The 8 I’s of Product Design

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Ben Peck
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What do I do as a Product Designer?

I sat myself down early this year and really thought about what it is that I actually do as a Product Designer. I took a hard look at what I do at work in contrast with what I tell people that I do to make sure I’m not a load of crap. There are a lot of people sharing what they think the roles and responsibilities are for a Product Designer. Some of it is targeted to help organizations be more product driven and others are trying to define what Product Design actually means. My intention is to do my best to describe what I actually do as an individual Product Design contributor. So I took the time to just outline what it is that I do. I’m curious to know if its what other Product Designers also do and if its not I’d really like to know what their part of the world looks like and why its different. The personal journey to become a Product Designeris different for everyone. Even the title Product Designer is still a hot debate.

So to lay it out there. These are the core things I do as a Product Designer:

  1. Investigate (research)
  2. Imagine (map)
  3. Illustrate (draw)
  4. Iterate (wire-frame)
  5. Interface (visual design)
  6. Interact (prototype)
  7. Involve (user test)
  8. Implement (develop)

I do all of these. How much time is spent dedicated to each one depends on the project. Not every project needs each phase. I know this is very high level and abstract so from now until the end of the year my goal is to explain in more detail each of these phases as I see them from my experience.

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