In order to create a product, the UI/UX designer takes precedence over the software engineers! But what’s the reason?

Dear developers, maintain your peace!

Based on my experience as a Product Manager, which has been the result of continuous learning, applying that knowledge in the real world, turning that knowledge into skills, and leveraging the experiences of others (most of my resources are in English), along with the extremely high importance of user experience in achieving product-market fit and understanding value through the eyes of the user, I recommend to all those at the beginning of their journey in creating a business, product, etc., and to product managers who are new to this role, to have an excellent UI/UX designer by their side from the very beginning and to shape the team around this person, not an engineer who is solely a developer.

In simpler terms: Even if you have a groundbreaking idea, have discovered customer value, followed lean and agile principles for rapid hypothesis testing, but your MVP lacks a good user experience, meaning the user doesn’t even understand what the product is or what it’s for, your learning will always be incomplete, and you’ll be wasting resources! Now, do you understand why a designer comes before a developer? Because in the hierarchy of product-market fit, UX is at the top, and a delightful user experience is what helps the user understand what this product is all about! Now, imagine having a complex UX with a terrible interactive interface… No matter how much time you’ve spent understanding customer value, if the user doesn’t get it, you’re on the wrong path. And even if you have experience and don’t get discouraged and realize UX issues, you’ll have to start all over again to improve the user experience. This means waste!

But what makes a good designer:

1. A designer should be present alongside the product manager from the beginning, as a key partner and team member, playing a crucial role in discovering the value the product generates.
2. The designer should be well aware of the business constraints, ideas, customer personas, needs, and concerns.
3. The designer should be an expert in interactive, visual, and conceptual design.
4. The designer should be skilled in implementing the principles of usability.
5. The designer must have excellent communication skills because they will be in direct contact with the customer alongside the product manager.
6. The designer must truly be creative and capable of problem-solving, offering various designs to improve the user experience.
7. The designer must be patient and resilient because UX designs often need multiple iterations.

This designer can quickly produce an MVP that validates the core value propositions of your product in the shortest time possible, not a developer. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen of engineers (including myself in the past), they often lack the inclination to communicate with customers and prefer to just write code, even if it’s going in the wrong direction. This has become a common issue, and should you a professional knowing this common mistakes, please do not get me wrong! However, a designer has accepted that their design will need changes and is usually thinking outside the box.

Please note that both developers and designers are essential team members, and there is no more critical communication than that between the product manager and the Engineering team. My point of discussion here is the priority of adding individuals to the team. Priority is crucial because it directly influences the right or wrong path, waste, or results. To acquire this skill, you truly need a high level of focus, decision-making, clarity, and flexibility.

It’s interesting to me that individuals who claim to have years of programming experience (sometimes 20 years) still believe and even recommend (as they have recommended to us) that a designer should be outsourced. Why should you pay a designer or even hire them as a co-founder? My answer to these professionals is usually: Have you ever experienced creating a startup in an uncertain environment? And the response: Silence!

An ideal and lean team that can quickly test its innovations, in my opinion (based on my experience and knowledge to this point), consists of no more than three people, in the following order of priority: 1. Product Manager 2. Designer 3. Full-stack developer or, instead of a full-stack developer, a front-end and back-end developer.