What Product Managers Need to Know about Working with UX

When I asked a group of product managers what they wanted to know about working with UX, the answers came fast:

• When should I include UX?

• Why can’t you just give me a quick mockup?

• How can I make it easier to work together?

• How can I give better feedback?

Then I asked UXers what they wish PMs knew. The response was unanimous: “Please include us earlier.”

Both sides want the same thing: better collaboration. The key is turning those questions and frustrations into practices that make the partnership exceptional.

1. When should I include UX?

High-performing teams bring UX in early and keep us in the loop. If you’re just starting to explore an idea, that’s the time for UX to join the conversation. Reach out to your research and design partners before discovery begins so that you can plan approaches together. Waiting until you've carved requirements into epics only limits options and creates rework.

PMs sit at the center of a giant web of inputs: engineering, sales, marketing, finance, legal, leadership, customers, the works. UX sees only a slice of that picture unless we’re in the room. Equal context prevents misalignment and ensures both PM and UX are solving the same problem, not parallel ones.

Action: Loop UX into discovery, roadmap reviews, strategy sessions, and customer calls. Context is fuel for better solutions.

2. Why can’t you just give me a quick mockup?

Sketches are powerful. They spark imagination and make abstract ideas tangible. They can also carry risk when misunderstood.

• Stakeholders sometimes mistake sketches for final designs and want to commit immediately.

• Teammates can feel blindsided if they weren’t part of shaping the idea.

• Development may feel pressured to start, even though requirements and feasibility aren’t defined.

• Designers may feel reduced to “idea machines” when none of those concepts are pursued.

Quick mockups work best when everyone treats them for what they are: conversation starters, not blueprints. The real blueprint—the hi-fi design—takes more time because it addresses interactions, edge cases, accessibility, content, localization, telemetry, and technical constraints.

Action: Use sketches to explore options and build excitement. Use hi-fi designs to build. Know the difference, and you’ll get the best of both.

3. How can I make it easier to work with UX?

Define the problem. Share the outcomes you’re aiming for. Plan for user research and join the sessions yourself.

The strongest UXers bring evidence, not just opinions: recorded interviews, structured analysis, best practices, benchmarking. Our work is designed to ground decisions in data and lived experience, not instinct alone.

To unlock the full value, reciprocity matters. PMs spend a lot of time with customers, but too often those conversations aren’t shared. When UX isn’t present, half the picture is missing. The fix is simple: invite us. Or, share recordings to convey the richness of what you’re hearing. Notes alone don’t capture tone, emotion, or context.

The strongest teams—the product trio of PM, UX, and Engineering—see the same inputs, discuss them together, and solution as a unit. One of my favorite brainstorming tools for product trios is writing experience narratives together. These short stories paint a vivid picture of what it will feel like for a real person to use the product. They give the trio a shared north star that no spec sheet can replicate.

Action: Share customer inputs across the trio and create experience narratives together. Context alignment is what unlocks collaboration.

4. How can I give better design feedback?

Many PMs hesitate to give design feedback. They don’t want to overstep, dictate, or risk telling designers “what to do.” But your perspective is essential. You see business goals, customer priorities, and competitive pressures that designers may not. If something isn’t landing, we need to know.

The trick is giving feedback in a way that drives iteration instead of shutting it down. The formula is simple: state the pros and cons.

• Critique: “The dashboard highlights the right metrics (pro). But the color palette makes it hard to see which trends are positive vs. negative (con).”

• Suggestion: “What if we used directional arrows for trends? It adds a bit more visual noise (con), but the clarity gain could be huge (pro).”

This way, you're framing the problem and leaving space for design to explore, not prescribing the answer.

Action: Give feedback often. Frame it as pros and cons. Keep the conversation moving forward.

Final Word

Strong PM+UX partnerships are built through early inclusion, shared context, and feedback that fuels iteration. When PMs and UX bring their full perspective to the table, the work is sharper, the product is stronger, and customers feel the difference.