A business is a cyclical domain, especially when it brews a digital product from an idea popped up in a boardroom meeting. But even when that product becomes a virtual reality and reaches its final consumer, it still lies in the thin air of scrutiny. Why? The answer is simple, perfection is a myth, but reaching towards it one step at a time gives success, or in this case, consumer satisfaction. In a product's life cycle it went through various stages, often in exclusion of each other. So here is the vital question that arises, can UX be a part of product management, especially when it targets two different ends? Product management is all about business and UX deals with the end-users, as they lie on the opposite trajectory, their intersection is hard to imagine. Well, it is not that hard. Here is why.

UX trends in product development have changed over the past three years. When it comes to crafting a UI competent enough to reach out to the consumer and set a compelling communication channel between the two, UX design plays a crucial role. It successfully handles the user's needs and requirements, and it also acts as an information repository which provides ample improvisation scope to the product manager.

Products itself act as a binding agent for UX and product management. A well-implemented UX strategy is a plan and approach for the digital product, which is bottom-up in nature. This strategy helps businesses to bring their formulated user experience to every touchpoint where people interact with or experience its product or services. It basically deals with the execution part of the product.

Product management, on the other hand, is all about cross functioning, which involves creating the product, providing deep product knowledge and making strategic product decisions. It is the Product manager's vision on which the UX designer does the crafting.

When we put the two frames together, there are many coordinates on which the two functions together like UI sketching, KPI monitoring, usability testing, case definition, management backing, user research and most importantly, prototyping. The Interaction Design Foundation has even suggested that these two functions are to be performed by the same person. Therefore, product success would become an eventual and attainable goal.

The best example of a successful nexus between the UX and product management is Apple. It is the worthy collaboration of the two, with a widening consumer base who is promised a unique product every season. When a company pits these domains against each other, it makes its product compatibility, incompatible. So, when UX and PM tend to target the same goal, the output is maximized in no time. The key is, PM defines the strategy, and the designer creates features that align with that strategy. It is the product landscape, where the UX designer charts the outline of the interface; the returned feedback acts as a briefing to the product gaps on which the product manager has to work. This type of communication on the user flows help them figure prototype tools like Justinmind, which offers solutions and validate them as a team.

The digital product businesses need to put their product managers and UX designers on the balancing plank. There needs to be enough contact space for the two, so their roads often cut across, throughout the product development journey.

The product's success amply depends on the success of the app or website, which works as the luring agent for the new products. If these user interfaces fail to solve the problems faced by the users in real, then the product trajectory would be hindered in one way or the other. Thus, it is a symbiotic relationship.

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