How to stand out as a product designer

🚀 "Let's just hire 2 more designers to finish the design 3x faster"⏰ That's so wrong, and here's why. You can cook a chicken in 1 hour at high heat. Or in 3 hours at low heat. 𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠, 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭? Design is similar. When you add more designers: → Everyone needs time to understand the project → We spend half the day just syncing up with each other → Styles and ideas start clashing → Someone still has to put all the pieces together at the end I've been on teams where 3 designers took longer than 1 would have. Because we were too busy talking about the work instead of actually doing it. Of course, sometimes parallel work makes sense. But usually? 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐚 𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫. The real speed boost comes from: 🔸 A clear brief from the start 🔸 Quick feedback (not waiting weeks for approval) 🔸 Letting the designer actually make decisions 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫. 𝐀 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐬. #UXDesign #UIDesign #DesignProcess #uiux

There’s one line a former boss said that I can’t forget. Everything we do in design is communication. That one sentence changed how I saw my work. It made design about how ideas traveled between people, not just visuals, layouts, or interactions. Every design decision becomes a sentence in a larger conversation. Color, hierarchy, spacing, and motion all speak. They tell a story about what matters, what’s possible, and what’s next. Regardless of the medium, product, or service, our work isn’t of any merit if it can’t be effectively communicated to the people experiencing it. The intent of use behind a product is just as important as how it’s expressed. The work isn’t just making something look right. It’s making sure it says the right thing. --- 🖖 I’m Ryan Klein, a Senior Product Designer who shares insights on design dynamics within teams and businesses. I’m interested in product design opportunities at B2B and Enterprise companies where I can make a positive impact by helping users make sense of complex data. If you're in design or a tech-related role and want to be featured in my Forward Friday series, send me a DM. I’d love to highlight your story.

What do I look for as a hiring manager for product design? I get this question all the time. It's actually pretty simple. In the design world, this is my first three things I look for in a candidate. 1. Do you have the basic competency to design products and understand users? In this case I look for people who are half introverts and half extroverts. I need introverts to listen to the creative imagination inside. They come up with really great designs that solve problems because they listen to the data and merged it all together. But I also need extroverts to talk to people and work in a business world with revenue needs. It's rare to find someone who is half and half, but when I do, they immediately rise in my list. 2. Do you have ambition? I look for people who are willing to solve problems, whatever they may be in the moment. The most valuable team member over the long run is someone who will solve the problem. They don't need to know the answer. They just need to be able to find the answer. 3. Do I want to spend time with this person? I look for people who can add energy to my team. I weed out jerks and arrogant designers faster than you can say Figma. If I'm going to hire you and work with you, I want to know that you can add value as a team mate, not just design. What would you add to this list? Please share if you know anyone who needs this list.

Case studies. We all love them, until we have to read them. If you’re applying for a product designer position and your case study is mostly text — something’s off. Chances are, your application won’t get far. How to fix it: - Be generous: share drafts, sketches, specs, prototypes — even the wild ideas that never shipped. - Avoid zoomed-out screenshots of your entire Miro board or Figma file. - Skip micro-descriptions like “I partnered with one designer and one PM but later transitioned into a hybrid squad during corona…” - Drop the made-up KPIs and business jargon. - Opt for high-quality visuals that show your craft. And most importantly: Know how to communicate what you’re showing. - “Wireframes served X goal that led to Y” (show both) - “High-res served another goal - alignment with devs and design system” (show both) - “Prototype served the last goal - user testing” (show method and result) Remember: the medium is the message. Being a great communicator helps, but you’re not hired for your writing skills. You get one chance to use these skills to highlight your design toolbox and achievements. use it.

Most designers lose jobs they're qualified for. Not because their portfolio isn't good enough. Because they think design is about pixels. Here's the truth: Craft gets you in the room. Everything else keeps you there. The designers getting promoted aren't the ones with Dribbble-perfect portfolios. They're the ones who: → Translate design decisions into business impact → Communicate clearly with non-designers → Navigate stakeholder politics without drama → Present ideas that executives actually understand Your Figma skills matter. Your ability to turn design into ROI matters more. Because companies don't hire designers to make things pretty. They hire them to solve problems that make money.

I see a trend where designers love to tear down or subtweet peers who get a lot of engagement, just because their work doesn't meet their standards. 1. With tools like Figma, YouTube and designers sharing knowledge, product design is now more accessible than ever, growing worldwide. That's something to celebrate. 2. Our industry thrives on constructive criticism. If you wouldn't say it IRL, don't let the keyboard give you courage. 3. Clearly, there's a demand for their skills. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

🎀 Day 41/100 My biggest early-career design mistake? Skipping thinking and rushing into pixels. Early in my career, I had one major habit: 👉 Jump straight into Figma. 👉 Start designing screens. 👉 Feel productive because pixels were moving. But over the years (and after a few painful lessons 😅), I realized something powerful: Execution without understanding is not design. It’s decoration. Real product design — real solution building — starts long before the first frame. Today, my “production” looks very different: ✅ Understand the problem ✅ Ask questions (lots of them) ✅ Align with stakeholders ✅ Research & benchmark ✅ Explore possibilities ✅ Sketch → iterate → refine ✅ Prototype ✅ Validate assumptions ✅ Then design the screens ✅ Ship → observe → improve Mockups are the output. Understanding is the real work. If you jump straight to visuals, you may move fast — but often in the wrong direction. The real speed comes from clarity. #UXDesign #ProductDesign #DesignThinking #DesignProcess #DesignMaturity #UXProcess #ProblemSolving #DesignLeadership #CareerGrowth #LessonsLearned

"Tell me you’re a senior product designer without telling me you’re a senior product designer." 🎨 After 5 years and 100+ projects, I’ve learned over way — the real magic isn’t in the gradient or drop shadow. It’s in the *system* behind it. Define your tokens for light and dark mode, and suddenly, Figma becomes your superpower. ⚡ Start small: → Color tokens that scale → Semantic naming that makes sense → Mode-ready variables that just work → A library that’s organized, not overwhelming Because when your foundation is solid, designing stops being chaos — it becomes flow. That’s when you stop designing screens… and start designing systems. 🚀

Ditto's first two designers and developers were Jolena Ma and me. In the early days, we worked side by side in our SF apartment, reviewing each other's PRs and Figma mockups. By Ditto’s second year, we’d grown our engineering team and stepped back from IC development, but continued to own the design needs of our growing team. A year and a half ago, we brought on Ditto’s first designer, Quinn, and I only wish we’d done it sooner. Formalizing the design function fundamentally up-leveled not only our velocity but also how our company works as a whole. ⭐ What are some design-driven changes at Ditto in the last year? ⭐ 1. We changed the relationship between design and engineering from “handoff” to deep, continual partnership. On projects, this means collaborating from the moment a challenge is identified—long before mockups exist. As a result, technical constraints and scope surprises are minimized, and engineers develop a deep understanding of user challenges. 2. We rebuilt our two-way sync with Figma down to the studs. This required (1) a nuanced understanding of how design files are set up and evolve over time, (2) a systems-thinking lens to treat text as building blocks, and (3) continual iteration driven by testing hypotheses with real customers. 3. We raised the company’s bar for craft tenfold. Craft and quality pays dividends you can’t even plan for (customer perception, trust, retention, deals won), and it can only happen by making the right tradeoffs every day. With Quinn, our design ethos shifted from scrappy (read: cutting corners from limited bandwidth) to true excellence, influencing everything from our new design system to accessibility and QA. 👉 In short: at Ditto, design is deeply embedded in all product decisions and is a primary stakeholder in business decisions. We started Ditto as designers building better tools for teams like ours. Bringing a designer onto our own team has helped us turn that early intuition into a scalable practice, reshaping how the entire company operates. P.S. We’ve just opened a role for a second designer to join the team! Reach out if what we’re working on sounds interesting. 😊

Designing in Silence because you have Social Anxiety I’ve always found it easier to design interfaces than to start conversations. Figma makes sense, people don’t always. As a product designer, my work thrives on collaboration, feedback, and communication, the very things my anxiety tries to silence. Every client meeting, every presentation, every “quick team sync” has, at some point, felt like climbing a mountain made of small talk and self-doubt. But here’s the thing about design: it teaches you empathy, not just for users, but for yourself. It teaches patience, iteration, and the beauty of quiet observation. Over time, I’ve realized that social anxiety doesn’t make me less of a designer. It makes me more reflective, more attentive, more thoughtful in the way I craft experiences. I may not always be the loudest in the room, but my work speaks in color, motion, and meaning. To anyone balancing creativity and anxiety: Your silence is not weakness. It’s simply another design language, one of sensitivity, awareness, and depth. You belong in every room your ideas can reach.