Product and UX: Study Guide

This study guide contains NN/g’s articles and videos on how UX professionals can collaborate effectively with product managers and mitigate common challenges such as role overlap and duplicate work. Product quality and team satisfaction increase when product-management and UX roles are partners.

In This Article:

• Product Management vs. UX
• Clarifying Responsibilities for Collaboration 
• Using Roadmaps to Plan Product and UX Work
• Related Topics and Study Guides

Product Management vs. UX

The articles in this section help clarify product management as a discipline and the role of the product manager (also known as product owner in organizations following the Agile-scrum methodology).

Product managers and UX practitioners share the goal of delivering value to users through the product experience. The articles below describe the expertise of product managers and how they cultivate value through product-led growth.

NumberLinkFormatDescription1The Product-Manager ArchetypeArticleCommon goals, strengths, challenges, activities, and skills of product managers 2Product-Led Growth and UXArticle

What it means to be product-led and what actions UX can take to support a product-led user experience 

3Product-Led GrowthVideo

Clarifying Responsibilities for Collaboration 

It is ideal for product roles and UX to partner throughout product development, stay strategically aligned, and take responsibility for tasks that fall within their areas of expertise. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. One role may unknowingly do the work of another or assume it to be within (or outside) the scope of their job.

When there is confusion about responsibilities in product development, work is duplicated, teams waste time, and people get frustrated.

Use the articles and frameworks below to align role expectations and job responsibilities  so you can collaborate and maintain momentum in product development.

NumberLinkFormatDescription1UXers and Product Managers Both Say Others Intrude on Their WorkArticleNN/g research findings on role overlap, why duplicative work happens, and its effects2PM and UX Have Markedly Different Views of Their Job ResponsibilitiesArticleNN/g research findings on how product and UX roles are not always aligned on work  responsibilities3Setting UX Roles and Responsibilities in Product Development: The RACI TemplateArticle

A framework for assigning roles and responsibilities at the outset of initiatives

4RACI for UX Roles and ResponsibilitiesVideo5Successful Projects: 7 Tips for Better CollaborationVideo

How to set and manage expectations from project start to finish

6Product & UX PartnershipsVideo

Best practices for partnering through discovery, design, testing, and launch

7

Collaborating with Product Partners: 3 Tips

Video

How to share research and maintain communication with product partners

Using Roadmaps to Plan Product and UX Work

Roadmaps (and the process of roadmapping) are an area where UX and product managers can share the responsibility of planning, prioritizing, and communicating product development. By aligning these efforts with specific goals, roadmaps help orient the team around problems to solve and opportunities to explore in user research.

Roadmaps can vary in scope and focus. They might cover the work of the entire product team or just the user experience team. This flexibility helps everyone understand the big picture and efforts that shouldn't be overlooked or rushed during product development.

Use the articles and videos below to understand the process of creating and maintaining a roadmap and how various roadmap scopes can work together to plan for and keep product-development efforts on track.

NumberLinkFormatDescription1The 6 Steps to RoadmappingArticleHow to create product and UX roadmaps23 Types of Roadmaps in UX and Product DesignArticle

How roadmaps can help product managers, and UX stay strategically aligned

33 Types of RoadmapsVideo

Related Topics and Study Guides

Product managers are key strategic stakeholders. See the following articles and videos to aid in further developing relationships and establishing collaborative product-development practices.

NumberLinkFormatDescription1UX Stakeholders: Study GuideArticleHow to involve stakeholders in research and build buy-in for UX2UX Strategy: Study GuideArticleHow to create a product vision, define goals, and make a plan for how to get there3Lean UX & Agile: Study GuideArticleLean methods for iterative product improvement4Minimize Design Risk by Focusing on Outcomes, Not FeaturesArticle5 steps for moving from outputs to outcomes – a first step in working productively with product managers5Outcomes Over OutputsVideo