How important is product thinking?

When interviewing for product design jobs, one of the key areas they rate you on is your product thinking. Your ability to find and solve problems and how to build successful products.

A skill overlooked?

When speaking to recruiters at the big tech companies, this is a skill that can be overlooked by designers. Something that surprised me quite a bit. A lot of people can be strong on visual and interaction design. But Problem-solving is such an important part of product design, this skill comes good with critical thinking. It’s not just about completing visual designs and making things look pretty.
The wider impactYou need to be thinking about the wider impact of your designs, how the feature can be implemented with the given constraints. Does this feature serve a real user problem? Does this feature into the existing product? All of this requires good communication skills with various stakeholders and the ability to ask the right questions.

How can you boost your product thinking skills?

It takes a shift in your mindset, this comes with practise and having the confidence to ask the right questions. Taking time out to evaluate the pros and cons of solutions, analysing mistakes, and learning from others.Podcasts that aren’t specifically design related can really help.I’ve loved the deep dives Freaknomics radio goes into on various business topics, that really helps open up my thinking on different perspectives I might not have thought of.The Intercom On Product, is a great series to listen to.Lastly, The Bottom Line By Evan Davies, is one of my favourite podcasts where they discuss a hot topic and get views from the top leaders in the industry.