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Should UX and Product Management merge?
The Industry is changing
There has recently been a surge in design jobs within the Information Technology industry. People from various domains are interested in pursuing product design and product management as a career path.
While both professions are expanding and becoming more lucrative as career paths, there has been discussion about whether the boundaries between the two broad domains of product design and product management are becoming increasingly thin and overlapping.
Product Management entails overseeing the entire product life cycle, which includes introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Product Design involves giving shape to a raw idea. Airbnb was just an idea to make extra bucks by renting air mattresses to attendees of a conference because all the hotels were booked.
Survey and the outcome
I recently launched a Linkedin survey asking the design community if UX and product management should be combined. During the discussion, some excellent points were raised. Let me quickly summarize them.
Point 1 — In a smaller organization, UX Design and Product Management roles overlaps and sometimes it’s a single person doing both.
Point 2 — In a typical design process, there are a set of rules that we apply and a product is built. Over the years Design has become a codified system anyone who has the idea will be able to use to create products.
Point 3 — The industry is still not ready for this approach even the design education does not have a curriculum designed for students.
Point 4 — Merging roles can lead to a compromise in quality. Keeping roles clear, distinct and manageable increases the overall health of everything.
Point 5 — A group of professionals believe a merger has already occurred. UX or Product Designers manage product requirements and roadmaps, set timeframes, manage the development cycle, assign tasks, business competencies, and conduct research.
Point 6 — Both the fields are quite vast in themselves how can someone think of merging.
Point 7 — UX and Product management should not merge but Silicon Valley is forcing this…
