UX Designer Vs Project Lead
In many start-ups and some big unique organisations, UX Designer have become interchangeable roles with Project Management.
In many start-ups and some big unique organisations, UX Designer have become interchangeable roles with Project Management. I personally have been dragged into various projects where as a UX Designer equally considered with Product Manager since both will and has to know the complete process. But it is challenging to decide everything that's product rather UX related.
So, to clear the air, in principle – yes, UX Designer and Product Manager could be the same person, as long as he or she has the right skillset, experience and time for the two roles. I believe that in reality this could only happen if this person is entirely dedicated to the product, they perfectly understand the business objectives, the market, the end user, the rest of the team and in the same time, they have a deep UX knowledge and experience. How many superheroes like this do you know? Well, that's what I mean…
I've listed some of the main skills and characteristics that each of the positions should have:
Product Manager
- Knows the market
- Has deep understanding about the end user
- Deals with product planning and product budgeting
- Has deep UX and UI understanding
- Has decent dev understanding
- Communicates with all people involved in the project
- Understands and constantly communicates the business objectives
UX Designer
- Designs the start-to-end experience of a certain product
- Has deep understanding about the end user
- Has hands-on UX experience and skills (wireframing, prototyping, user testing)
- Optimises the product
- Has deep dev understanding
- Understands and follows the business objectives
- Is helpful to have good UI skills (applying the final art to the product)
Imagine we split a product development process into 2 main parts – user and business, then the UX designer is dealing more with the user, while the product manager is dealing more with the business part, BUT they always meet in between and sometimes even overlap.
If the responsibilities of the two roles are clearly identified within a team and the Product Manager and UX Designer are sticking to what they're expected to deliver, then I think you're on the right track. Yes, arguments might arise sometimes, but as long as they're not ego issues rather than product decisions, that's perfectly normal.
I think the risk of having one person for everything (even if you find the superhero) is that he/she will never have enough time and brainpower to come up with and execute all strategic decisions and operational tasks that a product development requires.
To be completely honest, I believe that for early stage startups the product manager role could easily be split between the founder and the UXer, each of them being responsible for specific parts of the project. The reality is that if you're the brain behind a certain product idea you'll never find someone more passionate and knowledgeable about the product at a reasonable cost. Plus at this early stage, a product evolves so much that only the founders could keep its integrity and should take key product decisions. I've seen many founders that after losing focus (and sometimes even faith) in what they're doing, they start bringing people on board giving them titles and expecting them to fix a messed up product.