How To Shape Your Brand’s Narratives Across Different Digital Media Touch-Points
November 12, 2024Imagine this: you’re a pro at prototyping, wireframing, and using all the latest design tools, but when it’s time to present your work, you struggle to communicate your ideas or present your designs clearly during team reviews.
How effective would that make you as a product designer? While we often emphasize hard skills like research, prototyping, wireframing, product direction and strategy, soft skills are essential in creating a balanced, impactful designer.
So, are soft skills really necessary? Let’s explore that together!
What Are Soft Skills?
Soft skills are the qualities that help us get along with people and fit well within a team, they are personal attributes that allow you to connect, communicate, and collaborate well with others—they are just as crucial as hard (technical) skills.
They influence how effectively you interact with team members, adapt to environments, and build solid work relationships. They’re often less quantifiable than hard skills but are just as important for creating a productive, harmonious work environment. Unlike hard skills that you can list and measure, soft skills develop over time through personal experience and social interactions.
They’re often assessed through observations and feedback from colleagues, and they are what make it easier to bring our ideas to life with others.
We often overlook soft skills because they aren’t as easy to quantify, test, or evaluate as hard skills. But just because they’re harder to measure doesn’t make them any less important. Balancing both hard and soft skills is key to becoming a well-rounded product designer. Imagine you’re great with Figma and prototyping, but every time there’s feedback, you get defensive. Or maybe your research skills are exceptional, but you find it challenging to manage time or communicate smoothly with the team. The result? It becomes difficult to work effectively or meet deadlines. Mastering soft skills could make your job smoother and more enjoyable.
Let’s dive into some essential ones
1. Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence (or EI) sounds fancy, but really, it’s about understanding our own emotions and the emotions of others. Ever had one of those days where a project’s dragging on, and you feel the tension creeping up? EI helps us spot that stress early and handle it calmly instead of letting it build up. When we’re aware of our emotions, we’re less likely to snap at others or make quick decisions we might regret.
When you feel frustrated, being aware of it helps you avoid reacting impulsively or lashing out at colleagues.
Emotional intelligence (EI) enables you to understand the emotions of your team members and respond in ways that foster harmony and cooperation. It promotes a positive, open work environment and enhances team collaboration, helping prevent emotional outbursts and making you a stable, reliable team member. Strong emotional intelligence helps us stay calm, especially when deadlines are looming, requirements keep changing, or stakeholders have conflicting viewpoints.
Leaders with high emotional intelligence can inspire and guide their teams more effectively. They understand their team’s emotional needs, allowing them to listen, motivate, address concerns, and keep everyone focused.
2. Empathy
Empathy is a major part of what makes us great designers! Without it, we’d struggle to understand our users’ real needs. it is crucial for understanding user needs as well as for creating meaningful relationships with colleagues. This helps us connect not only with users but also with our colleagues. Empathy lets us pick up on subtle cues—like a quick sigh or a hesitant pause—that tell us how someone is feeling, even when they don’t say it outright.
For instance, if a teammate seems nervous about a new project, an empathetic response would be to ask how they’re feeling and offer support. Or during a team meeting, instead of dismissing a colleague’s concerns, an empathetic approach would involve acknowledging their feelings and addressing their points with consideration, which would lead to better outcomes. When people feel understood, they are more likely to feel emotionally supported and valued. This contributes to overall workplace happiness. The benefit of this skill to the company is that a culture of empathy encourages people to share ideas without fear of judgment, leading to more innovative and creative solutions.
3. Collaboration and Teamwork
Product design is rarely a solo endeavour; you can’t do it all alone. Creating a product involves working with a variety of teams—developers, product managers, marketers, and stakeholders, to ensure the product meets both user needs and business goals.
A designer who values collaboration will seek input from others, and make sure the design fits with the overall product vision. Being able to collaborate and work in a cross-functional team is very important for a designer.
A designer working on a new feature needs to collaborate with developers to understand technical constraints and product managers to ensure the design fits into the overall product strategy.
A designer might help troubleshoot issues during product development, even if the problem isn’t directly related to the design, because they understand the importance of collective team success. A designer collaborating with a customer support team might gain insights into recurring user complaints, which can help inform more empathetic and effective design solutions.
Collaboration with team members, which includes brainstorming sessions with other designers, developers, or even non-designers can lead to creative breakthroughs that a designer might not have arrived at independently.
4. Communication
If there’s one soft skill that gets the most talked about, it’s communication. It’s not enough to create an amazing design; we also need to explain the thinking behind it. Good communication skills help us share our design ideas and choices effectively with the team.
Imagine you’re presenting a new feature—you’d need to articulate how it improves the user experience and aligns with business goals.
Communication also includes writing, whether it’s documenting a design for developers or updating stakeholders on project progress. Being clear and concise helps everyone understand the design intent and keeps projects moving forward without confusion.
5. Active Listening
This skill might seem simple, but it’s a game-changer. Active listening isn’t just about hearing words; it’s about fully understanding what the person is trying to convey. In user research, for instance, active listening allows us to pick up on pain points that users might not express directly.
When we listen closely, we get to the heart of users’ frustrations, which can be incredibly valuable for our designs. The same goes for team feedback. Say you’re working with developers on a challenging feature; by actively listening to their concerns, you can adapt your designs to fit technical constraints and make the whole process smoother for everyone.
When designers and developers actively communicate and listen to each other, it significantly reduces development delays. A design lead who genuinely listens to their team’s concerns and ideas can offer clearer guidance, make more informed design decisions, and foster greater team engagement and collaboration.
6. Positivity and Encouragement
Positivity is a little thing that can make a big difference, especially in a collaborative environment. Design projects often involve long, iterative processes, and keeping spirits up is essential.
A designer who actively encourages and praises teammates can build a collaborative culture where everyone feels safe sharing ideas and feedback. In tough project phases, sharing small wins and celebrating progress can lift spirits.
Keeping a positive outlook helps everyone stay resilient and focused on finding solutions rather than dwelling on setbacks.
7. Giving and Receiving Feedback
Let’s face it: feedback can be tough to give and even tougher to take, but both are essential for growth, teamwork, and a successful design process.
After presenting your design or during reviews, be open and actively encourage feedback from your team, whether it’s from developers, product managers, or other designers.
Avoid getting overly attached to your design—remaining open to feedback helps you uncover new perspectives, identify blind spots, and ultimately improve your work.
And when it’s your turn to give feedback, remember to keep it supportive and tailored to the person’s experience level. For example, if you’re working with a junior designer, focus on guiding them through improvements instead of just pointing out errors.
Empathy goes a long way here—being clear and constructive makes feedback easier to absorb and act on. Instead of vague critiques like, “This design doesn’t work,” try a helpful suggestion: “This section feels a bit cluttered. Maybe we could simplify it by reducing elements or rearranging them?” This way, you’re offering a solution rather than just pointing out an issue.
Feedback is a natural part of the design process. Designers who embrace it as a tool for improving their work—rather than as criticism—develop a growth mindset that’s essential for their ongoing development and success
OMOTOLA OLATUJAYAN
Omotola Olatujayan is a Product Designer, Design Strategist, User Experience & User Interface Designer.
Omotola is passionate about using her creative thinking ability and design knowledge to help brands make successful products by creating aesthetic and usable digital solutions, designing experiences that make people’s lives easier while blending user needs with business goals.
