There's an overlap between what a product designer and a product manager does.
They mostly meet at research. They define use cases together based on talking to customers together. They might even do some sketching or wireframing together.
Some PMs may be comfortable producing higher fidelity designs but that's typically in designer's ballpark.
The point is that PD and PM working together should be aware of this overlap and should clearly communicate where they collaborate and where they work alone.
PD's work should often inform product direction. PD's should "explore multiple directions and articulate trade-offs to users, to the system and to the business" (1)
Product manager's job is to decide what to build next and designer's explorations and articulation of trade-offs can greatly help the PM make this decision.
Tags: product design product management
ID: 2021-0702-0859
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