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)