – to execution at their company.
- Test designs: A Product Designer will need to consistently test their designs, often working with engineering teams to replicate their drawings and ensure their designs are feasible.
- Incorporate feedback into their designs: Product Designers will need to incorporate feedback from other teams into their work, often from non-designers. Often, they may need to ask for additional clarifications from marketing, product, sales or engineering teams in order to make their designs a success.
What are some of the skills a Product Designer should have?
- Design experience with relevant programs: While it goes without saying that product designers need design experience, candidates for any product design role should also be experienced in using design programs that are the modern standard across the industry, like Figma and Illustrator.
- An understanding of the customer journey: A Product Designer will need a thorough understanding of the user or customer journey when building their product. Which features are most useful to the customer? Where do customers spend most of their time when using the product? The ability to answer these questions, and to emphasize with the customer’s needs, wants, and overall experience, is essential for a successful product.
- Strong interpersonal skills: Solid communication skills (especially written and verbal) when working across cross-functional teams like product management and marketing are essential for any Product Designer.
- Basic coding skills: Depending on the industry and on the size of the team, Product Designers who also have a basic understanding of coding can be helpful in bringing a final product to life.
How is a Product Designer different from other design roles?
A product designer isnota graphic designer or a UX designer. A graphic designer or UX designer creates graphics or designs for an organization for marketing, or other purposes, whereas a product designer works on design experiences that happen within a product.
What are some of the typical job titles of a Product Designer?
We’ve recruited for many different Product Design roles, like:
- Product Designer
- Lead Product Designer
- Senior Designer
- Lead Designer
What are Product Design salaries like in 2024?
On average in 2024, we’re seeing a median salary of $165K for Product Design titles, with a typical range from $90K to $220K.
Depending on the size of the company and seniority of the role, we’ve seen equity grants offered anywhere from 0.4-1+%, and/or cash bonuses.
The provided salary data for various product roles show a strong correlation between experience and compensation, with specialized and senior positions commanding higher salaries, some reaching up to $250,000.
Heads of Product Design and Founding Product Designers can expect the highest compensation, closer to the max range of $190-200K. Notably, technical roles such as "Technical Product Manager" are among the highest-paid, indicating that if a Product Manager needs a specific or niche skillset in their industry, they may be able to command higher compensation.
