Imagine being handed a beautifully engineered product.

The code is solid, there are no bugs, and the performance is good. Still, you struggle to figure out how to use it.

Chances are you click through a few screens, get stuck in a loop, can’t find what you’re looking for, and close the tab. Not because the product didn’t work, but because you couldn’t make it work for you.

This is why product designers exist. And yet, their role is still misunderstood by many people on the teams they work with. That includes engineers, managers – and sometimes even other designers.

If your team sees design as something that happens after the real work is done, you’re going to end up building things that look good on the surface — but still fail in real life.

And that will fail your customers.

What product designers actually do

The core job of a product designer is to make the product easier to use.

That means understanding the user’s goals and figuring out the best way to help them get there. Product designers ask questions like:

  • Who is this for?
  • What task are they trying to complete?
  • Where might they get stuck?
  • And how can we make this feel effortless?

In order to do their job effectively, this is how it usually works:

  • A designer joins discovery sessions early on
  • They gather insights from users (interviews, surveys, behavioral data)
  • They sketch solutions that solve real pain points
  • They test prototypes and refine the design before engineering begins
  • They collaborate closely during implementation to make sure the details feel right

Good design isn’t just about making something that looks clean or functions technically. It’s about intention. When that doesn’t happen, you get screens that function. But they don’t work for people.

Why designers are often misunderstood 

Engineers solve problems. They:

  • Build systems
  • Ship features
  • And write code that works 

A common engineering misconception is that product design is just about screens, flows, or colors. So it’s understandable to a certain degree why some of them feel like they can design interfaces too. 

After all, they’ve used enough products to know what’s “good,” right?

Managers often misunderstand the role, too – just in different ways.

Some managers see designers as either magical problem solvers or perfectionist critics. They might expect a flawless design after one round of work or believe every opinion from a designer is final.

But both of these views can cause problems.

The first may lead to unrealistic timelines. Designers are asked to create user flows without ever talking to users. They’re expected to hand off pixel-perfect mockups with no iterations or exploration.

The second creates pressure and isolation. Instead of working with their teams, designers are seen as the final gatekeepers. If something doesn’t feel right, it’s suddenly “the designer’s fault,” even if they were left out of the conversations that molded the feature.

Designers aren’t perfectionists or prophets. They’re collaborators. And good design takes time. Not because designers want to drag things out, but because understanding real users takes a lot of research, exploration, and iteration.

When product design is poor, the whole product suffers

You’ve likely seen products with lots of potential that are just frustrating to use.

It’s simple: if a product isn’t usable, people won’t use it. And nothing else really matters.

Bad product design doesn’t always look bad. But it causes friction. People get stuck. They bounce. They make mistakes. And the worst part is they don’t come back.

This affects more than user satisfaction. It affects:

  • Adoption
  • Conversion
  • Retention
  • And even support load 

If your users need an extensive tutorial to understand the product, something needs to change.

Product design isn’t just about polish. It’s about how the product feels in the hands of someone who doesn’t know the system – and doesn’t really care about your roadmap.

When product design is great, nobody notices. And that’s the point!

The best design doesn’t draw attention to itself. It helps people do what they want to do:

Imagine you are invited to someone’s home. As soon as you walk in, you notice a mixture of pleasant aesthetics and functionality. You can’t exactly tell what feels good and why, but things seem to be in their right place. There’s space to walk comfortably, and things follow a logical order.

Effective design is the same. It focuses on:

  • What people need to accomplish
  • Helps them do it well
  • Reduces user effort
  • And feels intuitive – even if a lot of thought went into making it that way! 

And it doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when teams prioritize the role of a product designer from the start.

Ever heard of “Jobs to be Done”?

There are plenty of design frameworks out there, but one that often helps teams move forward is Jobs to be Done.

Instead of asking what features users want, this framework asks: “What job is the user hiring this product to do?”

It shifts the focus from outputs to outcomes. From what we’re building to why we’re building it.

Designers use this to identify:

  • The tasks users are trying to complete
  • The pain points that slow them down
  • The context they’re in when they use the product
  • And what success looks like from the user’s point of view

This keeps solutions focused. It helps teams avoid unnecessary features and stay aligned on solving the right problem – not just shipping something shiny.

How managers can support designers better

First and foremost, if you want better design, start by giving designers the time and space to do it well.

That means:

  • Involving them early in the discovery phase
  • Giving them access to real users and research
  • Letting them iterate before locking in scope
  • And building in design feedback loops, not just design reviews at the end

It also means protecting their time. If designers are constantly jumping between last-minute requests, they can’t focus on solving big or systemic problems.

Design is about deep thinking, collaboration, and refinement. And this only works when designers are treated as essential partners.

Why dual-track agile makes room for better design

One of the best ways to support designers inside a product team is to adopt a dual-track agile process.

In this setup, you have two parallel tracks:

  • Discovery: where designers and PMs explore ideas, talk to users, and shape solutions
  • Delivery: where engineers build the validated solutions

This lets design stay one step ahead. They do the work to understand the problem before the team starts coding.

And this doesn’t mean slowing down. It means reducing rework later. If design and engineering move together (not necessarily at the same time), everyone wins.

Designers get time to think. Engineers get clearer specs. And the product gets better.

The short version: treat product design as a priority, not as a remedy

Product designers aren’t there to decorate features or make things look “flashy.” Their job is to understand real users and make the product easier to use – not just technically functional, but clear, intuitive, and purposeful.

That means:

When product design is done well, the work usually fades into the background. Users don’t notice great design — they just move forward without thinking about it.

If you want better design outcomes, give designers the space to do their work well: 

  • Involve them early
  • Encourage user research
  • And support frameworks like Jobs to be Done or dual-track agile

Remember, you want to create products people actually love and want to use. So, make sure design isn't an afterthought. 

It’s not the finishing touches. It’s the foundation.

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Originally published on Medium.com

Content in this blog post by Alex Ponomarev is licensed under CC BY 4.0.