S02E03 — MAR2020

On Designers Turning Product Managers

Hello world and welcome to episode 3, season 2 of this rather anagogic newsletter. I hope you are isolated, safe and sound.

Ok, if you are done washing your hands for 20 seconds, let’s do this.
 

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I recently noticed a trend, where some fellow designers transitioned into product managerial roles. We are talking about 3 or 4 people here, but that's a huge number for tiny Serbian tech scene. It means something’s going on.

As someone who had a chance to be on both sides, I wanted to jot down a couple of thoughts on this — rather as a biased observation on a local micro movement than a en général tips and tricks. After all, the whole flux has been going on for decades in Silicon Valley.

Why is this good?

1/ There’s a demand
Even though the market is still small, the fact there’s a need for this role indicates: 
a.) There are companies building their own products — traditionally we’ve been known for outsourcing, mostly in engineering. 
b.) If not building their own, there’s increased need for client services on the user/business side — this could indicate relationships and type of work has deepened — evolved from pure outsourcing.
c.) All of the above means everyone's investing in building product talent pool because it literally doesn’t exist right now.

2/ Designers going beyond design
I feel optimistic seeing designers showing versatility and interest in understanding the industry/environment they are in. Traditionally designers in tech had a background in graphic design which made them limited and inferior. Or they were engineers who transitioned to design via frontend engineering and were always more focused on the system image. Either way, now we see a shift towards understanding customer needs, tech and what is known as computation design.

3/ Domain and design thinking
Both domain thinking and “universals” (outsiderals?) are important in making meaningful products, but up until recently the veil of dogma was impenetrable. Everything outside of the domain was considered shallow and silly.

Luckily, product management is becoming a more diversified position. What was previously “reserved” for engineers, is now available to designers and people of a variety of backgrounds. I’d say design thinking is to be thanked for this. Confusingly enough, design thinking has little to do with designers, but I think they are the ones popularizing it inside the orgs as a tool to capture results and gain the trust of domain experts.

Why is this bad?

1/ A notion of disappointment
“They say the grass is greener on the other side, but maybe it’s the sheep who’ve been telling me lies.” It’s the sheep. It’s always the sheep. 

In a couple of instances, I noticed this notion of overwhelming disappointment when I’d sit down to talk with recent “transitionees”. I’m guessing this is due to their unleveled expectations. They now need to care for the whole sausage-making process, but also to let go of that inner designer. The inner designer that should be killed with fire. The struggle is real and I know some of them who decided they couldn’t and retrieved back to their design roles. Which is totally OK, of course. Everything is OK as long as people are satisfied with the place they are at.

2/ Lack of career path
Designers might be suitable candidates for product roles, but it doesn’t mean this is the way to go. I’d even argue this is the easiest path one could take. More challenging is mindfully figuring out the next level of responsibilities that would be beneficial both for the designer, their manager/team and the company. Unfortunately, something I don’t see as much. 

There’s a lot of “seniors” with, like, 3 years of experience and a couple of mediocre projects under the belt, self-proclaimed solely on years of experience. Then we get to the point where the market is oversaturated with “seniors” and everyone’s aiming for higher paychecks instead of their excellence. As the old typographic saying goes “If you make everything bold, nothing is bold”. Go figure.

3/ Lack of design leadership
This is a very obvious one, but also the one we lack the most around here. It would be naive of me to think that folks who stay on their “original” track would become leaders, but maybe there are better chances. My thinking goes like this: the more you invest in different technical aspects (in this case product) — the more you’ll diverge from helping out other designers (soft skills) and establishing yourself as a leader. You lose the touch with the matter once the struggle isn’t mutual.

This is not the only factor (in this case it can’t be even called a factor) to blame for the lack of design leadership on Serbian design scene, of course. There are so many others I’d leave for some other time.