Good Designer, Bad Designer

If there is a chance that you are leading a team and you still haven’t read Ben Horowitz’s Good Product Manager/Bad Product Manager, then I would urge you to take a leap of faith, click on the above link and read it right now. It was written twenty years ago but every word stands true to date.

In the same spirit, taking inspiration from Ben, I spent time thinking about what separates Good Designers from Bad Designers.

Here’s my take on it, explained with the help of sketches-

Empathizing with users

A good designer gets married to the users’ problems. A bad designer gets married to his own solutions.

Asking questions

A good designer asks questions to uncover the problem. A bad designer is afraid of seeking “Why”.

Coming up with ideas

A good designer crafts multiple design solutions. A bad designer selects the first one they discover.

Designer’s focus

A good designer focuses on creating the most usable designs. A bad designer focuses on following the latest tools.