What is product design and why it matters

Product design is likely not new to you. We all use the term here and there, but when you start thinking about hiring a product designer, you need to know more. As a SaaS design agency, we know a lot about product design. So let's start from the very beginning.

What is product design?

Product design is the process of developing a user-friendly product that meets customer needs by identifying user problems and finding creative solutions to those problems. The term is also used to refer to the outcome of this process—the design qualities of an existing product. Product design is based on design thinking, a creative problem-solving approach.

Three characteristics can be highlighted to describe product design:

1. Product design is a complex process that includes many tasks, from research to prototyping and testing.
2. Product design is human-centered (like all good things), but it also takes into account business needs and market conditions.
3. Product design is an endless (or nearly endless) task. It cannot be described as a clearly defined set of steps. Everyone follows the structure they consider most appropriate and effective, but the process can involve an unexpected number of iterations, which are crucial for understanding the problem and finding the optimal solution.

Now let's dive into the details and start with the core processes underlying product design.

Core processes in product development

Designers work on a project throughout its lifecycle: from initial research and concept creation to prototyping and usability testing.

Product discovery

When it comes to making product decisions, we always doubt whether our decision will be a success or a failure. Product discovery helps reduce the risks associated with the viability of our ideas.

In a nutshell, product discovery is the process of refining your ideas by figuring out the real needs and problems of your customers and then deciding on the best strategy to address them.

The goal of product discovery is to quickly determine whether an idea is good or bad and answer the following questions:

1. Will customers be willing to buy this product?
2. Will the product be easy for our customers to use?
3. Can engineers implement our ideas?
4. Will stakeholders support our ideas?

To answer these questions, you need to thoroughly study the market and potential users. Here are some design methods that help us in the product development process.

User interviews

User interviews are a quick and simple way to understand what users feel, think, and believe in order to create a design that meets their needs. They allow you to uncover customer problems and pain points and find effective solutions to those problems.

Customer journey map

One way to visualize ideas that the team has brainstormed is to create a customer journey map.

A customer journey map displays the touchpoints between the customer and the product being developed. The map also helps understand what emotions customers experience and what difficulties they might encounter along the customer journey.

Customer journey maps describe customer steps, thoughts, and feelings.

User flows

While the customer journey map focuses on designing the user experience overall, user flows concentrate on the process of using the product.

User flows are diagrams that depict possible paths a user takes when using a product to achieve a specific goal.

UX design

Any method by which customers realize the value of your product is called user experience (UX). It covers all interactions and touchpoints customers have with your company and product. When it comes to modern products, UX typically includes various interfaces as well as different user touchpoints (marketing campaigns, sales process, customer support, etc.).

The role of a product designer is to think through the customer journey, how they interact with the product at each touchpoint, and consider questions such as:

• How might people first learn about the product?
• What will the onboarding process be for a new user?
• How quickly can we convey the product's value to the customer?
• How might different types of users interact with the product?
• What can we do to increase users' willingness to upgrade?

Wireframes

A wireframe is a low-detail representation of the design that clearly shows:

• The main elements of each page
• Its structure
• The user's interaction with the interface and its approximate visualization.

Prototyping

Once the team has a clear understanding of what they are going to build, it's time to visualize and validate all ideas and strategic decisions through prototyping.

A prototype is a basic layout of the product that visualizes all elements and functions. It allows for illustrating all ideas and making revisions with minimal effort and cost.

Prototypes can take various forms. It could be a drawing on a sheet of paper or a complex multi-page structure created in Adobe XD, Sketch, or Figma. But all prototypes serve the same purpose: to synchronize the client's and the performer's vision of what the design should look like.

Here is a list of problems and tasks that a prototype helps solve:

• Visualizing the idea and understanding what the product will look like at early stages
• Ability to make changes and refine the vision with minimal cost
• Ability to more accurately estimate the timeline and budget of the entire development process
• Understanding the direction for further product development.
• When creating a prototype, it is crucial to validate and refine it.

Once prototypes are ready, it's time to hand them over to the development team and start testing the product design.

User testing

Good product designers regularly test their ideas on real users. They conduct testing not only after the prototype or concept is ready but make it part of their weekly work to constantly check and adjust ideas based on user feedback.

The goal of product designers is to evaluate how worthy their ideas are, whether people will want to buy the product, and if not, to determine what needs to be changed.

UI design

User interface design involves composition, typography, and how the visual brand is conveyed. When the screen structure is tested and approved, designers can create the visual design of the product and develop a design system to make the application scalable.

Designers conduct visual research to gather ideas for the user interface and study market trends to create not only attractive but also user-friendly and competitive designs. Here are some methods they might use for this purpose:

Competitor analysis

When analyzing competitors, you can find the strengths and weaknesses of their products. This helps determine the direction for the entire product design concept and understand how to develop a better design solution.

When analyzing competitors, the task is to figure out why competitors made certain design decisions, what they wanted to achieve, and what goals they had.

Mood boards

Mood boards are a kind of preview of the future design. They help visualize and coordinate the visual components of the project:

• Illustrations
• Color schemes
• Fonts
• Slogans or headings
• Logos
• Icons, buttons, patterns.

Overall, mood boards include all graphic materials that convey the concept and mood of the project.

Business value of product design

The value of good design is obvious to some people and completely unclear to others. As is known, obvious things are the hardest to explain rationally. Fortunately, there are studies that provide compelling arguments for the importance of design to business value. McKinsey tracked 300 companies across different countries and industries for 5 years to find out how design approaches correlate with financial success.

They measured the McKinsey Design Index (MDI), which reflects the strength of design in companies. The charts in the study show that companies with a higher MDI have twice the annual growth rate compared to the average.

The same study shows that companies that truly stand out tend to have higher financial performance than competitors. If design helps large companies stand out, it is even more important for growing companies that need to thrive to attract and retain users.

Examples of great product design

• Apple. Apple is undoubtedly one of the most design-driven companies in the world. Their design team participates in all stages of product development—from the first concept to the finished product. As a result, everything from the company's website to the latest iPhone model looks clean, simple, and desirable to everyone.
• Airbnb. A product that changed the entire travel industry by directly connecting short-term rental hosts with their customers.
• Stripe. Valuable product and a human-centered approach to design allowed this company to stand out and leave all competitors behind. Sometimes it feels like every startup wants their app/site design to look like Stripe's.

So, essentially, most popular products that are simple yet ingenious, easy to use, and consequently successful in the market are created by companies that understand the importance of design talent. Therefore, if you are developing user-centric products, it is crucial to have an experienced designer in your team.

How to build a great design team

A good design team is what will help you create an effective and user-valuable product.

Here are some tips on how to build a product design team:

• Hire generalists. Your design team simply cannot do without UX and UI design. A generalist is someone with a wide range of talents applicable to both roles. If you have a generalist on your team, you get someone who is not afraid to take responsibility for the entire design process—from creating user flows to building high-fidelity prototypes.

Product designers are generalists who handle their specific projects and are responsible for user experience, visual design, UX research, and everything needed to deliver quality design solutions.

• Plan the right team structure. For productive work, your team members must clearly know who to report to, who to consult, etc. Building a clear development team structure brings transparency to the company and makes the team's work more efficient. Since there are many options for organizing a team, you need to analyze business goals, resources, and the product to make the right choice.
• Define a clear product development process. Designers will be able to deliver a solution faster if they follow a well-organized design process. This helps avoid misunderstandings between team members or with upper management.

Building a great design team is not easy, and it is not something you can do in a couple of weeks. So, if you don't have the time to hire and train in-house staff, and you're not sure that an outsourcing provider has the necessary experience in your field, we can help you hire a dedicated designer who will focus solely on your project.