Product manager vs. UX manager
Achieving the product vision vs. expressing it. I believe this is a nuanced, yet helpful way to think about the core difference between product managers and UX managers. Whereas product managers typically focus on meeting business goals and launching new customer experiences, UX managers concentrate on optimizing user interactions in order to cultivate delight.
Product managers and UX managers both want to build a lovable product. But the specifics of how they define success diverge, which can lead to friction and conflicting priorities. And that is not only OK — it is healthy.
Lack of clarity is one of the biggest problems here. When product managers do not communicate the product vision upfront, UX managers must make assumptions about where the product is headed and what users need. This can lead to designs that improve how users interact with one part of the product, but do not actually serve the larger business or customer needs.
Another source of contention concerns trade-offs. As a product manager, you focus on delivering a Minimum Lovable Product (MLP) and incrementally improving the customer experience. On the other hand, UX managers tend to take a "build it once, build it right" approach. This can spur difficult decisions about when to move fast vs. when to perfect features.
Many companies (including our team at Aha!) opt to have product managers and UX folks comprise a single team. This way, everyone can collaborate closely and own product design together.
When you both understand and appreciate your unique perspectives, you can begin to reconcile your different approaches and work in complementary ways.
Figuring out how to do this is vital to the success of the business and product. Here are some tips for how product managers can collaborate better and build greater trust with their counterparts in UX:
Align on strategy
Just as you lead with product strategy, UX managers lead with UX strategy. This captures the vision for how the UX team will improve the user experience and express the company's identity. So how do you align these two strategies?
Start by documenting them in a single tool that is accessible to everyone.
Decide how you will approach crafting and revising personas and competitor research.
Connect product and design efforts to the product roadmap.
Meet regularly to show how PM and UX efforts support the business and product goals.
Provide context
UX managers are hyperfocused on making a given feature function smoothly and look good for users. But they might not have the greater business context that you do. This means you need to freely share information about anything that should inform design decisions. Here is our advice:
Explain the "why" behind upcoming features.
Describe how new functionality should fit within the product's technical framework and the broader product ecosystem.
Communicate any financial or technical constraints that could hamstring what UX is able to accomplish.
Share insights from stakeholders and customers.
Prioritize deliverables
The UX manager oversees deliverables (think user research, wireframes, and sitemaps) and delegates this work to designers and researchers. The features that are most impactful from your perspective will not always match what the UX manager wants to accomplish next. To prioritize more objectively:
Meet weekly to review work in progress and discuss upcoming efforts.
Use a product value scorecard to rank features and weigh value against effort.
Be willing to make time for UX testing and adjust plans and priorities based on the results.
Criticize constructively
You feel a deep sense of ownership and pride in your product. I know this can make it tempting to overstep when giving feedback on prototypes, UI sketches, and the like. However, approaching design reviews with a dictatorial or adversarial attitude will not help build trust. Instead, respect UX's knowledge and expertise when it comes to the structural and aesthetic aspects of the product. How?
Offer basic sketches in the early stages of ideation or planning, then let UX do what it does best.
Review product design artifacts (such as user journey maps and wireframes) together.
Praise UX's contributions during design reviews and celebrate mutual wins.
Together, product managers and UX managers are responsible for meeting business and user needs — this is your ultimate commonality.
High-performing product and UX teams need a shared space to collaborate. This is why many of you use a visual communication tool such as Aha! Whiteboards to do high-level planning and align everyone around the work. You can define user flows, gather stakeholder feedback, and create beautiful wireframes. When PM and UX are both empowered to contribute their unique talents, you can achieve the product vision together — and be happy doing it.
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