What Product Design Is Actually Like (It's Not What Social Media Tells You)

In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick talk about the actual day-to-day of being a product designer and how it is very different from what social media tells you.

One's an in-house designer while the other is a freelancer. Both have over a decade of on-the-job design experience. Together, they discuss how AI creates overlap between design, product, and engineering, and why good design often looks like you're doing nothing at all.

They also share what real design-client collaboration looks like, how to stay strategic without losing your momentum, and what to do when your best design work gets shelved by stakeholders.

Here's what's on the table in the rest of the episode.

🔸 What your job actually is as a product designer
🔸 The hidden work behind design decisions
🔸 How to collaborate across product, design, and engineering
🔸 Why most “bad design” is just the result of unclear priorities
🔸 The myth of pixel-perfect design in real teams
🔸 How to handle feedback from non-design stakeholders
🔸 What separates strategic designers from execution-only roles
🔸 How to protect your energy and sanity as a designer

📢 Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast!
👋 More about Tyler and Nick