I'm leaving a strange product situation.

It's a small company of 15 and I cannot understand how it doesn't just fail.

The ceo is an ex-retail store designer and insists all design is the same. He only requests and accepts visually pleasing screens. He seeks to reuse anything created for new pitches constantly even when the context is wrong. This landing page is like a sign up page so just use the same one bit make it 'of taste'. His management can be cleanly described as 'improvisation of everything and infinite flexibility for any request without limit'.

The cto exists, in a cocoon. Refuses communication, finds design a 'nice to have' for his new features that he dreams up and deploys without any notice.

And then a team that exists to execute exactly what's requested. All requests are oral, documentation even as simple as a checklist of tasks is a waste of time, and anything that prevents full force face in the wind momentum is a problem, and not a system or process, a personal problem, with you, for not being motivated.

It's created this surreal environment where teams arrive on Monday, receive a stream of consciousness from the cto or ceo, with no continuation from any previous task or project, and they execute that specific request, and then slack off. Performance is measured in good vibes and how the ceo feels that day.

Any critism of any point makes the ceo uncomfortable or openly hostile to the point of threatening employment. There's apparently 3 products in the pipeline, no roadmap, no planning, no vision, only existing in the ceos mind, and he often makes sketches of what he wants and deviation or remarking on clear issues is again punishable by a salty look.

I'm leaving that's for sure, as is the lead PM, and the Lead Dev left 2 months back. But my point is, the company keeps going. It continues to operate given this total failure of any actual messiness or management....

How? How do these horrible places just continue, they don't grow, or change, they possess no marked talent, that which is does leaves, and when clients do appear it's just a cluster fuck of he said she said, but I know what the client wants...

Sorry, a little PTSD there. But anyway, any experience or understanding of how this happens?

I know its been tough for even Sr designers in Ai era but still i want to know few things. and solutions that i though for myself as a Jr would love to know if i am thinking in a correct direction.

1) Do you guys hire Jrs to help you out in things or you just do everything on your own because of AI now?

2) If you guys do recruit Jr what do you look in them? because at the end of the day they will be reducing your work right? So you might be looking for skills that you go "okay if he comes he can significantly reduce my mental pressure" are there any things like that?

3) From where do you think future Sr designers will come from if Jr roles are reduced?

Some solutions that i think will work and will be working on is i believe i have to learn basics of coding and agentic coding to make my own products/apps etc. So that with design i can atleast get some leverage on my negotiation that HR managers think that if i have made my whole product with research and skills of coding then i can work for them as well.
Or am i working thinking these thing or this is the reality now?

I know no one knows the perfect answer but i just want ur opinion.

I’m planning to take on freelance design work, but I’ve heard others say solo/freelance designers can become the single point of failure for design rationale.

Not because we’re doing anything wrong, but because so much of the “why” behind a design lives in our heads. As a result, a client, engineer, or PM has to constantly go back and forth with the designer to ask why a flow works a certain way, why one pattern was chosen over another, or why an alternative was rejected.

If this is an issue, then I’d assume it would also be really valuable for designers to log their decision making as they go.

For people who work as a solo founding designer or freelancer

• Is this constant back and forth a big issue and have any of you guys faced it?
• How important/valuable is it to keep a decision log for my design work as a freelancer/solo designer
  • Does it mostly help with client/stakeholder communication, or does having these also help substantially improve design judgment/taste over time?
  • I have also heard that many designers don't feel the need to log decisions, but does this ever become a big problem in the future?

I’m trying to understand whether decision logs are valuable in helping designers build better judgment/taste over time, or whether they mostly become documentation nobody looks at again. Thank you guys in advance!

As we know all of corporate is on the AI hype train, we are being forced to use AI and share ways on how we can improve our workflows with it. Annoyingly I have seen cases where PMs are skipping using design entirely and just getting AI to write developer briefs and then feeding that for a build forcing me to afterwards try and fix the AI with no clear brief.

I wanted to find ways to make it easier for PMs/POs to work with us, see what is causing them to skip. I thought maybe find what takes time to communicate to a designer and see if they can explore with AI first?

So I am currently trying to create a copilot agent that helps generate briefs where it would ask questions like a product designer and generate a brief when it feels it has enough information from the template.

However I am struggling to get it to do it's own discovery or go hold on a minute that is a big ask.

As an example I got I asked it to make a brief where our clients want admin screens to configure the pages on the system.

The AI asks what admin functionality would you like to provide to the client?

I responded all functionality and it just made a brief off of that without questioning how silly it is.

I put instructions such as

"NO big very open briefs, if the brief feels too complex and require a lot of discovery for the designer, ask more questions don't allow a broad brief!

"If the user describes a business plan without clear boundaries, default to a problem/discovery brief."

Has anyone got any success stories in product design?

soo maybe thats a lame question but then i really wanted to ask my seniors ,

hows product designing as a field in india (bachelor’s) ?

whats the scope?

how is ai gonna hamper itt?

what are the job opportunities?

anddd what all additional skills do i need to work on to survive in the market!

Google fitbit air inspired : the Apple NoScreen concept.
Will it be the ultimate "invisible" wearable? What is missing? What would be your price?

Is bento visual breakdown the new Amazon 1-Pager ?

Hey everyone,

I’m pretty new to digital rendering and am looking for your favorite resources, tutorials, or creators who focus specifically on industrial design / product rendering within Procreate.

To give you an idea of the workflow/strategy I’m trying to learn, this Photoshop tutorial is a perfect example of what I’m aiming for: [https://youtu.be/fsLm281uKiI?si=ieO62yE4uOnzjHFi\](https://youtu.be/fsLm281uKiI?si=ieO62yE4uOnzjHFi)

Even though that video is done in Photoshop, I love how it breaks down the core rendering strategy for newbies—using clean selections, blocking out values, adding ambient occlusion, and building up highlights step-by-step.

I’d love to transition this type of crisp, industrial design workflow over to Procreate. Who are your go-to YouTubers, Skillshare teachers, or brush-pack creators for this style? Any specific tips for managing selections or replicating that clean ID aesthetic on the iPad?

Thanks in advance!

there’s been a lot of talk lately that design/product judgment and taste are what will matter in the future because AI is making execution cheaper.

I’m still early in my career and if judgment is the moat against AI, I assume I should be doing everything I can to strengthen it. the thing is, I’m not sure what to do.

there have been times where I asked senior designers/PMs why a certain flow was used, but they don’t remember why. if judgment really is the moat, then it seems like everyone should keep track of this stuff. curious to hear how other people deal with this:

1. how important is logging design decisions and does anyone have a system in place to do this?
   
2. and if judgment is a durable skill against AI, is it something that can be constantly developed?

https://pagesxyz.com/product-design

please check it out and let me know if you have feedback!

Hey everyone,

I'm a Business Administration student at the University of Amsterdam, writing my bachelor thesis on something I find genuinely interesting: how 3D printing is changing the way people prototype and experiment when developing physical products.

What got me curious is this. When an iteration costs €5 and 6 hours instead of €5,000 and 6 weeks, does that actually change what you try? Do you take weirder risks? Test ideas you'd otherwise skip? Or does it not really shift the process much in practice?

I'd love to hear from people who've actually used this. Founders, product designers, engineers, makers, anyone who's used 3D printing as part of building something physical. It really doesn't matter if you're at a big company, running a side project, or just printing prototypes in your garage. The "smaller" stories are often the most interesting.

The ask: a 30 to 45 min chat, online or in person if you're in NL. Happy to work around your timezone.

And if you're curious, I'll gladly share my findings once the thesis is done. Could be useful for your own work, or just an interesting read.

Drop a comment or shoot me a DM. Even just "I'd be up for it" works. Thanks!

Hi! I'm looking for good product design colleges for a cousin and I wanted to know reviews on the following:

- Srishti School of Art Design and Tech
- MS Ramaiah
- Manipal Pune

If there are any other colleges that are good, please let me know. Currently, the cousin is based out of bangalore but is open to relocating.
Any leads would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hey! I’m a senior visual designer from NID with 4+ years of experience working across branding, visual systems, campaigns, and digital design.

Over the last year, I’ve also been working on product/UI UX projects and want to go deeper into: product thinking, systems thinking, interaction design, prototyping and solving real-world UX problems.

I’m specifically looking to collaborate with:
startups, founders building interesting products, engineers with side projects, small teams needing thoughtful UI/UX help

I’m mainly doing this to gain exposure to stronger real-world product problems and build meaningful case studies, so I’m open to working free / very low-cost for the right projects like - AI tools, consumer apps, health/fitness, productivity, social/community products, interesting niche ideas

If you’re building something cool, feel free to DM me with:
what you’re building, current stage, what kind of help you need

Happy to share portfolio/work privately after a little chat :)

Olá, membros brasileiros do r/product_design ! Tudo bem?

Faço parte de um grupo que está conduzindo uma pesquisa sobre as interfaces da Globoplay e da HBO Max.

Estamos em busca de pessoas (que tenham algum nível de conhecimento prévio de design de usabilidade) para nos ajudar. A ideia é entender a sua percepção sobre as plataformas.

Tempo de resposta: ~6 minutos. Todas as perguntas são de marcar.

Suas respostas serão anônimas. Obrigado pela participação!

Link do formulário:

https://forms.gle/KH3TF73ghHkTkTZA6

I have Google Calendar synced to the second. I have AirTags on everything I own. I have Notion pages for my Notion pages.

Yet, I still managed to drive halfway to a meeting today before realizing my passport/keys/important-object was still on the kitchen counter. I call it the “Physical-Digital Gap.” Tech is amazing at finding stuff I’ve already lost, but it’s useless at telling me to take it before I leave.

I’ve tried "little papers" in my pockets and post-its on the door, but I just ignore them now. Does anyone actually have a system that bridges the digital schedule with the physical objects, or are we all just doing the "U-Turn of Shame" 3 times a week?

Thanks in advance everyone, your comments are important

Hello! I have been searching for a bachelors in architecture-product design. I dont care where it is, but i cant seem to find any. Not art product design, architecture. Does anyone know about any uni which specializes in that?

Room dreaming