Product Designer
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Product Designer is responsible for the design of a new product, or redesign of an existing product. Responsible for the aesthetics of the product but also designing how it will work, defining the problem and solving it. May be responsible for producing low-fidelity mock ups, prototypes for validation through user testing and crafting the final product accordingly.
Job Outlook
There were 230 Product Designer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 8310 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Industrial Designer industry, which includes the Product Designer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Product Designer jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $98,464.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $98,837.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Product Designer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $70,183.
Education and Experience
Posted Product Designer jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 37.99% |
| Master's Degree | 10.9% |
| Doctoral Degree | 1.95% |
| Other | 2.91% |
Posted Product Designer jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 14.81% |
| 3 to 5 years | 54.81% |
| 6 to 8 years | 24.54% |
| 9+ years | 5.83% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Product Designer positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Research (48.83%)
- Communication (44.75%)
- Innovation (20.81%)
- Leadership (20.07%)
- Advocacy (17.69%)
- Presentations (16.2%)
- Detail Oriented (14.51%)
- Problem Solving (13.63%)
- Influencing Skills (12.55%)
- Ideation (12.42%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Visual Design (31.93%)
- Figma (Design Software) (48.38%)
- User Research (33.45%)
- Interaction Design (24.56%)
- User Interface (UI) (20.85%)
- User Experience (UX) (50.34%)
- Wireframing (29.09%)
- Prototyping (55.42%)
- Product Design (86.77%)
- User Flows (17.58%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Workflow Management (12.04%)
- Industrial Design (4.37%)
- Typography (13.7%)
- Adobe Illustrator (9.74%)
- Agile Methodology (17.53%)
- UI/UX Research (5.88%)
- User Experience (UX) Design (22.94%)
- Business To Business (6.23%)
- Apple IOS (9.11%)
- Adobe Photoshop (8.72%)
- HyperText Markup Language (HTML) (10.63%)
- Software As A Service (SaaS) (6.12%)
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) (10.5%)
- Design Elements And Principles (7.76%)
- Product Management (22.36%)
- Design Thinking (12.48%)
- User Interface (UI) Design (15.58%)
- Adobe Creative Suite (12.35%)
- Information Architecture (9.98%)
- Design Strategies (6.1%)
- Marketing (17.69%)
- Project Management (8.95%)
- New Product Development (22.45%)
- User-Centered Design (16.57%)
- Responsive Web Design (9.9%)
- Usability (18.18%)
- Graphic Design (12.94%)
- Usability Testing (21.25%)
- Product Strategy (9.02%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Iconography (4.35%)
- Motion Graphic Design (6.37%)
- Mobile Application Design (3.37%)
- Pixel Perfect (3.7%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Figma (Design Software) (59.79%)
- Iconography (5.37%)
- Visual Design (39.46%)
- User Research (41.33%)
- Interaction Design (30.35%)
- Motion Graphic Design (7.87%)
- Prototyping (68.48%)
- User Interface (UI) (25.77%)
- User Experience (UX) (62.21%)
- Wireframing (35.95%)
- User Flows (21.73%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Product Designer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Lead Product Designer
- Designer
- Principal Product Manager
- Digital Product Designer
- Lead Visual Designer
- Experience Designer
- Content Designer
- Sustainability Coordinator
- Lead System Designer
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Product Designer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Meta (260)
- Navient (214)
- Pearson Education (184)
- Ford (172)
- Motion Recruitment (158)
- Recruiting From Scratch (152)
- Aquent (93)
- Nelnet (89)
- Kforce (63)
- Ryder (60)
North Carolina
- Red Ventures (12)
- Lowe's (12)
- Wells Fargo (9)
- Allegis Group (9)
- Pearson Education (5)
- Eliassen Group (5)
- Recruiting From Scratch (4)
- Motion Recruitment (4)
- Epic Games (4)
- Spectraforce Technologies (4)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.