Design
Design refers both to a role (the designer or design lead) and a discipline within product development. The design lead is one of the three members of the product trio, bringing user experience expertise and customer knowledge to discovery.
What is the design lead role?
The design lead works alongside the product manager and tech lead to lead discovery. Teams want to leverage all three types of knowledge and expertise throughout the discovery process, incorporating the meanings, assumptions, and conclusions that a designer might draw from customer research.
Designers are primarily interested in improving the user experience and select data through that lens during customer interactions. When interviewing customers, designers key in on usability issues—focusing on whether customers know how to use features and where they encounter friction.
How did design emerge as a discipline?
User experience design emerged in the early 2000s as a discipline focused on asking "Are we building products that customers know how to use?" Alongside this, design thinking emphasized building empathy for customers, shifting focus from stakeholder needs to customer needs.
These two trends together helped teams take a giant step forward in informing how they decide what to build.
Learn more:
- Product Discovery Basics: Everything You Need to Know
Related terms:
- Product Trio
- Continuous Discovery
- User Experience
- Design Thinking
Last Updated: October 25, 2025