What does a product development designer do?
Product development designer responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real product development designer resumes:
- Develop marketing and brand awareness initiatives through social media outlets; create and manage company Facebook and Houzz profiles.
- Maintain schedule relating to sketch hand off, cutting, sewing to insure timely product development
- Coordinate the sample development with various Italian factories, from initial sketch to fit sample.
- Develop requirements, authoring functional specifications, support QA and lead teams that cross functional and organizational boundaries
- Lead Sr. drafter/designer for new vehicle design during document/model development leading to production.
- Generate 3D modeling for valves, tubes and bearings with CATIA.
- Design various models of wheel axle in CATIA by varying the chamfer, taper angles of the axles and using uniformdiameter.
- Create cut paths for CNC machine parts used in architecture, trade show displays, and industrial tools.
- Gain proficiency with Pro/Engineer - Windchill 10.0 and Creo.
- Design parts, components and systems in steel and injection mold plastic using SolidWorks, SolidEdge and Creo.
Product development designer skills and personality traits
We calculated that 15% of Product Development Designers are proficient in Sketch, CAD, and R. They’re also known for soft skills such as Mechanical skills, Problem-solving skills, and Artistic ability.
We break down the percentage of Product Development Designers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Sketch, 15%
Interpreted and drafted women s swimwear from designer s first sketch.
- CAD, 10%
Initiate Sample requests, Prepare CAD and detail sketches for tech packs, communicate daily with customers and with overseas factories
- R, 6%
Helped engineering stall design the Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier.
- Tech Packs, 6%
Create tech packs and communicate effectively with overseas mills throughout development process.
- Graphic Design, 5%
Provide graphic designs for silk screen printing to Printing Section using Adobe Illustrator CS6.
- Solidworks, 4%
Create, modify and release models, drawings and assembly using SOLIDWORKS and SOLIDWORKS PDM.
Most product development designers use their skills in "sketch," "cad," and "r" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential product development designer responsibilities here:
Mechanical skills. The most essential soft skill for a product development designer to carry out their responsibilities is mechanical skills. This skill is important for the role because "industrial designers must understand how products are engineered, at least for the types of products that they design." Additionally, a product development designer resume shows how their duties depend on mechanical skills: "assist scientists with mechanical testing of medical devices. "
Problem-solving skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling product development designer duties is problem-solving skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "industrial designers determine the need, size, and cost of a product; anticipate production issues; develop alternatives; evaluate options; and implement solutions." According to a product development designer resume, here's how product development designers can utilize problem-solving skills in their job responsibilities: "write backend javascript using nodejs to convert documents into json files for output to algolia, a search engine solution software. "
Artistic ability. This is an important skill for product development designers to perform their duties. For an example of how product development designer responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "industrial designers sketch their initial design ideas, which are used later to create prototypes." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a product development designer: "created color story boards skills used adobe illustrator & photoshop microsoft programs styling trend research & forecasting great eye for color artistic".
Computer skills. For certain product development designer responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "computer skills." The day-to-day duties of a product development designer rely on this skill, as "industrial designers use computer-aided design software to develop their designs and create prototypes." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what product development designers do: "developed artwork for computer embroidery and appliqu work. "
Analytical skills. Another common skill required for product development designer responsibilities is "analytical skills." This skill comes up in the duties of product development designers all the time, as "industrial designers use logic or reasoning skills to study consumers and recognize the need for new products." An excerpt from a real product development designer resume shows how this skill is central to what a product development designer does: "create, document, and update development reporting and progress data on all product development. "
Creativity. Another skill commonly found on product development designer job descriptions is "creativity." It can come up quite often in product development designer duties, since "industrial designers must be innovative in their designs and the ways in which they integrate existing technologies into their new product." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day product development designer responsibilities: "worked closely with creative design teams and graphic designers to devise product catalogs and corporate website. "
The three companies that hire the most product development designers are:
- DoorDash4 product development designers jobs
- Stripe3 product development designers jobs
- Gillette
2 product development designers jobs
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Compare different product development designers
Product development designer vs. Inventor
A designer is someone who creates a master plan of the look or workings of something before it will be made. It could be tangible or intangible objects, products, procedures, laws, events, games, graphics, services, and even experiences. Designers are creative thinkers with a great eye to configure the skeletal and structural properties of the targeted output. They work in several fields, such as fashion, architecture, web graphics, and user experience. In spite of the variety of professionals in the design industry, all of them are artistic, passionate, inspiring, and emotionally connected to their projects and brands.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, product development designer responsibilities require skills like "sketch," "tech packs," "graphic design," and "market trends." Meanwhile a typical inventor has skills in areas such as "reverse engineering," "prototype," "revit," and "product concepts." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
On average, inventors reach higher levels of education than product development designers. Inventors are 5.5% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 4.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Product development designer vs. Color expert
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that product development designer responsibilities requires skills like "sketch," "cad," "r," and "tech packs." But a color expert might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "color theory," "skin care," "product knowledge," and "store events."
In general, color experts achieve similar levels of education than product development designers. They're 0.3% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 4.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Product development designer vs. Color adviser
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, product development designers are more likely to have skills like "sketch," "cad," "r," and "tech packs." But a color adviser is more likely to have skills like "photoshop," "color coordination," "color design," and "color selection."
Most color advisers achieve a similar degree level compared to product development designers. For example, they're 3.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Product development designer vs. Designer
Even though a few skill sets overlap between product development designers and designers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a product development designer might have more use for skills like "cad," "design software," "market trends," and "apparel." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of designers require skills like "customer service," "html css," "revit," and "adobe photoshop. "
In general, designers earn the most working in the technology industry, with an average salary of $87,754. The highest-paying industry for a product development designer is the health care industry.designers reach similar levels of education compared to product development designers, in general. The difference is that they're 2.6% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.7% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of product development designer
Updated January 8, 2025
