How to be a product designer (Practical way)

Learn the tool, get a project, learn five essential skills.

You can read the complete thread on Twitter.

• Learn design tools like Figma first. It's like a knife skill for a chef. It's basic.

• Copy a website or an app. Pixel by pixel. Pay attention to the details. When you're comfortable enough, redesign a website or an app.

• Read design documentation from Apple Human Guideline or Google Materials to build your basic design logic.

• Enter a design contest or find freelance work. Avoid, but offer free work if you have to. Your goal is to learn from a real-world project.

• A design portfolio will be critical. Good portfolio → Give you project → Learnings.

• In the beginning, prioritize learning over money. Learning and experience will serve you better in the long run. Play the long-term game.

• Ignore design thinking and other buzzwords for now. Pick what makes sense and think from the first principle. Don't blindly follow a set of processes.

• As soon as possible, stop labeling yourself as a designer. So you can open yourself to other disciplines and become a better product builder.

• Be good at 5 areas: Critical Thinking, Alignment, Observation, Managing risk, and Creation.

• Build a habit of writing and articulate your thinking. Product designers spend the majority of their time outside of Figma. Mostly writing or thinking.

• Embrace visual thinking tools, such as user journey map.

• Alignment is hard. Building a product or software is a team sport. Aligning different people from different backgrounds to work toward the same goal is a critical skill.

• When facilitating a meeting or a workshop, notice there are three modes: diverging, converging, and decision-making.

• In the divergent mode, avoid free-talk. Use Post-it to let everyone express their idea. This will save you a lot of time.

• Always be clear about who is the decision-maker. Alignment is not about making everyone happy. It's about committing to a specific decision. After a brainstorming session, the decision maker should decide.

• You will be successful if you make something people want. The way to do that is to observe what people want.

• Observation is another critical skill. Learning how to talk to users. Never think that talking to users is not your job. Read never split the difference.

• When you find a problem, separate the painkiller problem from the vitamin problem. The painkiller problem usually annoys users, and people are willing to pay for a good solution.

• Building products is always risky. No guarantee it will be successful. But you can find signals to lower the risk.

• Doordash founders found a signal by talking to restaurant owners. They discovered that many restaurants find food delivery challenging.

• The more signal you get, the lower the perceived risk. You'll never eliminate the risk. But finding signals when building a product is a good idea.

• Apply critical thinking with an alignment skill to observe and gain signals, and eventually, you'll build a meaningful product.

• When you're finally a product designer, you'll realize labeling yourself as a product designer is limiting your growth. (yes, you should learn how to code)