If you’ve spent any part of your career as a designer, you’ve probably tried to understand what the line between product and design looks like. If you’re like me, you’ve probably had a few Google searches that start with “best way to work with product…” or “PM versus UX roles…” or something just as desperately curious. This constant searching is flawed though, because it usually returns a very curated, polished and surface-level partial-answer that leaves you wanting more. I completely understand that feeling though. I’ve personally been asking these questions my whole career as a designer and recently decided to say “fuck it, why not just go all in?”
Yep, I pivoted* from UX to PM and I invite you to join me on this journey. I want to provide an unpolished (and only lightly-curated) look into what this transition looks like for me. I want to share my failures and successes, and give credit to those who shift my own perspective and help me become a more effective, experienced, confident product leader.
“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to external things. Don’t wish to be thought to know anything; and even if you appear to be somebody important to others, distrust yourself. For, it is difficult to both keep your faculty of choice in a state conformable to nature, and at the same time acquire external things. But while you are careful about the one, you must of necessity neglect the other”
― Epictetus
I’m documenting this journey because I know that putting things out in the open is one of the best ways to improve. My hope is that the same is true for you. I don’t have all the answers, but I’m probably going to have some of the same questions you have, and I’ll do my best to share what I learn.
So where do we start? Here’s my vision for where this leads:
By openly sharing my path from UX to PM, I hope to strengthen my ability to lead, innovate, affect change and build amazing products while inspiring others to do the same.
If you’re a UX designer, I hope this gives you a real look at the working relationship between product and design and illuminates the overlaps and gaps between the two roles.
If you’re a product manager, I hope my years of experience as a designer will give you a better sense of how designers work, what they need and want, and how to improve your relationship with design.
If you’re a developer, leader, or anyone else who is curious about how these roles work, I hope I can provide some useful insight into how products are made and what it takes to create amazing experiences.
If this sounds like something you’re interested in, please join me! I can’t wait to share.