The key goals of product management and UX are largely the same. Both of these domains deal with the aspect of understanding the needs of the users, creating excellent experiences for them that adequately meet their requirements, and constantly striving to keep innovating products after taking those needs into consideration. To adequately understand the UX process several product managers even take up specialized UX courses. By pursuing such programs they are able to incorporate effective UX techniques into their workflow and create the best possible product for the users.

To give their products a distinct edge, several organizations are nowadays investing a lot of resources in UX. It has been commonly seen that user experience truly has the capacity to either make or break a particular product. Good user experience is crucial for the buyers, as well as the final consumers. Hence, all product managers should give a great amount of emphasis on the aspect of UX.

Dave Meyer, who is a Senior Product Manager with the Atlassian, mentions that in his company the leadership of any product team typically involves a shared responsibility between the product manager, the UX designer, as well as the engineering lead. He underlines that at Atlassian, a 1:1 ratio of UX designers to product managers is usually maintained. Dave Meyer also highlights that at his company, the UX designers and the product managers are expected to collaborate in order to grasp the needs of the customers properly, and subsequently envision solutions based on that. For best results, product managers must understand the core principles of a good UX design, and have the capability to provide the UX designers of the company with effective feedback. He also says that at Atlassian UX designers are expected to work with both product managers and engineers in order to properly understand various technical limitations and practical needs of the customers, so as to create a design that can provide the best experience even with such constraints.

Niall Kiernan, a Product Manager with Rockall Tech, sheds some light on how UX has over the years come to the forefront of product design. He highlights how traditionally products would usually be developed in-house and unveiled to the customers at the last moment to create a ‘wow’ effect, while nowadays a more interactive and upfront approach with the customers is preferred by the companies. With the evolving customer trends, the opinions and experiences of the customers have become an integral part of the product research and design process.

Prior to the advent of UX, most software user interfaces were designed by the engineers themselves. While these UIs were functioning, in many cases they used to be overloaded with unnecessary information and were difficult to navigate as well. The modern-day UX UI designers are however specially trained to design software that is more user-focused and can provide them with the best possible experience.

In the modern market, it is quite difficult to imagine a product manager doing their job efficiently without incorporating the aspect of UX into it. The UX process enables the product managers to look at software from the point of view of the customers, thereby helping them to create an item that is the easiest to engage with. UX especially plays a critical role in enabling the product managers to understand the key problems faced by the customers, thereby giving them an incentive to work towards solving those concerns.

By encouraging the whole product management team to give emphasis on the element of UX, product managers can ensure that all of them are focused on creating a smoother, user journey through the relevant product.

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