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.
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
An inside look at how the New York Times builds product
Alex Hardiman is Chief Product Officer at the New York Times, where she oversees the company’s news, cooking, games, audio and advertising products. Previous...
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...
How to build your product strategy stack | Ravi Mehta (Tinder, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Outpace)
Ravi was previously CPO at Tinder, Product Director at Facebook, and VP of Product at Tripadvisor. Currently, he’s co-founder and CEO of Outpace, a coaching ...
How to nail your product positioning
April Dunford is the author of the must-read best-selling book Obviously Awesome, a definitive guide to product positioning. She spent 25 years leading marke...
Product Strategy is About Saying No
Intercom's Des Traynor at Business of Software Conference 2013, Boston, MA talking about why Product strategy is mostly about saying no. Funny, thought provoking…
What is ...?
New to Product Design? These articles make an excellent introduction.
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.
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.
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 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 Build a Minimum Lovable Product (MLP)
What isthe difference between an MVP and an MLP product. If you're looking to build a minimum lovable product (MLP) check this out.
«A good way of focusing on desired outcomes is to use Teresa Torres’ Opportunity Solution Tree, from the continuous discovery framework.»
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…
Trending
These links are currently making the rounds in Product Design on Refind.
Navigating the Discovery Phase
Kicking off a big design project? Ashley shares tips and tricks for the all-important discovery phase.
Retool’s Path to Product-Market Fit
In the latest post for our new series, "Paths to Product-Market Fit," Retool founder and CEO David Hsu sits down with First Round partner Todd Jackson to share how the internal tools company…
A Product Owner Career Path
This article explains how agile product people can advance their careers, from owning a product part to becoming the head of product.
What it means to design a platform
Editor’s note: This essay was adapted from a post I wrote on an employees-only blog at Stripe. After four months of parental leave, I came back to work and noticed something different. Many of the…
Intercom's product principles: What you ship is what matters
At Intercom, when we say ‘What you ship is what matters’, we mean that our deliverable is the end product or feature that our customers use.
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles in Product Design—all under 10 minutes.
The heuristics of Neurodesign
A guide to design for the brain with intention and results.
«Neurodesign is an emerging field of design practice that accounts for how our brains are wired to create designs that promote simplicity, emote joy, and drive action»
Focus on high-leverage activities.
Leverage = impact produced / time invested. It is the ability to get more done with less effort, time or money.
«introduce the concept of leverage, which is the output generated by a specific type of work activity. An activity with high leverage will generate»
It’s visual delight that you’re looking for, not gamification
You are in a product meeting that has been going on for the entire day, and now all the discussions are almost loopy. The meeting is…
«Before we get into the full breakdown of how to look at this decision, it’s important to know one thing: Visual delight is in itself a crucial part of gamification — without it, gamification can feel watered down. Just some food for thought.»
Spotify’s Embodiment Of Emotional Design
On average, each smartphone user has 80+ apps on their phone, but only really launch around 9 apps per day. Curiously, I checked my own phone - which somehow holds 148 apps, with only 10 being used…
How Linkedin Increased Notification Opt-in Rates by 500%
This story shows the problem with most retention notifications and how Linkedin reframed their prompts to reengage 5x more users.
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.
Research vs Vision: the origin story of Sony Walkman, Mini Cooper, and the iPhone
It’s always interesting to watch how companies approach the building of their new products. During the market research phase, companies…
10 cognitive biases that shape our world
It was the “Aha” moment. You know, that feeling when you really understand something or get an idea of how to solve a problem? Have you…
The Minimum Viable Testing Process for Evaluating Startup Ideas
The traditional approach is to do some customer research, throw an MVP out there as fast as possible, and hope it hits. After being early at three startups that achieved over $1M in run-rate in their…
«In an MVP, you try to simulate the entire car. In an MVT, you are just testing whether the drivetrain is more powerful with an electric engine or a gas one.»
Design Principles: why a design works
Cognitive ease happens when there is no cognitive strain. When a design works, people experience cognitive ease.
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.
Jason Fried
Founder & CEO at 37signals (makers of Basecamp and HEY). Non-serial entrepreneur, serial author. No DMs, email me at jason@hey.com.
Joel Spolsky
co-founder of Fog Creek, Trello, Stack Overflow, Glitch, and http://HASH.ai - I have moved to @spolsky@blackrock.city on mastodon
Brad Frost
Design system consultant, web designer, speaker, writer, & musician. Author of Atomic Design. Mastadon: https://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. I love people, products and words.
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.
a16z
we invest in software eating the world http://a16z.com/portfolio/ http://a16z.com/podcasts/
Nielsen Norman Group
User advocates offering evidence-based user experience (UX) research, training, consulting. Jakob Nielsen, Don Norman, Tog, and colleagues.
Reforge
Reforge is the leading solution for advancing your career in Product and Growth.
Marty Cagan
I'm a founder and partner at Silicon Valley Product Group, former product leader at eBay, Netscape and HP. Author of INSPIRED and EMPOWERED.
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Who are the thought leaders in Product Design?
We follow dozens of thought leaders in Product Design, including zeldman, Jason Fried, Joel Spolsky, Brad Frost, Julie Zhuo.
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