Product Manager vs User Experience
The best products are created by multi-disciplinary teams which are able to deliver the best experience for clients. A Product Manager + UX designer collaboration is vital in any endeavor as it leads to the development of the best applications. The role of a product manager and user experience designer sometimes overlaps as they both focus on working towards ensuring the final user product meets the required standards. While a product manager’s role is considered managerial, UX designers lean more on the “craft/technical” side. Providing the best user experience is a major goal for all development teams that want to create outstanding products.
Role of a Product Manager
The PM is responsible for creating a roadmap towards the successful development of a product, in line with user’s needs and requirements. In fact, the Product Manager is responsible for the success of the product ultimately and that includes determining the features necessary to meet user needs and understanding which needs are not yet met in the market. This holistic view of the product provides the glue for the artisanal contributions to come together, including design, development, and launch.
Role of UX Designer
A UX designer is primarily responsible for designing the interface and experience of products. This role requires UX designers to deeply understand the needs and challenges of users and utilize their UX experience as well as skills such as prototyping, wireframing and user testing. User experience designers have to rely on their UI experience to optimize focus on the product by planning and acting upon a certain set of actions which should trigger a planned change. A UX designer focuses on the user interface and finds unique and creative ways to deliver a pleasurable and inspiring solution.
The Difference between a Product Manager and User Designer
A product manager sits at the intersection of business, tech and design while ensuring what is being done to serve the needs of customers makes business sense. A UX designer focuses on the user interface. They both have their own distinct roles and know what they need to accomplish. To clearly understand the differences, the two roles shall be examined based on the following parameters.
Research
A product manager designs the full roadmap creating the best roadmaps to guide each team including technical developers, business executives and other stakeholders, know where the process is and how it is going. On the other hand, UX designers are tasked with conducting research on users for the purpose of designing a user interface that meets their needs including on platforms such as web pages.
Work Processes
A UX designer’s work processes vastly differ from a product manager’s role. A UX designer first sets out the plan with the end-user in mind and then carries out test designs while preparing sketches for the blueprint. The next step is wireframing which enables UI designers to prepare prototypes of visuals. A UX designer researches, and comes up with a prototype that describes what audiences see and interact with.
A product manager focuses on discovering a product’s key opportunities and prioritizes what to focus on, to ensure the success of the product in the market. They also conduct research on what both the business and market requires and comes up with plans that ensure the final delivery of a product.
In order to discover or create effective products, companies need to realize the value of both product managers and UX Designers as these two roles when combined, can make important decisions together. Additionally, companies need to know under which circumstances a UX Designer should be hired. For instance, if a company hires a product manager who lacks wireframing skills, it may be necessary to bring in a UX Designer.
If a company has employed a product manager with UX experience, then focus should be turned to bringing onboard other technical roles such as visual designers. The bottom line for every organization should be how to ensure product managers and UX Designers work using a coordinated approach that guarantees the best results.
