The Best Articles in Product Design
The most useful articles and videos in Product Design from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Product Design Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved in Product Design by Refind users in 2023 so far.
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
The ultimate guide to OKRs | Christina Wodtke (Stanford)
Christina Wodtke is an author, Stanford University professor, and speaker who teaches strategies for building high-performing teams. She’s also the author of...
An inside look at how Figma builds product
Yuhki Yamashita is Chief Product Officer at Figma. Prior to Figma, he was Head of Design of Uber’s New Mobility efforts, and before that a product manager at...
Behind the scenes of Calendly’s rapid growth
Annie Pearl is the Chief Product Officer at Calendly. Previously, she was Chief Product Officer at Glassdoor, as well as Director of Product Management at Bo...
Career frameworks, A/B testing, onboarding tips, selling to engineers
Laura Schaffer is the brand-new VP of Growth at Amplitude. Prior to this role, she spent over 10 years leading product management and growth teams at Twilio,...
Thinking beyond frameworks | Casey Winters (Pinterest, Eventbrite, Airbnb, Tinder, Reddit, Grubhub)
Casey Winters is a longtime and legendary advisor and operator. He’s worked with companies like Airbnb, Faire, Canva, Whatnot, Thumbtack, Tinder, and Reddit ...
What is ...?
New to Product Design? These articles make an excellent introduction.
What is Product Led Growth? How to Build a Software Company in the End User Era
What is product led growth? Blake Bartlett explains the latest to-go-market strategy, how we got here and why the end user is now the most powerful buyer.
What is information architecture? Structuring content for maximum value
Information architecture ensures content and data is structured, organized, and categorized in an effective and usable way, thereby maximizing the value of your websites and applications.
«Information architecture is a discipline focused on structuring, organizing, and categorizing content and data in an effective and usable way, largely for websites and applications.»
A beginner’s guide to guerrilla research
This is the user research method that even the most budget-conscious stakeholders can get behind.
What is Good Product Strategy?
“What is your Product Strategy? YOU NEED A STRATEGY.” When I replay this scene in my head, I can hear the CTO very audibly yelling (slash pleading) with our product team. He was on edge. We had been experimenting towards a very concrete goal for two months, and had made a lot of progress. We had lea
«Most companies fall into the trap of thinking about Product Strategy as a plan to build certain features and capabilities.»
What is Product Design?
This frequently misunderstood field is in need of a proper definition.
How to ...?
How to Create a Voice of the Customer Program
8 tips from product leaders at Figma, Etsy, Google, and more.
«Customers are genuinely happy to see their feedback incorporated into a company's product roadmap. Retention increases, loyalty increases, and NPS scores generally go up.»
How to Create a Product Content Strategy
Developing a product content strategy means product managers, designers and UX content writers working closely together.
How To Navigate Product Management Specializations
In the tech world, the Design, Engineering, Marketing, and Sales functions have each had specialities for years. But, Product Management has not yet defined specialities . This leads people to think a…
How to Draw a Wireframe (Even if You Can’t Draw)
Even people with limited drawing abilities can learn to sketch a wireframe if they learn a few common conventions used to represent various design elements.
«Use physical constraints to prevent obsessing over tiny aesthetic details: Thick pens or sharpies Time boxing Limited space for the sketch»
How To Design a Bulletproof Product Strategy
Anytime a company consistently ships product faster than the average, people will assume they are doing something heroic.
«Great product companies have four things in common: a clear product vision; a product strategy; a set of priorities; and a way to measure outcomes.»
Trending
These links are currently making the rounds in Product Design on Refind.
You Can't Hack Product Positioning
Why positioning determines victors in SaaS and AI.
“That little island changes everything”
How we designed Lyft Live Activities to elevate the rider experience
Intelligent interfaces of the future
Making things that think.
How to Pivot and Succeed as a Solo Non-Technical Founder
Alma founder and CEO Harry Ritter sits down with First Round partner Todd Jackson to tell the story of how he tackled a huge pandemic pivot that turned his initial startup idea on its head and found…
How Figma draws inspiration from the gaming world
The parallels between Figma's technical challenges and those in the gaming world
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles in Product Design—all under 10 minutes.
Removing uncertainty: the tip of the iceberg
We build mountains underwater so that others can see the tip of the iceberg. To keep momentum, we must continually reduce uncertainty.
«This is because the more uncertainty that you reduce, the more predictability that you gain, and the closer that you get to your goal.»
User Journeys vs. User Flows
User journeys and user flows both describe processes users go through in order to accomplish their goals. While both tools are useful for planning and evaluating experience, they differ in scope,…
The Psychology Behind Loom's Explosive Growth
Learn the 7 psychology principles that helped Loom to grow from zero to tech unicorn in record time.
Design Psychology: 4 Principles That Empower Designers
You might not know it yet, but you beautiful designer, have an almighty power in your hands: the power of Design Psychology
“Design first, then build”: let’s bury this myth forevermore—Martian Chronicles, Evil Martians’ team blog
Waiting to build your mobile or web app after all the mockups and designs are complete is an increasingly obsolete model. Let’s present an alternative that we've used to great success.
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles in Product Design.
Intercom on Product: How ChatGPT changed everything
Listen to our Co-founder Des Traynor and Director of Machine Learning Fergal Reid discuss the implications of ChatGPT on tech and customer support.
Behind-the-Design: Meet Copilot
When the system is the product; on crafting the next generation of user experiences
Why do they ignore my awesome design documentation?
Creating a live environment, not a cemetery of ideas
«People tend to ignore documentation created in isolation from them, without their involvement and feedback.»
Designing in the age of ChatGPT
Disruption, opportunities, and the evolving role of design.
Sweat the Details - Lessons for Mapping Out a Career in Product
Veteran product leader Jiaona Zhang walks us through the biggest lessons from her entire career in product at Dropbox, Airbnb, WeWork and now Webflow, from breaking into the function as a first-time…
Thought Leaders
We monitor hundreds of thought leaders, influencers, and newsletters in Product Design, including:

zeldman
Author. Designer. Web Standards Godfather. Employer Brand at @Automattic. Publisher @AListApart + @ABookApart. Ava’s dad. Pete’s brother. He/him.
Joel Spolsky
co-founder of Fog Creek, Trello, Stack Overflow, Glitch, and http://HASH.ai - I have moved to @spolsky@blackrock.city on mastodon
Jason Fried
Founder & (sometimes) CEO at 37signals (makers of Basecamp and HEY). Non-serial entrepreneur, serial author. No DMs, email me at jason@hey.com.
Brad Frost
Design system consultant, web designer, speaker, writer, musician, & artist. Author of Atomic Design. Mastadon: http://mastodon.social/@brad_frost
Julie Zhuo
Building Sundial. Angel investor. Former Design VP @ FB. Author of "The Making of a Manager" http://amzn.to/2PRwCyW. Obsessed with systems. Design + data person.
Publications
We monitor hundreds of publications, blogs, newsletters, and news sources in Product Design, including:
UX Collective
Curated stories on user experience, usability, and product design. By @fabriciot and @caioab.
Lenny Rachitsky
👋 Newsletter http://LennysNewsletter.com | Podcast: http://LennysPodcast.com | Jobs: http://LennysJobs.com | Investing: http://LennyRachitsky.com/investing
Nielsen Norman Group
User advocates offering evidence-based user experience (UX) research, training, consulting. Jakob Nielsen, Don Norman, Tog, and colleagues.
Growth.Design
🧠 Product tips in a comic book format. (by @DanBenoni & @LouisXavierL)
a16z
we invest in software eating the world http://a16z.com/portfolio/ http://a16z.com/podcasts/ Check out our AI Canon: https://a16z.com/2023/05/25/ai-canon/
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Which sources does Refind monitor in Product Design?
We monitor hundreds of sources in Product Design, including UX Collective, Lenny Rachitsky, Nielsen Norman Group, Growth.Design, a16z, and many more.
Who are the thought leaders in Product Design?
We follow dozens of thought leaders in Product Design, including zeldman, Joel Spolsky, Jason Fried, Brad Frost, Julie Zhuo.
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