Partnering with Product: A Journey from Junior to Senior Design
Summary
Key Insights
-
•
The transition from waterfall to agile shifted focus from outputs to outcomes, profoundly changing how designers collaborate with product managers.
-
•
Early in her career, Asia experienced design as a constrained role, limited to polished deliverables and strict chain of command.
-
•
Product management centers on business value, metrics, and prioritization, involving deep work long before design involvement.
-
•
Design and product management overlap in research, user understanding, and vision, but maintain distinct responsibilities and skills.
-
•
Common conflicts include late involvement of designers, limited decision-making power, and balancing subjective design goals with objective business needs.
-
•
Involving designers early in sprint planning and stakeholder meetings improves design estimates and scope clarity.
-
•
Establishing team rituals like kickoffs, sprint planning, retrospectives, and bonding activities enhances alignment and morale, especially remotely.
-
•
Protecting designers' time and insisting on meeting agendas help maintain focus and enable effective iteration.
-
•
Documenting design decisions in multiple linked tools (like Figma and Jira) fosters transparency and cross-functional understanding.
-
•
Assuming positive intent and practicing curiosity over ego cultivate healthier collaboration between designers and product managers.
Notable Quotes
"Project management was focused on outputs, assuming the correct feature was already defined."
"At General Assembly, I learned that product management is focused more on outcomes and iterative discovery."
"Design is not just aesthetics; it’s about what the product feels like, sounds like, and how it differentiates in the market."
"Accessibility isn’t just a checklist; it changes moment to moment for any individual."
"Product managers mean business — they have their hands in multiple pots long before designers join the team."
"Designers are often seen as bottlenecks because our work is harder to estimate and track than engineering’s."
"Collaborate and involve design early and often to better align on user goals and reduce friction."
"Building rapport and rituals helped our remote team foster camaraderie and trust."
"I learned to be relentless about prioritization and to hone in on specific details and use cases."
"Assume positive intent, practice a service mindset, and curiosity over ego — remember we’re all in this together."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"There’s a big merger in this space and two UX giants haven’t been behaving nicely, introducing higher prices and stricter commercial terms."
Andy Barraclough Betsy NelsonFrom Costly Complexity to Efficient Insights: Why UX Teams Are Switching To Voxpopme
September 23, 2024
"Starting from specific, edge user groups often leads to more powerful breakthroughs than middle-of-the-road personas."
Neil BarrieWidening the Aperture: The Case for Taking a Broader Lens to the Dialogue between Products and Culture
March 25, 2024
"Before you accept a mission as a changemaker, ask yourself do you have a clear directive, champion support, and the right resources?"
Maria GiudiceBecoming a Changemaker by Leading with Design
March 29, 2023
"Psychological safety is key—if folks aren't in the right state, the conversation isn't productive."
Joshua GravesWe Need To Talk: Managing Ludicrous Requests at Work (Part 3 of 3)
May 12, 2025
"Taking stakeholders on the journey by involving them in interviews really changed how they saw the product and business strategy."
Dr Chloe SharpUsing Evidence and Collaboration for Setting and Defending Priorities
November 29, 2023
"At the turning point, the team realized they were in charge of their own process and got engaged."
Carl TurnerYou Can Do This: Understand and Solve Organizational Problems to Jumpstart a Dead Project
March 28, 2023
"This circle represents the size of IBM, 385,000 IBMers. The CIO team is only 3% of that, and our design team is just 1% of the CIO."
Kristin WisnewskiMeasuring What Matters
October 23, 2019
"Awareness of positionality is the first step toward ethical change in research."
Bilan HashiThe Tension Between Story Collecting and Story Telling in Research
March 10, 2021
"Great designers and researchers must embody storytelling, prototyping, foresight, facilitation, collaboration, and systems thinking."
Brianna SylverLead With Purpose
March 31, 2020
