"Yes, Product Management has harmed Design."

Design Thinking? Dethroned. Discovery? Repackaged. And Design? Pushed to the background by Product Management. Why? Because designers have resisted evolving and speaking the language of business for too long. For Antoine Voland-Logerais, Principal Designer at Thiga, it’s time his peers step out of their ivory tower and reclaim their strategic role.

"Discovery Discipline by Tristan Charvillat and Rémi Guyot? It’s just repackaged Design Thinking!" At the end-of-year event at Laptop, the design training center, its founder Pauline Thomas asked me what I thought of this reference book on discovery. Needless to say, my answer sparked an intense debate...

To me, the success of this method is the perfect symbol of Product Management's rise to power, the decline of Design (or at least a certain idea of Design), and the inability of some designers to reinvent themselves.

Let’s rewind a few years. In 2018, Design Thinking was at its peak, embraced by all.At Gobelins, where I train companies in this method alongside UX expert Kristina Gudim, I saw this trend explode. First, we trained consulting firms—because clients were demanding "Design Thinking and facilitation"—then large corporations, and finally public administrations. Meanwhile, Google Trends queries for this keyword skyrocketed.

From 2019 onwards, the explosion of Design Thinking ran out of steam. Google trends from this period reveal two things: a decline in search interest for Design Thinking and a simultaneous rise in searches related to Product Management and Product Design.

Product Management has harmed Design by taking over discovery. Because it’s strategic, because understanding users is intellectually stimulating, and most importantly, because it provides a greater sense of purpose. Who hasn't jumped on the discovery bandwagon in recent years? As Tristan Charvillat told me a few weeks ago: "When we launched ‘Discovery Discipline,’ I thought it would be a Trojan horse for designers because the approach combines marketing positioning and business impact with Design Thinking. I believed everyone would embrace design, giving designers a competitive edge. But in reality, it was Product Managers who rode the wave. Even today, they make up the majority of our trainees."

Two sins of pride plague Design: believing our discipline can change the world and seeing money as something dirty.

Zooming out even further, we realize that Product Management isn’t the only culprit. The methods that originally shaped the UX Designer profession have now spread across other fields (marketing, HR, etc.). In my recent work with Printemps and Shiseido, I’ve seen CRO managers and Product Owners conducting UX research. However, let’s be honest, many designers are also doing the reverse. Designers should be using Google Analytics, UX Researchers should be conducting A/B tests and CRO, and even exploring Product Management. It’s as simple as that.

As Designers, we need to step out of our ivory tower

In my view, two fundamental flaws have held Designers back: believing that Design alone can change the world, and thinking that money is inherently bad.

As a result, we’ve failed to communicate effectively with the business world—and vice versa.

In less mature organizations, the (Product) Designer is reduced to a mere "mockup provider" or a whimsical artist. We’ve set ourselves up for this. Our field is esoteric (UX Research Repository, Atomic Design, Atomic Research...) and bloated with specializations (UX Researcher, Ops Researcher, Design Ops, UX Writing). In short, where design should bring clarity, we instead allow it to complicate things. Quite ironic for a discipline meant to simplify and create meaning!

My solution is simple: we need to speak the same language. My approach has always been to use the same cultural references as my audience to steer them toward a different perspective. This is exactly what we need to do with the business world. This means familiarizing ourselves with intimidating terms (EBITDA, Opex/Capex, gross margin) and understanding ROI-driven logic.

This comes naturally to graduates from business schools or generalist engineering schools, who are much more comfortable with these concepts. According to Louis Robert, Head of Design at Epsor and former Lead Product Manager (PM): "Credibility first comes from our mastery of business challenges and constraints. Designers need to understand them better to effectively drive the design process. At Epsor, we use the term ‘conception’ instead of ‘design’ to emphasize that designers must take full accountability for this phase. For instance, we encourage designers to collaborate directly with tech teams, without relying on a PM as an intermediary. Then there’s the crucial issue of designers’ posture.", Robert continues. "Designers need to be much sharper in how they communicate. A common pitfall: too often, when presenting their work, they start by explaining the process and only reveal their recommendation at the very end. At Epsor, we push for the BLUF (‘Bottom Line Up Front’) principle: lead with the conclusion, then explain the approach."

Recently, I coached a global luxury brand on implementing a customer journey map to align teams, identify actionable opportunities, and improve CLTV across RFM segments.  It occurred to me that not all designers would be fully comfortable with concepts such as CLTV (Customer Lifetime Value) and RFM segments (Recency, Frequency, Monetary value). A customer journey map should be designer territory, yet the company originally sought a Product Manager for the role. This alone proves we aren’t being perceived as strategic drivers.

As designers we do have the ability to ask the right questions, understand the user experience holistically, and create meaning. However, reclaiming our role requires a conscious and collective effort. Designers must (re)establish themselves as visionaries and meaning-makers. This may mean adopting a more assertive stance and navigating internal politics: joining strategic conversations and getting a seat at the table,by sneaking in through the window if necessary. At Orange, the Design System was a topic presented to the Executive Committee (COMEX) to improve efficiency, consistency, and brand experience uniformity, which also strengthened collaboration with the Brand team.

As Louis put it during our conversations: "Empowering Designers in this role is in the hands of the Heads of Design. I see it as a rebalancing: we all stand to gain collectively if PMs fully lead market needs, strategy, and project scopes, while designers take charge of the design process. We must push to create this space, as it won’t happen just by asking for it."

Evolve or fade into obscurity

So, what can Product Management’s rise teach us about Design? First and foremost, it demonstrates that the disciplines that thrive are those that reach beyond their boundaries and borrow from adjacent fields. Design is often praised as an interdisciplinary field (drawing from psychology, sociology, and ergonomics), yet we’ve neglected marketing, sales, and—most crucially—internal politics.

Our job is to align user needs with business objectives, particularly in large organizations. This conviction shines through when speaking with leaders like Sophie Martins Muto at Leroy Merlin or Emilie Sarran at Schneider Electric. Now, it’s up to us to spread this message within the French-speaking design community and support designers on this journey.

My prediction? The market will continue favoring “all-around” profiles (a.k.a. T-Shaped designers).

1. Economic conditions in 2025 and beyond = lower budgets = simplifying organizations for greater efficiency (which means fewer specialists) = the need for versatility.
2. AI tools will drive massive productivity gains, making adaptability even more essential.

We can expect Product roles to merge in the near future. AI and intelligent agents will allow Product professionals to wear multiple hats—those of Product Manager,Designer, and even Developer. The future points towards the rise of the “Product Builder.” This is also the only way to break free from an increasingly rigid and siloed approach. And who knows, maybe one day Product Managers will say: "Yes, Design has harmed Product Management."

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