Product design is the process of creating products that satisfy user needs while meeting business goals. This important, multifaceted process requires not only design skills but also the ability to conduct customer research, oversee rapid prototyping of new product ideas, and develop a marketing strategy that ensures a successful launch. An effective product design process typically includes repeated iterations in response to user feedback in order to ensure the development of profitable products with a strong product/market fit.

While product design is applicable to the development of both physical and digital goods and services, the rapidly growing market for software, websites, mobile applications, and other digital products has led to the creation of new terminology specific to product design in this area. For example, user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design is an aspect of product design that studies how customers interact with digital products, which is refined through a process of usability testing and user research.

Product designers are an important part of any tech company, with the ability to move back and forth across different stages of the product design process and incorporate user research and data along the way to improve product/market fit. Coming up with product designs that effectively solve for real customer needs is both an art and a science, and great designers use both perspectives to launch successful products. According to Glassdoor, product designers take home an average base pay of $87,923 per year.

Certainly. Coursera offers courses and Specializations spanning multiple courses on all aspects of product design for the development of both physical and digital products. You can learn about topics like UX/UI design, interaction design, and design strategy from top-ranked schools including California Institute of the Arts, University of California San Diego, University of Michigan, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Virginia, and the University of Sydney. And, with the ability to view course materials and complete coursework on a flexible schedule, learning on Coursera is a great fit for both students and mid-career professionals looking to build new skills.