What makes a good UX designer? (from a product manager’s point of view)

What makes a good UX designer? (from a product manager’s point of view)

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I’m asked questions about product management from time to time. Here’s one I’ve answered recently:

Hi Jock,

Based on your experience, what makes a good UX Designer from the perspective of a product manager?

Cheers,
S

Read on for my reply.

Hi S,

Ooh – a tricky question :-)

In no particular order:

  1. Experienced in their own discipline but still keen to learn more
  2. Willing to share their knowledge with others (so everyone gets to know the principles of good UX / design)
  3. Open to discussions with / perspectives of other disciplines (good team collaborator)
  4. Not precious about their own designs – user needs are the most important factor
  5. Able to work within an iterative development environment

Cheers,

Jock

[I would argue this could apply to any specialist discipline on a product team simply by replacing ‘UX’ and ‘design’ as appropriate.

What do you think? Leave me a comment below.

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The Practitioner's Guide to Product Management book cover

The Practitioner's Guide To Product Management

by Jock Busuttil

“This is a great book for Product Managers or those considering a career in Product Management.”

— Lyndsay Denton
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About

Jock Busuttil is a freelance head of product, product management coach and author. He has spent over two decades working with technology companies to improve their product management practices, from startups to multinationals. In 2012 Jock founded Product People Limited, which provides product management consultancy, coaching and training. Its clients include BBC, University of Cambridge, Ometria, Prolific and the UK’s Ministry of Justice and Government Digital Service (GDS). Jock holds a master’s degree in Classics from the University of Cambridge. He is the author of the popular book The Practitioner’s Guide To Product Management, which was published in January 2015 by Grand Central Publishing in the US and Piatkus in the UK. He writes the blog I Manage Products and weekly product management newsletter PRODUCTHEAD. You can find him on Mastodon, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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