“What is the best skill for a product designer?”

The interviewer looked at me patiently. I was in a Zoom interview with the design hiring manager. Having read my fill of Medium UX articles and job descriptions, I felt conditioned to say empathy. She gave me a look and responded, “ “You know, there’s no right answer. I just want to gauge how you think.”

How I wish I could retake my answer.

The best skill to have as a product designer is not empathy. It’s not communication. It’s not flexibility. These are skills that I believe come with the job itself. 

The best skill for a product designer is product thinking

Product thinking is learning how to think in terms of a business. It’s asking the hard questions.

• Besides a nice interface, what makes people actually want to use our product?
• How does this product stand out compared to all the competitors?
• What is the true problem here and does this solve it?

Product thinking not only creates better cohesion with product managers and engineers, but it also validates and puts into context the value of great UX. The user experience of any tool should be seamless, acting as a funnel to the value the business provides. To give a better insight of product thinking, let's focus on an area which lacks it.

What’s an area which lacks product thinking? 

App redesigns. 

A Google search of “Facebook UI redesign” led me to the below.  While this is a great graphic design, as a product, I have no idea if business needs are being met.  If a business's needs are not being met, there’s really no use for it, save for personal side projects.

Questions already coming into mind:

• Where does this drive user engagement?
• Does this coincide with branding / marketing needs?
• What activity or persona is this trying to engage?

The greater one’s product thinking, the better we can defend our design decisions and have less work to do!  As product designers, we want happy customers AND happy businesses.