The Benefits of Having an Experienced Mentor as Product Designer
There are many areas of life where having a mentor, someone wiser and more experienced than you to guide you through your decisions, can be immeasurably valuable. Andthe field of product development is no different.
After all, how better to proceed than to follow in the footsteps of someone who’s already experienced success doing what you’re attempting to do? It’s hard to imagine a better person to turn to to help you find that avenue to a product idea that takes the marketplace by storm.
If an individual mentor isn’t available, or you don’t know where to find one, you can also consider working with a product development firm. While there obviously won’t be the same kind of relationship between you and the consultants you’re working with as there would be between you and a mentor, an experienced, successful firm can offer many of the same benefits.
Here are just a few of the ways that mentors and product development firms can help a budding inventor.
Identifying design problems early on
It’s not always the case that the product idea you begin with is the one that you end up taking to market.
More experienced product developers can help you see the flaws and advantages of your design earlier than you might be able to. That means 2 things:
- You’ll have a longer runway for fixing the flaws
- You’ll waste less money on development, because you’ll have a better idea of what will work and what won’t prior to prototyping
These are significant benefits.
Offering an objective perspective
Getting an objective perspective is good practice in any creative endeavor, including product development.
That’s what a mentor or product development firm can provide, along with one other key service: constructive criticism.
It can surprisingly difficult to find people among friends and family who will give you honest, unbiased feedback, especially if what they want to say is a negative, rather than a positive.
Mentors and other experienced product designers, however, will give you that necessary feedback – and hopefully in a manner that is both honest and kind.
You might not always like what they have to say, and you might end up deciding to do what you were originally going to do anyway. However, having that voice of experience is still important as you make your way along your product design and development journey.
Supplying moral support
There are going to be many sleepless nights and tough decisions that you will have to make as an inventor. You’ll have to weigh the cost versus benefits of swapping out a material in your supply chain. You may have to decide between starting a business and licensing your product. A mentor can help see you through the process of making these choices. They can also often see and point out the progress you’ve made, even when you can’t.
When you can consistently communicate with someone who wants your success but isn’t as close to your efforts as you are, that’s a valuable viewpoint to seek out.
The chance to learn from their experience
This is perhaps the most obvious benefit of working with a mentor or product development firm.
What steps did they take in similar situations? What mistakes did they make? People who’ve navigated the process of taking a product to market have a wealth of knowledge that can help you avoid as many pitfalls as possible, and launch your product on time, and within budget.
For more, read our e-book “Turn a Great Idea Into a Thriving Business.“
Why Great Design is the Foundation of a Great Product
As hard as it might be to accept, sometimes superior marketing and a great launch can overshadow the actual attractiveness (and usefulness) of a product. And certainly, it’s important to put enough emphasis on marketing, launching and selling your product, no matter how great it might be on its own merits.
But the true test of a product is in its design. That’s where the important details and features of your product will truly shine. A great ad is one thing. A truly attractive and useful product is another. Marketing schemes come and go; a great design can last much longer. Here are some of the most important advantages of an excellently designed product.
It outshines the competition
When your product looks better and works better than those you’re competing against, it ultimately won’t matter how much money they spent on launching their version. The other products will pale in comparison to what you’ve created if your design is the best it can be.
This isn’t to say that you’ll instantly sell more than your competitor with a great design- but you will certainly have more longevity and less need to go through constant refining and rethinking what your company has manufactured.
Let the other businesses have their bells and whistles. Quality is always a winner in the end.
You’ll draw a crowd, whether it’s investors or consumers
It’s important to think about a product’s design in every phase of its creation, from the drawing board to the assembly line to the marketplace.
An attractive, well-constructed design is bound to catch the attention of potential investors, and that attention can lead you to success once the product is out on the market.
Keeping the way the product looks (and works) in mind through every step in the process creates a through-line from imagination to reality, hopefully a profitable reality.
The look is important, but so is efficiency
If you’ve created a great look for your product but it doesn’t work as well as it should, it’s going to become obvious fairly quickly. Remember those bells and whistles we mentioned earlier? They’re not going to mean a thing if you haven’t designed a product that functions as well as it looks.
It’s easy to get caught up in an eye-catching design because, as we mentioned above, you want as many eyes as possible on your product. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep efficiency in mind as you bring your design to life.
A great design should attract and function in equal measures of excellence.
You’ll make your mark on the future
A great product design can set your product company up for more success further down the line. Building trust with the consumer, and with your investors, is the first step in a long-term relationship, and nothing seals that trust more than a well-designed product that meets their needs.
Think of it as the best first impression you could possibly make, whether you’ve simply created a prototype to begin to attract financial interest or you’re making hundreds to ship out to the marketplace.
A great design is your best foot forward in both those arenas.
It will strengthen yourcompany’s morale
It’s a less tangible benefit, to be sure, but when your designers and engineershave worked in tandem to create a great product with the full support of your executives, that creates a sense of pride and a feeling of ownership from everyone involved in its creation.
We’ve all heard people at our workplaces talking about how unhappy they are with certain aspects of their jobs, and no company is perfect, but think about how much more satisfied your designers and engineers will be if they’ve worked hard and created a great design.
Product design, from the beginning to the end of the process, is one of the things that Pivot International does best. From engineering to manufacturing, we’re a one-stop for your company’s needs. To learn more, set up a free consultation with one of our project managers.
5 Reasons to Become a Product Designer
The world of industrial product design is a challenging one. There are the demands of your company, the demands of your engineers and the demands of your investors to think about, plus the pressure of putting a product out into the marketplace. And it certainlyseems at times that it’s easier to fail than to make an impression with your product.
So why get into this field? It’s a fair question because it’s a vocation that’s going to call for a lot of hard work. But there are rewards, too, and they often outweigh the risks involved. Here are some reasons to consider product design as the field for you.
The skill combinations
Product design is a field that brings together art, business and engineering. At the same time you’re developing new concepts, you’re coming up with ways to market those concepts within the design. You’re mixing aesthetic tastes, functionality and financial considerations in a way that few other jobs allow people to do.
Product design bolsters a skill set that could make you invaluable in many different job markets, all over the world.
Career options
Product design doesn’t have to be just one job. There is potential for employment in many different areas, including design research, art direction or even desktop publishing. It is a job that allows you room for growth and expansion into any number of areas, with any number of companies. You can even be your own boss by freelancing, combining any different number of jobs for any different number of companies.
If you’ve become dissatisfied with one aspect of product design, there’s always another that you can move into with just a few adjustments. Think of designing as an umbrella under which many different options are gathered.
Design doesn’t always mean invention
Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions about product design is that you have to come up with something totally new in order to do it. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
There are products all over the map that you could create new innovations or features for, without the pressure of having to introduce something entirely new into the marketplace. Think of the advances in mobile phones and computers over the last couple of decades; imagine how exciting it might be to be the next person who creates a new wrinkle for those products.
The most (literally) rewarding part
As of 2017, the average salary for an industrial product designer was around $75,000, which is around $25,000 more than the typical across-the-board American salary. And that’s just the average. The top salary, according to several different industry website estimates, is over $100,000, to say nothing of the possible incentives, bonuses and other financial rewards that could be involved in a successful product launch.
There are artistic considerations, to be sure, but the potential monetary rewards are difficult to ignore.
Innovation is its own reward
There are probably moments in everyone’s life when they wonder what impact they will have on the world when all is said and done.
Imagine being the person who comes up with the design for a new product that takes the world by storm and becomes a part of the general population’s everyday life. The idea you’ve helped bring to fruition has just changed the world, and you were a part of it.
Are you considering pursuing product design as a career? Learn more about this exciting field with our e-book “From Concept to Product Launch: a Guide to Product Development.”
5 Invaluable Tips for New Product Designers
Being a product designer is an exciting field that can provide a lot of rewards, whether they’re creative, scientific, or financial. But it’s also a field that can be difficult to be successful in.
Perhaps part of the reason for that difficulty is the unpredictability of the process. How can a designer really know if the product they’re working on is a viable one, or has the potential for success in the marketplace?
If you’ve gotten to the design stage, then there are probably investors involved, so at the very least, they are excited about the product. But beyond that, what can a designer look for in terms of guidance while they’re going through the design process? Here are a few pro tips that might help a young or inexperienced designer get good results.
Balance collaboration and independence
There might be some areas of conflict between your work as a designer and what the engineers responsible for bringing your vision to life have in mind.
As much as you might think that the two departments are separate, it’s important to make sure that the design team and the engineers are on the same page. Working with another team might you’re your design in a way you never conceived, and your design suggestions could give the engineers ideas for solutions to different design issues.
Keep your product as simple as possible
With all of the technology and options available to a designer, it might be tempting to make complex changes or tweaks to your product, but remember that one of the most important aspects a designer has to consider is functionality.
Ideally, you’re trying to create a product that’s easy to use and understand, and succumbing to the urge to make it more complex than it needs to be might be harmful to product’s success. Remember, this is going to be a new item on the market, and consumers need to be able to understand it easily in order want to buy it.
Know your product’s competition
Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery, and it might benefit a designer to take a look at similar products in the marketplace. The urge might be to try to be as original as possible, but keep in mind that these products are still on the market for a reason. Something about them has connected with customers, so why not try to figure out what you can do with your product to achieve the same connection?
As you work your way through your design, it’s important to look at what came before and learn how to incorporate that into what you’re creating.
Test your prototype thoroughly
It can be tempting to rely on early results of your prototype testing, simply out of excitement or impatience. The desire to move forward can be a strong one, and there’s certainly pressure involved when a company has a launch date in mind.
But remember that the design process takes patience, and it’s vital to the success of what you’ve created to make sure you’ve added all the innovations you can to your prototype, and that you’ve gotten in-depth results from your testing.
There are always new features that can be just around the corner, so keep plugging away on that prototype.
Trust your simulations
It’s also important to remember that a simulation run on your product by your engineers is just as important as testing the physical prototype.
The more analysis than can be applied to your product before it’s launched into the marketplace, the better, and creating a rigorous simulation process is the closest you’ll probably get to real-world results before the product is out in the world.
Want to learn more about the product design industry? Read our post “The Most Influential Product Design Trends on the Horizon.”
The Most Influential Product Design Trends on the Horizon
We talk a lot about staying current with all the technology and trends that are constantly being updated in the field of product design, and it’s important to make sure that your business stays in the present, to be sure.
But what about the future? It’s a lot harder to predict than some might think, and the new innovations that seem like a sure thing now might be only a distant memory five years from now. But however unpredictable it might be, it’s important for any company to keep an eye on the ways product design might change over the next few years.
Here are some possible big trends on the horizon.
Virtual interaction design
Some experts have posited that virtual reality might be a $150 billion within the next five years, not just in terms of people’s entertainment and leisure purchases but it various businesses, as well. So it’s probable that by the early 2020’s, designers will be grabbing an Oculus Rift, or whatever the newest VR device is, and launching themselves into virtual reality to create the products of tomorrow. It’s an exciting new frontier in design that seems to become more and more reachable with every new breakthrough in VR technology.
Increasing specialization
With different products being marketed to ever-more specific demographics, designers who can work within those precise fields will become more important, and more specialized.
For example, there’s a growing market for products made from bamboo, because of its lightweight properties and its ability to grow quickly. There’s also a rising demand for designers who can work in soft goods like textiles, especially the new mix of tech and textiles that can be mixed into wearable fabric.
Anyone who is developing their skills in that field now might be one of the most valuable commodities in the industry in the coming years.
Artificial intelligence
There’s been a lot of talk within the business world about robots or other forms of AI taking over people’s jobs, but given the spark of human creativity that’s often necessary for a designer to create a new product, it seems unlikely that that trend with affect the design field.
But a designer who can work with AI programs could be incredibly valuable. In cases like that, the future might be more about a collaboration between humans who figure out a design algorithm to feed into an AI system than about some new form of automation taking over for a flesh-and-blood worker.
Post-industrial design
The world is moving closer together in many ways, and our different devices are doing so as well. Think about how you can now link your exercise program with a FitBit app that measures your progress throughout the day.
Designers who can make a product more connected to other items in the consumer’s world will be incredibly important if this interconnected world continues to create interactive possibilities that weren’t there before.
Think about how exciting it might be to design products for someone’s home or workplace that link to just about everything else they own. Those products would be indispensable, and so would the designer.
Freelancing
These new design trends are going to cost money to keep up with and master, and a freelancer who’s skilled in these different areas could have a more lucrative career than anyone working for a single company. After all, it’s logical for a business to get the best deal possible on their various needs, and freelancers are often a go-to choice for that kind of thinking.
And the more of these skills that a designer has, the more they’ll be able to play the field and get the jobs that they want while still maintaining a flexible schedule. It’s a win-win.
Whatever the future holds, Pivot International will be at the forefront, providing services from design to development to manufacturing, all under one umbrella. Click here to find out how Pivot can prepare you for your company’s future.
Why You Should Consider Being a Product Designer
While there are certainly occupations that might seem, on the surface, anyway, to be better than being a product designer (billionaire crimefighter, reality TV star, etc.), those jobs don’t compare to taking an idea and figuring out how to make it a reality. Sure, the hours might be long, but the pros outweigh the cons by a wide margin. Here are some of the best aspects of being a product designer.
Income
We’ll start with the most obvious plus first. As of Feb. 2017, the average annual salary for a product designer is just under $74,000. That’s nothing to sneeze at, to be sure, but a closer look at the numbers reveals some specific companies with even better pay. Designers at tech companies can earn between $140,000 and $160,000 a year. Even at the bottom end of the salary scale, an intern with Apple’s Product Design dept. can make nearly $40 an hour.
Quality control
The amount of control you exert over what you design can be near-total. If there’s a flaw or if something breaks down, you can be the person who saves the day and fixes it. Yes, that will require some extra time and brainpower, but you’re providing a vital service to customers and businesses, and there’s a certain amount of pride that goes along with that ability.
Part of the team
Product design isn’t just about the individual; it’s about that individual working as part of a group. If you’re someone who loves when a football or basketball team works like a well-oiled machine, you’ll probably love playing a vital role in something bigger than yourself.
Playing the field
With such a fast-growing market that seems to produce new innovations every few minutes, there’s an increasing demand for product designers all over the world. And that means greater opportunity. If you so choose, you don’t even have to commit to one company. Freelancing can be a great way to dip into and out of various areas of product design , because it’s such a wide-ranging field that you can get all kinds of different experience under the same umbrella.
A mixture of skills
How many people have you known who excel at one job, but also show promise in another field? Perhaps you know someone who can work wonders in mechanical engineering, but is a talented artist in their off-hours. Product design is a combination of different skill sets that can allow you to express yourself in different ways. It’s a mesh of artistic, engineering, and business acumen that takes a special kind of person to perform.
Creature comforts
The image of the worker headed off to their cubicle-bound job wearing a suit and tie is outdated in a lot of professions, but it’s especially inaccurate in the world of product design. Design departments are often some of the least formal areas in a company. In a world where free-thinking and artistic expression are a vital part of the process, the starched shirt, windowless rooms and flimsy five-foot walls are increasingly a thing of the past.
Tools of the trade
Technology is improving within the world of product design so quickly that ideas and concepts once thought impossible are now commonplace. With increasing sophisticated tools, it’s becoming ever-easier to bring complex ideas to fruition. This creates new opportunities every day for those who want to design new and exciting products.
Is product design for everyone? No. Make no mistake, it’s a demanding occupation. But with the potential rewards and the ever-widening field of possibilities, it’s certainly a job worth considering, if you have the right set of skills.
Want to stay up-to-date on the product design industry? Read our post “7 Excellent Websites That Every Product Designer Should Bookmark .”
The Pros and Cons of Cradle-To-Cradle Design
A concept as all-encompassing as cradle-to-cradle design can be difficult to wrap one’s head around. But at its core are simple, though perhaps revolutionary principles.
If you imagine all of the elements involved in the design, production and manufacturing of a product as one organism, or one organic system, you’ll have the basic framework. All of the materials are designed for the maximum health of the system.
This means that the raw materials of the product, which under the cradle-to-cradle model fall into the categories of “technical nutrients” and “biological nutrients” typically have little or no toxic or adverse effects on the environment or the end user.
Ideally, the synthetic materials required can be reused with no decrease in product integrity. And the biological nutrients can be disposed of harmlessly and decompose into the soil.
The idea is perhaps stated most simply in a book called Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart: “Imagine a world in which all the things we make, use, and consume provide nutrition for nature and industry–a world in which growth is good and human activity generates a delightful, restorative ecological footprint.”
As with any concept as far-reaching as this one, however, there are pros and cons to choosing a cradle-to-cradle model for a product. Here are some strengths and weaknesses of this idea.
Pro: Environmental Concerns This is the obvious and most attractive feature of the cradle-to-cradle design system. When the materials are safe, then the consumer is safe, and perhaps more importantly, the ecosystem is safe. When utilized correctly, C2C ensures the smallest possible environmental footprint.
Pro: Economical Concerns
Despite some misconceptions, an environmentally sound production plan doesn’t have to be a more expensive option. In fact, in a C2C system, since manufacturing resources, or technical nutrients, are often reused, it can often save money.
Pro: Sustainability
Once a C2C plan has been established and the materials have been sourced, the product can be manufactured at the same level of speed and quality. The model can be repeated indefinitely as long as the biological and technical nutrients are available and correctly sourced.
Con: Reliability of supply chain
Just one variation in a technical or biological nutrient supplier’s method can result in a disturbance in the C2C plan. Trust and integrity are as vital to this business model as to any other. And it might take more time than is typical to establish a reliable supply chain.
Con: Modification Difficulties
There’s a certain lack of flexibility in the C2C design that might make it difficult for a manufacturer to make a product line more varied or diverse. Given the how specific the model is for how a product is made and what goes into making it, it’s hard to imagine introducing a variation on a particular product, let alone an entirely new product, without essentially going back to square one to find the right technical and biological nutrients. This is perhaps the most potentially negative aspect of using the C2C model.
In the end, the feasibility of a C2C system probably depends equally on the product, the manufacturer and the end user. Once the model is up and running and all the components have been scrutinized, C2C can be an effective, financially sound and environmentally safe way to create a product. But a business looking for more flexibility might want to choose a different way to manufacture. If you’re looking to manufacture your product, Pivot can help. Read about our manufacturing services here.
7 Excellent Websites That Every Product Designer Should Bookmark
Product designers have it pretty good when it comes to the internet: there’s no shortage of blogs, online magazines, and websites dedicated to showcasing the latest and greatest in the world of design.
Whether you’re into consumer products, industrial design, engineering, or software, there are plenty of sites out there for you to sink your teeth into.
And that presents a little problem. How do you find the best sites? How do you wade through the sea of image-heavy, well-designed websites to find ones that actually have useful content?
Well, we’ve done some of that for you, and while this is hardly an exhaustive list, here are the 10 design blogs and websites that we enjoy the most.
Started by the magazine Fast Company, Fast Co. Design offers the same forward-thinking, edgy, innovative outlook as its parent publication – just oriented toward the design world. You’ll find pieces on everything from industrial design to urban planning to design careers, as well as the occasional think piece. Right now we’re loving “Welcome to the City of Trump.”
This beautiful online magazine is devoted to the latest and greatest in product design, design technology, architecture, and automotive design. The images here are huge and impressive, and will give designers plenty to look through – but note that Yanko doesn’t score as many points for text. However, if you just need a visual break to fuel your creativity, you can’t go wrong here.
Design Taxi is kind of like the PopSugar of the design world. It’s full of fun, random articles on things like floating soup ladles shaped like swans, urban electric bikes, and the latest IKEA commercial for a new stool. It’s the perfect site for browsing aimlessly while you wait for inspiration to strike.
Core77 is one of the most truly useful sites on this list. It’s got plenty of informative articles, like an interview with the founder of the nonprofit design firm Design That Matters, and resources like a job board, a list of contests and awards, and a yearly Core77 design conference. The site’s design is clear and easy to follow, and there’s plenty to keep you busy – whether you’re an amateur design enthusiast, or a professional.
This international online design magazine got its start in Milan, and you can tell – it’s got a cosmopolitan outlook, featuring plenty of products and design projects from Europe as well as Asia and the United States. Like Core77, this is a site full of rich content. You’ll find lengthy interviews, videos, and reports from major design events like the Biennale Interieur.
If it’s weird, futuristic, or innovative, you’ll find it in Wired magazine. Wired‘s website is just as impressive as the print publication, and features long-form journalism, in-depth interviews, and investigative pieces that will make you remember why real magazines are so excellent. Wired‘s design section is a mixture of first-look videos, like this one on Google’s new Daydream VR goggles, image-heavy lists, and product reviews and features.
If you’re looking for advice on building a design career, 99U is for you. It’s a magazine, conference, and website devoted to helping creatives of all stripes develop their careers and execute ideas. Articles you’ll find on the site include “The Upside to Being a Designer Outside of New York City and “How to Fix Design, and there are also tons of interviews with industry experts and top designers. The “Talks” section features videos of talks given at previous 99U conferences, and there are some real gems – take Oliver Burkeman’s “The Negative Path to Happiness and Success“ or Tobias Frere-Jones’ “Break Things Deliberately.”
These are just a few of the many great product design and engineering websites out there. And if you’re still in need of inspiration, check out our post “5 Tips to Increase Your Creativity and Silence Your Inner Critic.”
Designing Your Product for the Consumer
Parts of this blog post are excerpted from our e-book “How to Design with the Consumer in Mind.”
If your product hits the market and there’s no one to buy it, does it make an impact?
The answer – just like the one to that age-old question about the proverbial tree in the proverbial forest – is, of course, no. So why do so many product developers and inventors design their products without putting the consumer front and center?
One very common reason for this is simple overconfidence. Most of us developing products think those products are great ideas that people will definitely want, if not need. If we didn’t think so, we wouldn’t be spending our time developing them.
However, that’s a risky, and potentially costly approach to take. When you get your product in front of actual consumers, they might not think it’s nearly as great as you do. And that will mean that you just wasted a whole lot of time and money.
This is why it’s so important to design your product while keeping the consumer in mind. These guidelines will help you do just that.
Define your target consumer(s).
When you’re creating your product, chances are you have a specific set or sets of consumers in mind. If you’re developing a kitchen gadget, your target consumers might include people who like to cook at home, parents who cook for their children, and kitchen gourmets.
You need to get more specific, however, if you’re going to figure out who you really want to target. This requires research, not just guesswork. Here are some of the considerations you’ll need to take into account when researching your target consumers.
- Know your product. Does your product meet a basic need? Is it a luxury good? Understand what your product does, and who would find it most appealing.
- Consider the geographic reach of your product. Are you a local company with local distribution? Will you be selling your product nationally? Internationally? When defining your target, it is critical to consider the geographic reach of your product.
- Use demographics. Segment the market by demographics such as age, household income, gender, and location to see who your product is most likely to resonate with.
- Use psychographics. Once you have a clear understanding of the demographics of your target consumer, you will also want to break down market segments by psychographics — values, interests, and lifestyle.
Once you’ve got this information, it can be helpful to create a profile of your target customer. List this target customer’s age, gender, occupation, income range, likes and dislikes, location, and anything else you can think of to help you define the customer you’re designing for.
Identify your target consumer’s wants and needs.
Once you’ve figured out who your target consumer is, you need to start defining their wants and needs.
Here, again, you need more than just guesswork. You need research. Here are a few ways to start.
- Keyword Research. Do keywords research to figure out what people are searching for in relation to your brand or niche industry/market. Long-tail keyword analysis can be a great way to uncover unfulfilled needs and wants.
- Competitors Forums. Stalking your competitors website might seem a bit unusual, but is an excellent way to gain insight into what they are doing (and more importantly, what they are not doing). With a bit of research, you can tap into competitor’s deficiencies in order to fulfill unmet needs.
- Product Forums. If your niche market already has products, be sure to check out product forums. This can help to provide insight into what needs and wants aren’t being met — something that you can leverage to your advantage during the design and the development process.
- Surveys and Interviews. Last but not least, it is always a wise idea to interact directly with consumers to figure out what they are thinking. Establish focus groups and either interview or survey participants. This is an excellent way to gain insight into your target market.
Armed with this information, you can move on to the next step, which is understanding industry standards and ensuring that you design your product with those in mind.
For a more in-depth look at how to design your product for the consumer, read our e-book “How to Design with the Consumer in Mind.”
9 Reasons Great Product Designers Leave
When it comes to the biggest challenges companies face, employee turnover is high on the list.
Hiring employees is expensive, and losing them can have negative consequences on a lot of fronts. Your other designers may have to take on additional work until you can hire someone else. If a designer leaves in the middle of a project, he or she might leave loose ends that must be tied up by the rest of the team.
While there are certain reasons for turnover that you just can’t do anything about, there are many that you can. Addressing these reasons will make a big difference in your employees’ happiness – and therefore, your company’s success.
1. Toxic company culture.
If your co-workers are rude, petty, or aggressive, then naturally you won’t be that excited to come to work – and you’ll probably start looking for another job pretty quickly. Company culture is a challenging thing to change, but it can be done. Culture is really built from the top down, so chances are you’ll need to examine yourself first.
2. Feeling overworked.
With the economy still not fully recovered from the Great Recession, employees in every industry have been worked harder than ever, often without seeing their compensation increase. While sometimes you simply have to ask your designers to do more than they might feel they should have to, make sure you let them know that you don’t take it for granted.
3. Feeling underappreciated.
This goes right along with feeling overworked. If an employee is going the extra mile for the company, they deserve to be recognized for it. That could be something as small as a sincere “thank you for that great design” the next time you see them. There are lots of ways to thank employees for what they do – and many are low-cost or free, if resources are stretched thin.
4. An employee-position mismatch.
Trying to force a match where there isn’t one won’t do anyone any good, and will almost certainly cause headaches for both management and employee.
5. Some designers are treated differently than others.
When noticeable favoritism is at play in the workplace, employees feel like the deck is stacked against them – and why shouldn’t they? If one person’s product ideas are consistently praised while other good ideas are ignored, employees will feel like the work they put in is futile. And that will lead to a very dissatisfied workforce.
6. Lack of feedback.
Employees, especially Millennial employees, want to know what they’re doing well and what they need to work on. Not only does it make them feel like they’re a valued member of the team, but it also gives them a sense of job security. Knowing what they need to improve means they won’t be blindsided later on if something becomes a recurring problem.
7. Product designers don’t feel their ideas are taken seriously.
Everyone, whether they’re a senior product designer or an entry-level designer, deserves to be heard. If your designers don’t feel like their ideas are being taken seriously, or that nearly all ideas and decision-making comes from the top, they’re likely to look for a more welcoming workplace.
8. Career development opportunities are lacking.
No matter how much someone loves their job, he or she won’t be satisfied doing the same thing day in and day out for years on end. Product designers need strong career development opportunities, whether that be a straight promotion, or a chance to work on a unique or challenging new product.
9. The company puts profits over people.
If your company doesn’t prove that it values its people, your best designers will hit the road eventually – even if they love what they do. Profits are important, of course. But if you put financial gain ahead of creating a healthy, positive workplace, then you’ll find your profits dwindling as your best workers leave.
Finding great product designers can be a difficult thing to do, so you want to make sure the ones you have stick around. For more on improving your workplace environment, read our post “4 Ways to Encourage Innovation in the Workplace.”
