What do you do if you want to enhance your understanding of user experience and design as a Product Manager?

Good UX is a five-legged stool: 1. The voice in your head: you need to know the problem you want to solve and the solution you want to build for it. 2. The picture in front of you: the visuals created by your designer and tangible product artifacts created by your engineers. Great designs intuitively paint your vision to create the reality you set out to build. 3. (Most important) The eye of the beholder: how your user, the most important actor, perceives the solution you built, and the feedback they have for you. 4. The peripherals: how are your competitors solving this problem? Are there alternatives/substitutes to the solution you built? 5. Rinse, repeat, goto #1: take these insights back in to refine and expand that voice in your head.

Pour progresser en Product Design les deux approches sont complémentaires. Il est essentiel de se construire une base solide de connaissances théoriques en étudiant les références en UX et design, les tendances actuelles à travers des ouvrages, artciles et conférences. En parallèle, la pratique régulière par la participation à la User Research, séances de tests, enquêtes et focus groupes permet d'affiner les compétences. Travailler étroitement avec des UX designers dans des ateliers de brainstorming et en partageant les feedbacks intègre les principes appris à la réalité du terrain. C'est en combinant l'apprentissage continu à l'application concrète qu'une personne peut se perfectionner en design de produit.

To enhance your understanding of user experience and design as a Product Manager, start by familiarizing yourself with tools like Sketch or Figma to create basic UI mockups. Ensure you grasp fundamental UI elements such as buttons, labels, menus, and text boxes. Next, delve into UX concepts like affordances, user-centered design, and critical user journeys. Learn how to ask unbiased questions and conduct thorough research, prioritizing understanding over personal biases. Additionally, cultivate a basic understanding of psychology, focusing on empathy. Recognize the importance of putting yourself in the user's shoes to truly comprehend their needs and experiences.

I have a few tips on how to better understand our users' experience: 1. Firstly, we need to understand the experience from the user's perspective for each persona 2. We should curate the journey and identify any friction points 3. Next, we should create visuals that clearly show what we want to solve and why we want to solve it. This will help us align with our user groups 4. Finally, I suggest that I work closely with our UX/UI team and learn their thought process behind the design journey. This will allow me to place myself in the shoes of the user.

1. By studying and understanding principles, methodologies, and best practices followed. 2. Participate in workshops, seminars, relevant events and conferences to learn from industry professionals, and stay updated on the latest trends and innovations. 3. Work closely with designers, researchers, and usability experts to gain insights into user needs, preferences, and pain points. 4. Select design thinking principles and methodologies to approach product development from a user-centered perspective. 5. Integrate iterative aspect of design and rapid prototyping and create prototypes and mockups to gather feedback from users early and often.

Observe some sessions of users trying to perform tasks or achieve goals with your product. The level of empathy you develop from seeing _first hand_ as someone struggles with what seems obvious (with the benefit of the curse of knowledge) is significant. This will change your perspective. Use that as the basis for reaching out to your collaboration peers on the UX/CX/design side, and ask them what they need you to understand about the science of making experiences better. From increasing the homogeneity of user group definitions to learning how to run critiques. You aren't trying to DO the design work, you're trying to work better with the designers.

Consider using a 'friction by design' approach in some areas of your product. Intentionally adding or not immediately resolving small pain points can provoke more authentic user feedback and engagement, revealing deeper insights into user behavior and needs. This strategy should be used judiciously to avoid frustrating users but can uncover opportunities for significant improvements that standard feedback methods might miss.

Nothing can best the first hand persona information you can get bus auser survey, interview, casual talk etc . Building ux has a lot of human emotions involved and if you are closer to the user of your ux designs then you will be able to do justice to ux . UI can be less emotions driven but ux is emotion driven.

First you need to know who would be most beneficial to your feedback needs. Once that is known, try to organise a focus group of up to 10-15 people with a clear set agenda on what will be discussed. You need to prepare and organise this session. Be mindful that some of the question you will ask your users will need to be responded to privately, as some participants might not be willing to openly share their views. Using an online form/poll would be ideal in this scenario.

When you work on a product that requires interacting with users or gathering their feedback for insights, it presents multiple challenges because you find yourself like a minnow in an ocean of feedback and expectations. Whenever I work on a product, I always ask myself, "Hey Nandan, are you really willing to pay XX$ per month for this product?" or "Hey Nandan, do you really think your XX USD per month are going to justify your needs as a user?" Based on self-evaluation, I always conduct research based on users' responses about what they are thinking, and through brainstorming, I focus on solving the real problem, which I am addressing right now too. So, get ready to ask and find the WHY / WHAT / WHERE / HOW / WHEN, etc.

I have had an opportunity recently to work on UI/UX revamp of a product I am handling: ?? Firstly, it is important to map the customer journey and understand the pain points of users. ?? Secondly, work closely with the UI/UX designers and explore the possible design solutions. Ask the designer about limitations and alternatives. ?? Lastly, collaborating and reviewing mockups regularly plays an important role as you can check if the product is shaping up as expected.

To make the UX collaboration meaningful, understand product goals and define metrics that will measure and track 'user happiness'. Generally, metrics like NPS, Retention, Stickiness (DAU/MAU ratio) co-relate with the user happiness index. Utilize behavioral analytics tools (e.g. MixPanel, Pendo) to understand user's in-app behavior, task completion rates, friction points. Then, work with your UX/Design teams to create UX hypotheses. Validate through experimentation and feedback channels. If your metrics start trending in the right direction, you know you are applying the UX and Design principles effectively.

Collaborate closely with the design team by fostering open communication, setting clear objectives, and providing feedback. Encourage brainstorming sessions, involve them in product discussions, and value their expertise. Regular check-ins ensure alignment, fostering a shared vision and delivering cohesive user experiences.

In my experience, I have worked without a UX/Design team, and I have worked with a UX/Design team. They are valuable to have on the team. Here's 2 of the ways I find it valuable both high level and low level. At the high level, sharing the whole picture of a system (from cradle to grave) especially if it is a whole workflow. This can take the form of a site navigation map. The second way is by myopically looking at a specific job-to-be-done (JBTD). In this way we only focus on that one task and model it in wireframes. Sometimes that means I mock up something, and sometimes they mock something up and we share each design together in order to understand where we are coming from.

As a PM, you have one superpower above everything else when it comes to collaboration: use cases. Try to explain everything in use cases you've seen and can show them. Show them use cases that support their arguments or that refute them. You're not there to tell them how to do their jobs, you're there to show them use cases to make constraints and user value clear so they know why they're doing their jobs. On the flipside, let yourself be challenged on use cases or ways of solving them you haven't considered. Just remember you're all working for the sole reason of solving a real problem for a real person, and let that be your compass for any collaboration.

Continuous learning is a phrase often talked about but seldom followed.; ironically, many of us are doing it without realising it! UX is constantly evolving and shifting, so it makes good sense to follow trends, watch the market and spot innovation. Everyone loves talking about new ideas as well so it's a great way to connect with people as well as learn.

My favorite way of doing this is staying up to date on new products. Seeing things in the wild is far more valuable than secondhand learning like conferences or books or articles. Go right to the source, and treat it like a workshop. Try to figure out why they made the design decisions they made. Think about what you'd do differently or what you'd want to borrow for your own work. If you really want extra credit, email the company or find the PM and designer on Linkedin and ask them. Most UX experts worth their salt are happy to share what they've learned, especially with younger professionals just getting started.

Refinement of user experience through proper feedback is always the key to enhancing any design. You'd need to have a constant feedback loop set up between User Research, Product Management, UX Design & Engineering to have the ideas flowing, and the experiences getting refined with each constructive feedback. This chain of learning is where we could get as close to the right or expected user experience. Additionally, this would also pave way to innovation in getting the design simpler, meaningful and powerful at the same time for the right user experience.

Stay updated with the latest trends, techniques, and tools in UX design and user research. Attend industry conferences, webinars, and networking events to learn from peers and experts, and participate in relevant communities or forums to exchange insights and experiences.

Continuous learning might sound daunting, but keep in mind it can be something as small as finding delight in an interaction while using the web in your daily life. Investing and fueling curiousity, asking questions and sharing insight as just as valuable as attending workshops and webinars. Always validate your learning, even if it's not the solution you need now, it can be part of another solution down the line. Share, collaborate and engage with people. A conversation can be just as insightful and knowledgeable. Be open to learning and gaining knowledge and understanding from anyone and anything.

Don't just limit yourself to analyzing designs of competitors. Reviewing your favorite products astutely can also be incredibly illuminating, revealing design patterns, UX choices, and well-thought out pathways that could offer a lot to learn from. We're generally so well-tuned and familiar with using products that we don't notice many of these decisions. Navigating products mindfully and consciously can unlock a goldmine of choices and insights, many of which can translate well to your own product despite the difference in domains. Even products that seem distant from or irrelevant to your use case can help you generate design ideas for your own product. There's a reason we've coined terms like "Netflix of books".

ever underestimate the power of analyzing competitors, and never miss the chance to do so. Think of it this way: you're building a Lego structure but taking inspiration from another. However, this doesn't mean you're just copying and pasting or making minor tweaks and pasting. When analyzing competitors, try to think about how you can stand out by spotting innovation opportunities. Ask yourself, "Will this feature make us stand out?" or "Should we implement this process, and will it solve my users' pain points?" Always aim to solve user problems better than anyone else.

I do study competitors design and UX because it is worth knowing. However, if I am working with a Design team, I will not share that information until after the Design team models they solution for the JTBD. Once we have a rough draft, I can share some competitive analysis designs, and then we can iterate.

One of my favorite sayings in product work is "Share generously, steal shamelessly." It applies here. You'd be foolish not to learn from other people's successes and failures. Just remember to always tie your thinking back to real world use cases. Don't let gorgeous UI distract you from a UX that might not solve the right problems.

Conducting competitor analysis is a strategic move for UX and design improvement. Examining competitors' products sheds light on effective UI elements, navigation flows, and overall aesthetics. This insight guides your design strategy, highlighting areas for innovation and differentiation. Leveraging competitive insights ensures your product stands out in the market while aligning with user expectations for a superior experience.

A plethora of Low Code No Code tools have enabled just anyone to easily create wireframes, mockups and to an extent even working prototypes. But the best tool to start with wireframing has to be pen/pencil/marker on page/marker. AI Plugins on Visily and Figma can also come in handy while getting started with practicing design

Hands-on practice with design tools is invaluable for a Product Manager. Creating wireframes, mockups, or full interfaces enhances your understanding of design challenges. It also enables you to swiftly produce prototypes for idea communication and testing. This practical experience not only improves your design literacy but also fosters a more collaborative environment, as you can better articulate and visualize concepts to both users and stakeholders.

As a PM, the best way to be hands-on with design is via wireframes. Creating rough-looking sketches in a professional tool such as Balsamiq can help you understand the design process far better than any tutorials or courses ever will. Wireframes are often crudely created and rarely fleshed out as their sole purpose is to convey your ideas. However, you can leapfrog your design skills drastically by focusing on creating fairly detailed, self-contained, and fleshed out wireframes with strong attention to detail. This helps you be mindful of design choices to be made instead of solely focusing on the high-level idea you're trying to sell.

Practice designing user interfaces, wireframes, prototypes, and mockups using design tools such as Sketch, Figma, or Adobe XD. Experiment with different design elements, layouts, and interactions to refine your design skills and explore innovative solutions that enhance user experience.

Practice design by experimenting with prototyping tools like Figma or Sketch. Create wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes. Seek feedback, iterate designs, and analyze usability. Learn design principles, typography, and color theory. Collaborate with designers to refine skills and deliver impactful user experiences.

One thing I have found extremely valuable is to iterate, iterate, iterate. 1) Before build, get the design in front of potential users and collect feedback before the build. 2) when buiding, use A/B tesing on design. 3) after build, shadow users and see how they use the system and iterate. One of the biggest things I have learned over the years is that you need to give a user multiple ways sometimes to do things. You'll have power users, keyboard users, mouse users. Users will use the systems differently. Acknowledge that you might have to tweak after the fact and that is ok.

To improve your skills in understanding user experience for product management, you should consider: 1. Studying UX/UI Design (Basic). 2. Observing and interacting with users and stakeholders. 3. Conducting interviews, surveys, usability tests with the design team. 4. Collaborating with design teams (Very important). 5. Participating in workshops and events about user experience. And always practice empathy by considering users' perspectives.

Seek mentorship or coaching from experienced UX professionals to gain valuable guidance and feedback on your UX design efforts. Encourage a culture of user empathy and user-centric thinking within your product team to prioritize user needs and preferences. Collaborate with customer support, sales, and marketing teams to gather insights from customer interactions and align UX strategies with business goals.

Begin by closely observing apps, including those from various industries - start noticing the subtle differences between them to discern which designs and UX practices are more effective. Incorporating these observational insights into your daily routine will not only make the process enjoyable but will also naturally improve your design and UX comprehension.

Shadow users, understand what problem they are facing today with existing solutions in hand and what change they want. AB testing can be utilized to dive into details based on feedback. Ensure navigation should be simple and does not need or very little guidance is required. Most importantly see ROCI, is it a problem worth spending time and money on