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Design, Media, and Writing - Careers

Design, Media, and Writing

Design, Media, and Writing | Product Designer

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 232 Product Designer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 8187 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 $102,588.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $87,152.

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 $72,695.

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 LevelPercentage
Associate's Degree0%
Bachelor's Degree42.2%
Master's Degree12.62%
Doctoral Degree0.84%
Other3.1%

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 ExperiencePercentage
0 to 2 years13.49%
3 to 5 years54.69%
6 to 8 years27.2%
9+ years4.62%

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.

  • Communication (47.56%)
  • Research (45.29%)
  • Innovation (22.33%)
  • Leadership (19.62%)
  • Advocacy (18.55%)
  • Presentations (16.84%)
  • Detail Oriented (15.34%)
  • Influencing Skills (14.68%)
  • Problem Solving (14.39%)
  • Ideation (11.91%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

  • UI/UX Research (6.5%)
  • Figma (Design Software) (52.39%)
  • Visual Design (34.31%)
  • User Research (37.58%)
  • User Experience (UX) Design (22.6%)
  • Prototyping (59.89%)
  • Interaction Design (27.6%)
  • Wireframing (30.35%)
  • Product Design (87.25%)
  • Usability Testing (23.37%)
  • User Experience (UX) (53.08%)
  • User Interface (UI) (20%)
  • User Flows (20.43%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

  • Workflow Management (14.13%)
  • Typography (13.96%)
  • Agile Methodology (17.94%)
  • Adobe Photoshop (8.28%)
  • Business To Business (5.47%)
  • HyperText Markup Language (HTML) (11.11%)
  • Adobe Illustrator (8.43%)
  • Adobe Creative Suite (12.41%)
  • Apple IOS (8.96%)
  • Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) (11.1%)
  • Software As A Service (SaaS) (5.87%)
  • Computer Science (9.1%)
  • Design Thinking (11.87%)
  • Marketing (16.16%)
  • User Interface (UI) Design (16.85%)
  • Product Management (21.72%)
  • Responsive Web Design (7.95%)
  • Information Architecture (11.94%)
  • Design Elements And Principles (8.47%)
  • User-Centered Design (19.5%)
  • Design Strategies (6.38%)
  • Graphic Design (11.67%)
  • Product Strategy (9.27%)
  • Project Management (10.17%)
  • New Product Development (24.73%)
  • Usability (20.33%)
  • Front End (Software Engineering) (4.39%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

  • Iconography (4.18%)
  • Motion Graphic Design (5.81%)
  • Pixel Perfect (3.81%)
  • Mobile Application Design (3.07%)

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) (67.29%)
  • Iconography (5.37%)
  • Visual Design (44.07%)
  • User Research (48.26%)
  • User Experience (UX) Design (29.02%)
  • Interaction Design (35.45%)
  • Wireframing (38.98%)
  • User Flows (26.23%)

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
  • Experience Designer
  • Principal Product Manager
  • Lead System Designer
  • Designer
  • Content Designer
  • Digital Product Designer
  • Visual Product Designer
  • Sustainability Coordinator

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 (254)
  • Ford (202)
  • Pearson Education (169)
  • Recruiting From Scratch (156)
  • Ryder (112)
  • Cardinal Health (108)
  • Windstream (79)
  • Navient (72)
  • Motion Recruitment (71)
  • Anywhere Real Estate (68)

North Carolina

  • Red Ventures (17)
  • Wells Fargo (14)
  • Lowe's (10)
  • Robert Half (8)
  • Allegis Group (7)
  • TEKsystems (6)
  • Epic Games (6)
  • Kellton (6)
  • Kforce (5)
  • Recruiting From Scratch (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!