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A product designer creates items for manufacture and sale, from consumer and household goods such as phones and kettles to cars, tools and industrial machinery. As a product designer, you work with clients and engineers, using your knowledge of materials, manufacturing and technology to improve products or create new ones.

what do product designer jobs entail?

The job of a product designer is to take the client's requirements and produce design concepts for the product. With a design team or engineering team, you create Computer Aided Design (CAD) models, which are made into prototypes for testing. You combine your creativity with your knowledge of usability and user experience, production technology, materials and budgeting to produce your designs.

what is a typical work schedule for product designers

As a product designer, you typically work in a design office. Your hours are generally Monday-to-Friday, 9-to-5, but you may work extra hours and weekends to meet deadlines. You will occasionally travel to meet clients for pitches and presentations, and there may be long periods of secondment or international travel, depending on your employer. As you develop your career, the client liaison aspect will increase. A senior designer or design director might find themself spending much more time in meetings and travel than they do in the office.

what are the pros of product designer jobs?

• Variety: Designers are in demand in every technology and manufacturing field, and you gain a very broad base of skills and experience. You can develop your career into concept design, creating the images and prototypes that a client desires. You can do production design, turning the model into a series of parts and manufacturing steps. You can specialize in user experience (UX) and work in the software industry or in streamlining the control systems for aircraft.
• Creative as well as technical: As a product designer, much of your work is to create appealing designs for the client. Your design portfolio and creative skills are significant in finding a job and building a career. The other part of your work is to realize the designs as a product that can be manufactured, working with engineering teams.
• High profile: A skilled product designer can make a name for themself in their field, especially in luxury goods such as high-performance automobiles.

what are the cons of product designer jobs?

• Client demands: As a product designer, it is your job to agree on the design specification with the client. In some cases, the client's demands might be unrealistic, and you will use your negotiation skills to balance performance and budget. The client might want to keep changing the specification, and your job is to find a solution that keeps them happy and produces a feasible design.
• Pressure: As a product designer, you have demands placed on you to deliver a design that delights the client and meets budget and deadlines. Your ability to manage your time and mental health under pressure is important, especially in higher-profile jobs.
• Gender balance: The design and manufacturing fields are, like a lot of technology jobs, skewed towards attracting and recruiting men. There are opportunities to make a name for yourself as a woman designer through programmes such as Engineers Canada.

what are common product designer interview questions?

Interview questions will vary depending on the job and the employer. Some common ones for a product designer might be:

• Why did you apply for this job? This is an opportunity to sell yourself and describe how your skills and experience are a perfect match for the employer's needs.
• How did you approach a design brief? With this question, you can show how you paid attention to a client's needs and used your skills to meet them.
• How did you solve a production challenge? Here you can demonstrate your creativity and problem-solving skills, as well as your client communication skills.

product designer resume and cover letter requirements

Your resume should include the following elements:

• Your name and contact information
• A brief outline of your skills and experience
• Your employment history
• Education, qualifications, awards and membership of professional bodies
• Expanded information about your skills and achievements, tailored to demonstrate your suitability for the job

In your cover letter you should describe how you meet the specifications of the position. You should refer to your resume and your career so far to support each point. You can also describe how your skills and career match you to the needs of the employer and how working for them would be a great step for you.

what is the job outlook for product designers?

The employment outlook in Canada for product designers is that there will be fewer jobs than applicants, as school leavers outnumber vacancies. However, there is a high demand for industrial designers, especially ones with excellent CAD skills, and the expansion of industries means that in some provinces, the job market will grow. Experienced designers are always in demand, and immediate job prospects are good in Quebec, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

You can increase your salary by specializing in a niche aspect of product design or by working as a consultant. You take the risk of a downturn in your chosen field, but with a strong portfolio and good client networks, you can build your profile.

what are the different types of product designer jobs?

Product designers work in a wide range of industries and businesses:

• Manufacturing: Large manufacturing companies can maintain their own product development departments, with design engineers as well as product designers. You can work in-house on a product line, in anything from consumer goods and white goods to automobiles and aircraft.
• Design consultancy: Other manufacturers bring designs in from outside and retain or contract design consultancies to produce new products. A large consultancy might work for many different clients, and you could find yourself producing designs for a wide variety of products.
• Freelance designer: As in a design consultancy, you can build your portfolio and networks into your own business as a consultant. To be successful, you should have an extensive range of experience or a high profile in a particular industry. Design consultants can find themselves working as product and project managers for a company or being part of the promotion campaign for a new product.
• User experience: A specialization of product design is usability. This can vary from making a kettle or shaver more ergonomic to improving the layout of a cockpit or industrial control system. UX specialists are in high demand in the software industry and web companies.

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what is the average salary for a product designer?

The average salary in Canada for product designers is $66,500, according to Payscale.com. The salary ranges from $48k - $89k depending on seniority and experience; it may be increased by bonuses and profit sharing.

average product designer salaries in canada

• annual: $66,500
• monthly: $5,542
• weekly: $1,385
• hourly: $35

Top paying areas for product designers in Canada: The average salary is significantly higher in Ottawa than in other Canadian cities.

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what are the duties and responsibilities of product designers?

As a product designer, your job includes:

• Client liaison: You meet with clients to determine the design brief. You establish the product concept and the performance, production and budget criteria. You liaise with engineers, marketing and commercial management to establish production costs, materials, processes and other commercial issues and include them in your design.
• Creative design: You produce design ideas and take them from initial drawings or CAD designs to detailed specifications, parts lists and costings. Your brief from the client might include aesthetic notes, matching or breaking with previous designs, or user workshops.
• Modelling and prototyping: you create design sketches, CAD models and physical prototypes of your design. You can use advanced computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) tools and 3D printers to create fast prototypes. You will adjust the design as the prototypes are tested by the engineering team and approved by the client.
• Research and development: You require a solid knowledge of materials and techniques to stay current in your field. A large part of your job will be continuous professional development (CPD). Your brief from the client might include using a novel technique or material to create products that move them ahead of their competitors.
• Team working: As a product designer, you are part of the production team for the product. You integrate commercial requirements with technology studies, marketing briefs and logistics, as well as the aesthetic quality of the product. You will work with all of the team members to produce a successful design.
• Project management: As a product designer, you might be the project manager of the product. As you advance in your career within a department or into consultancy, you will take on project management and team leadership roles. You are responsible for your team's output, meeting deadlines and managing budgets. You may also become a senior manager in your company or consultancy and take on commercial management responsibilities.
• Presentation: From demonstrating initial designs to gaining approval for final products, your presentations are a significant part of dealing with the client. As you take on management responsibilities, you will be called upon to present to potential clients and pitch your company's abilities.

where do product designers typically work?

Product designers typically work in a design office, either separately in a consultancy or near engineering and workshop spaces in an engineering company. You can be very hands-on when building physical models and prototypes, and working in a modelling workshop is common. You spend a significant amount of time in meetings, both with the design team and presenting to the client, and you may need to travel overnight or internationally, depending on your employer and project.

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what skills and competencies do product designers need?

• Creative ability: Your job as a product designer is to take the client's requirements and realize them as a product. Depending on the project, this can entail a more or less imaginative approach, and you use your ability to balance practicality with pleasing the client. You use your spatial and modelling skills with CAD tools or hand tools to produce models of your designs. Your artistic abilities are as much part of creating a successful design as your technical skills.
• Technical knowledge and skills: You use your technical knowledge to produce designs that meet the performance requirements of your brief and practical production needs. You require a good knowledge of the mechanical and electrical workings of the product, as well as manufacturing techniques, to work with design and production engineers.
• Commercial awareness: As a product designer, part of your job is to develop products that your client can sell. You require awareness of your industry and how products perform commercially, as well as working with promotion and commercial professionals on the product team.
• Computer and CAD / CAM skills: Modern design tools are essential to producing products and are increasing in use even in toy manufacture and luxury goods. You can sketch a model in CAD and produce the prototype on a 3D printer or a CAM lathe in a modern design workshop.
• Time and deadline management: As a product designer, you work in a product team with a set project timeline and deadlines to meet. Your part of the job entails meeting your internal deadlines and contributing to the project's progress.
• Interpersonal and liaison skills: In the product team, you depend on being able to work with your colleagues to move the project along. Your skills in resolving conflicts are as important as your technical and design problem-solving skills in this respect.
• Communication, presentation and customer service skills: Your success in product design depends on being able to understand the client's brief and maintain your relationship with them through the project. Initially, this is essential to the success of each project, but as you develop your career, you build your networks to continue getting work.

what training and certifications do product designers need?

Product designers often train at art schools. Most product designers have a college diploma, bachelor's degree, or graduate degree in a subject such as product design. Any courses that offer a design element as part of general design or technology studies would also be relevant. In addition to product design, the degree and diploma subjects might include industrial design, spatial design or 3D design. Courses with a relevant placement or with significant practical content are particularly helpful. You need a portfolio of design work when applying for jobs, so anything that helps to build this up will be useful.

Some specialized areas, such as automotive or aeronautical design, might require you to train in engineering and pursue postgraduate qualifications. There are other graduate degrees available in technical specializations such as UX and software usability design.

Your training is mainly on the job, in product knowledge, commercial experience, and new CAD / CAM developments. You will maintain your CPD with university courses, studying topics like negotiating skills, time management and project management. You might also train in business administration and other management skills.

Some product designers might become production engineers, or engineers might become product designers. 'Engineer' is a protected title in Canada and requires that you train for the Professional Engineer (PEng) certification. Engineers Canada has more detail on each province's requirements for training and certification.

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