Learn something else than design — Nr. 115

Issue 115: Learn product strategy, business, and other skillset to broaden your perspective as a product builder.

Q: Budi, what advice would you give to product designers who want to upskill?

If I could return in time, I would tell myself to learn something beyond design.

I spent too much time isolating my world in design. I learned all the crafts of animation, icon design, and interface design. These are all great, but sometimes I can’t see the bigger picture.

Over time, I feel stuck. Instead of contributing to how to make the product successful, I spend lots of time thinking about how to make the design, design, and design. I became too obsessed with “Design Thinking” like a cult. With this realization, I started to learn more about marketing, business, and product strategy.

Learning product strategy is liberating because I can make relevant design decisions for my team. Not only that, I can contribute to the discovery activity: finding out what’s useful for customers.

I poured all that I knew into the simple 4 days workshop. 9/10 students found it practical—meaning they know how to implement the framework in their work.

I will host one more workshop, and I’m done for this year. Check out my product discovery workshop. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to build a product strategy. Join me!

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PS. My workshop is in Indonesia, but some of you have asked if I can open it for an English-speaking audience. If you’re interested! Please drop your name here. I will start a cohort if 15 people join :)