A day in the life of a product designer

One of my deepest passions lies in helping aspiring designers as they navigate their way into the world of UX design. This stemmed from a lack of concrete guidance during my transition from a Software Engineer to a Product Designer. As this journey unfolded, I was fortunate to cross paths with individuals who graciously shared their insights, helping me navigate the intricacies of this field.

I am often asked to describe my day to day at work when interacting with design students or folks transitioning into a career in UX.

My answer usually comes down to the classic “it depends”, as various factors play a role, including the industry and product type, your specific job responsibilities, tenure, the company’s size, culture, and many more.

But here’s my attempt to provide a generalized overview based on my experience as a designer at Salesforce and Microsoft.

Typically, my work-week falls into three main categories: meetings, hands-on design tasks, and process-related responsibilities. Additionally, I allocate a few hours every now and then for learning, often directly tied to the current project at hand.

Meetings

Meetings occupy a significant portion of my day, roughly half of it. These meetings can be divided into two primary categories: product team meetings and design team meetings.

Product team meetings involve discussions with product managers, engineers or researchers.

When meeting with product managers, we delve into feature specifications and UX requirements. Additionally, I schedule periodic review sessions with feature PMs to showcase my design progress to receive their feedback and iterate as needed.

Meetings with engineers primarily revolve around design handoffs and addressing specific design-related queries during code implementation.

There are also meetings with UX researchers, accessibility teams, visual designers and content designers. Meetings with UX researchers happen frequently and tend to be more focused on specific features. In these sessions, we delve into the research requirements necessary to gather user feedback or test a feature currently in design. Some of these meetings also revolve around utilizing research to inform our long-term product vision.

Design team meetings have a broad spectrum, where they can range from more intimate design reviews within my immediate team to more expansive ones within the organization.

These reviews have a dual purpose: they are intended for both giving and receiving feedback on various UX challenges, and for sharing ongoing work. Personally, I make it a point to participate in as many of these sessions as possible, even when I’m not presenting anything myself. They serve as a hands-on learning opportunity, helping in sparking new ideas and creating familiarity with design patterns that might not be a part of my day-to-day work. They also enhance the visibility of your work across various teams.

Tactical design work

Tactical design work involves actively engaging with the design of a feature. This includes a wide spectrum of tasks, such as analyzing feature requirements and competitors, gaining an in-depth understanding of the feature, crafting user flows, exploring design solutions, and creating mockups and prototypes using tools like Figma. The product and design meetings directly inform and shape the tactical design efforts.

This typically occupies approximately one-fourth of my workweek. I prefer to blend meetings with focused design work, but some people opt to dedicate entire days exclusively to one of these, maintaining distinct separation between the two.

Process oriented tasks

Product designers often find themselves taking on dual roles, occasionally stepping into the shoes of a design project manager. This muscle strengthens with practice and by navigating different situations. These additional tasks include planning work for the upcoming sprint, updating the broader product team on UX progress, introducing product teams to UX collaboration if they are new to it, and fostering alignment. These responsibilities don’t crop up every week, but when they do, they typically occupy approximately one-quarter of my workweek.

Learning

I also like to make time for learning about topics that can help me with my tasks or are trending in the industry. For example, a few months ago, I was diving into generative AI, and just recently, I’ve been exploring UX strategy.

When it comes to learning, I rely on YouTube, LinkedIn Learning or knowledge sharing initiatives within the company as my go-to resources.

In the end…

Product design is not always a linear process. It offers an exciting journey, allowing you to view the product from diverse perspectives, collaborate with various teams, and explore your creative potential. Hopefully, this gives you a glimpse into a product designer’s typical workweek highlighting the dynamic and multifaceted nature of this career.