How Can Product Managers and UXers Help Each Other (and Why are Product Folks so Annoying Sometimes)?
Summary
Product managers and UXers do adjacent but different jobs. We'll talk about scope, celebrating successes, and understanding each other better. Stick around to join the conversation and ask Rich your questions during our post-session Q+A, moderated by Christian Crumlish.
Key Insights
-
•
UX teams largely lack direct representation at the executive decision-making table compared to product management.
-
•
Product managers serve as crucial advocates translating UX work into business language executives understand.
-
•
Executives mostly care about outcomes tied to revenue or measurable business impact, not detailed processes.
-
•
Stakeholder demand often exceeds team capacity by 20 to 30 times, forcing product managers to reject most requests.
-
•
Pie charts effectively communicate trade-offs to executives, highlighting resource allocation dilemmas.
-
•
Product managers juggle numerous distractions and interruptions, which can make them appear scattered or annoyed.
-
•
Collaborative research involving product, UX, and engineering fosters shared understanding and stronger team cohesion.
-
•
UX must learn to speak the language of money and metrics to raise visibility and gain budget support.
-
•
Consumer-facing companies tend to prioritize UX more highly than complex enterprise organizations.
-
•
Assuming good intent between product managers, UX, and stakeholders prevents adversarial dynamics and improves collaboration.
Notable Quotes
"If you really want to make things happen, you need to be in the room where it happens."
"UX really doesn’t have a seat at the table yet and that has some implications for us."
"Executives don’t care about process or how we got there, they care about what happened and why it matters."
"Product managers are going to have to say no to roughly 95% of everything that comes in."
"If you want to make one slice bigger you have to make another slice smaller — executives hate the exclusive or concept."
"Product managers learn to attach at the end of every sentence something about money — no money, no attention."
"We try to figure out who needs to be in the room to hear it — research is how we build team cohesion."
"Most product managers are wide, most UX and engineers are deep — that’s just the nature of the roles."
"Assume good intent, start with empathy — we’re all doing hard things we can't do well alone."
"Roadmap amnesia is real — every new thing wipes out weeks of priorities from stakeholders’ minds."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Getting something accessible is a straight line; keeping something accessible requires process change."
Sheri Byrne-HaberAccessibility at Scale
June 9, 2021
"Empathy isn't just kindness, it's the lens through which we see users' true motivations."
Prayag Narula Hannah HudsonEmpowering Designers to do Good Research
March 11, 2022
"Being open and flexible to what's most helpful for the team at that moment is key."
Janelle EstesUX Research Trends
January 28, 2021
"Finding a leadership champion and building on small wins creates momentum for integrating research and content."
Craig Brookes Andreas Huebner Morgan Quinn"Just Make it Look Good" and Other Ways We're Misunderstood
June 11, 2021
"The community is an ongoing prototype; members have a strong, frequent voice in shaping what good looks like."
Marc Fonteijn Ru ButlerIncrease your confidence, influence, and impact (through a Professional Community)
December 3, 2024
"Research ops allows me to indulge my geeky planning spreadsheety side as well as my people-loving supportive side — Saskia, Delivery."
Kate TowseyThe State of ResearchOps: More Than Just Theory
June 20, 2019
"Creating safety requires specific, behavioral agreements you can observe and practice."
Alla WeinbergDesign Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It
September 9, 2022
"Our digital experience group acts like hosts and planners making sure veterans sit down to a cohesive, inclusive meal, not just disparate dishes."
Shawna Hein Kevin HoffmanCreate a Cohesive Civic Design Practice Across Agency, Vendors, and Contracts
November 17, 2022
"You have to look two or three steps ahead so you're not chasing what's right in front of you — avoid target fixation."
Tricia WangSCALE: Discussion
June 15, 2018
