Role expectations of principal product designer vs senior product designer

Our team has grown organically in the past couple of years. We have 2 senior designers, 1 mid level designer and 4 junior designers. Have been finding it difficult to find time for each of them. Senior designers who are mentoring junior designers are finding it difficult to complete their work. What’s the idea ratio between senior and junior designers in a product design team? Design managers, are you also facing similar issues? How are you working on it? Please share your thoughts and feedback.

Dear PMs and aspiring PMs Every company has its own hirerchy and designation and definition of what PO, PM, BA is and lot of ambiguity is there. Can we please share what is followed and what we know to clear some of that.. In HSBC, for some of the teams, not sure about all.. They hire for BA role, at AVP and VP level. In Agile working group role, they will be called PO. And VP+1 boss in UK or other markets would be called Product manager. In the Startup I am currently working. Role and designations are not clear. They have lead PM, they have principle PM. Generally in market lead= principal. Similarly in EY, they hire typical BA profile at senior consultant, and deploy at client site as Senior PO for some clients and senior PM for some. Let's share what you know and reduce the information assymtry.

I have 1.7 years experience. worked in 2 startups as solo product deisgners. legal tech and ed tech.Did everything from research, ui ,moodbboard,illustration, motion,... since I never had seniors just curious to know...

I joined this startup recently as a solo product designer (this is my first fte role) and i’m being payed 14lpa (12 base+2 bonus) now although the people here really like my work but I personally don’t feel like i’m learning anything new to become a better product designer. I always feel the lack of having a senior PD. How much time should i spend in this startup so that when I switch jobs i can get a decent hike as well.

Hi, i have been working outside India for the last 5 years, so am not sure of what to enter as expected salary for senior leadership roles in design. Any insights would be great!

been working at a product based startup as the only ui/ ux designer for over 6 months now. work is usually solving for and designing new features, or thinking redesign from user grievances. the products were already designed for them by an agency before my joining and feel poorly designed to me, but does the job for the users. decisions regarding usage and the how-tos of implementation are taken by the product leads. in such a scenario, i don't see myself taking product decisions, but i try to suggest my ideas (mostly accepted) when we frame the requirements and solutions. how do i grow from just largely only designing what my leads tell me, to actually making an impact with the products we have? background- i'm an electronics engineer, landed a design internship at a startup a little before graduation and they offered a full time role after. accepted it over my placement and it's been over 6 months in this role. thanks & cheers :)

In early startups specially in b2b, product designers are not designers they're rather design support. Always restricted to reach till minimum viable ux. Though whatever gets shipped at the end is better from past but power of shaping product is largely placed at PM's table and engeneering table (feasibility). Now you can avoid complaing and show high agency, partner with PM in defining Product but the default power house is still PM, not the designer. Also you don't have time for this because designs need to shipped to add to next sprint. At the end you just take a deep breath and sigh because you made something better, bit better if not far from what existed before. I guess high impact/ product definition work gets done by designer in big orgs only not only early age startups.

I myself am looking for product design roles. All I see on linkedin and other job portals is that companies only looking for Product Designer 2 candidates/mid-senior/lead designers. Even if I see any PD1 role, they ask for minimum 1 year experience (internship experience no included). I don’t understand the rationale behind it. Its getting tough now that I am looking for a job since 2 months and its tiring. Is there anyone who understands the current market trend and has an insight about when junior/entry level designers can expect jobs to reopen? Would love to get your speculations on the hiring scene of upcoming months.

Hey folks, I'm wondering what kinda role I should pursue next after product management. I'm done with this role, works vary from company to company and team to team. It's tough to make people understand the difference between pre-PMF products & mature products, and how the metrics impact vary across the spectrum. And this completely changes the equation of your appraisal or your promotion as well. I don't see myself working in the same kind of role after 5 years. So I'm wondering what kinda role I should look out for? My general interests are more analytics & strategy centric. What do you guys think??