What makes a good senior designer?
I often get this question. My simple answer usually will be this.
I often get this question. My simple answer usually will be this.
Junior product designers work on a given problem. Usually, the team has decided what problem to work on. Then, the designer will build it right.
Senior product designers discover the right problem to solve. Usually, you support the team to build the right thing. In practice, your team has a goal. Then, you must find the relevant problem that can move the needle.
Let’s unpack this.
Abstract problems
When you transition to a senior role, you will feel the problem you’re working on is abstract. It’s understandable because you have to figure out what to work on. Some skills that you need to grow:
Organizational goal-setting. Since there are hundreds of problems, you must learn about goal-setting frameworks such as OKR. You need to understand how to read the company’s goals—so you can find the relevant problems for those goals. Let’s say your team has to increase activation—better convert new users to active users. What to do next?
Next, product strategy. Now that you have a goal to achieve, you need to decide what problem to solve. In practice, this means you create some hypotheses. You assume if you solve problem A, you could increase activation! The hypothesis is an informed assumption—the people we serve have that problem. If we solve that problem, we will deliver value. You get the idea!
Product discovery. You have the goal (what to achieve) and the strategy (assumption of what problem is worth solving and an idea to solve it). Great. But now you have a choice. 1) Build the idea immediately or 2) find signals to ensure you’re solving the right problem.
If you go and build the idea, you can be wrong. But if you can fail cheaply, maybe it’s worth building it immediately.
Sometimes, we can’t fail cheaply. So we must find signals: “Are we on the right track?” This is a discovery process. Sometimes, you interview users. Sometimes, you observe them. Anything that will give you signals.
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