Crafting a CV that effectively showcases your diverse range of skills and innovative projects is a common challenge for a product designer. Our guide provides tailored advice on structure and content to help you highlight your design expertise and professional achievements, ensuring your application stands out to potential employers.
- Design and format your professional product designer CV;
- Curate your key contact information, skills, and achievements throughout your CV sections;
- Ensure your profile stays competitive by studying other industry-leading product designer CVs;
- Create a great CV even if you happen to have less professional experience, or switching fields.
When writing your product designer CV, you may need plenty of insights from hiring managers. We have prepared industry-leading advice in the form of our relevant CV guides.
How to ensure your profile stands out with your product designer CV format
It's sort of a Catch 22. You want your product designer CV to stand out amongst a pile of candidate profiles, yet you don't want it to be too over the top that it's unreadable. Where is the perfect balance between your CV format simple, while using it to shift the focus to what matters most. That is - your expertise. When creating your product designer CV:- list your experience in the reverse chronological order - starting with your latest roles;
- include a header with your professional contact information and - optionally - your photograph;
- organise vital and relevant CV sections - e.g. your experience, skills, summary/ objective, education - closer to the top;
- use no more than two pages to illustrate your professional expertise;
- format your information using plenty of white space and standard (2.54 cm) margins, with colours to accent key information.
Once you've completed your information, export your product designer CV in PDF, as this format is more likely to stay intact when read by the Applicant Tracker System or the ATS. A few words of advice about the ATS - or the software used to assess your profile:
- Generic fonts, e.g. Arial and Times New Roman, are ATS-compliant, yet many candidates stick with these safe choices. Ensure your CV stands out by using a more modern, and simple, fonts like Lato, Exo 2, Volkhov;
- All serif and sans-serif fonts are ATS-friendly. Avoid the likes of fancy decorative or script typography, as this may render your information to be illegible;
- Both single- and double-column formatted CVs could be assessed by the ATS;
- Integrating simple infographics, icons, and charts across your CV won't hurt your chances during the ATS assessment.
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For certain fields, consider including infographics or visual elements to represent skills or achievements, but ensure they are simple, professional, and enhance rather than clutter the information.
The top sections on a product designer CV
- Profile Summary: Short intro to catch interest and highlight key skills.
- Design Portfolio: Showcase of your best work, crucial for visual assessment.
- Technical Skills: Emphasise software and tools expertise relevant to design.
- Work Experience: Focus on design-specific roles and contributions made.
- Educational Background: Degree information, particularly in design-related fields.
What recruiters value on your CV:
- Emphasise your design process by illustrating how you identify user needs, create wireframes, prototype, and conduct usability testing, providing context for how your design decisions improved the end product.
- Highlight specific design skills like proficiency in design and prototyping software (e.g., Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD), along with any knowledge of HTML/CSS or other front-end technologies if applicable.
- Showcase your problem-solving skills by including case studies or portfolio links that demonstrate your ability to tackle complex design challenges and deliver user-centric solutions.
- Include quantitative results where possible, such as how your designs increased user engagement or improved conversion rates, to provide concrete evidence of your impact on business objectives.
- Mention any cross-functional collaboration experience by detailing projects where you have worked closely with product managers, developers, and other stakeholders to ensure a cohesive product strategy and user experience.
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Our checklist for the must-have information in your product designer CV header
Right at the very top of your product designer CV is where you'd find the header section or the space for your contact details, headline, and professional photo. Wondering how to present your the name of the city you live in and the country abbreviation as your address;
- are tailored to the role you're applying for by integrating key job skills and requirements;
- showcase what your unique value is, most often in the form of your most noteworthy accomplishment;
- select your relevant qualifications, skills, or current role to pass the Applicant Tracker System (ATS) assessment. Still not sure how to write your CV headline? Our examples below showcase best practices on creating effective headlines:
Examples of good CV headlines for product designer:
- Lead Product Designer | UX/UI Expertise | Design Thinking Proponent | Certified Agile PM | 10+ Years Exp.
- Senior Product Designer | Specialising in Tech Innovation | Interaction Design | IDEO Design Certification | 8 Years Exp.
- Product Design Manager | Strategic Design Solutions | User-Centric Focus | MA in Design | 5 Years Leadership
- Creative Product Designer | Brand Development & Identity | Rapid Prototyping | Adobe Certified Expert | 6 Years Practice
- Junior Product Designer | Fresh Perspectives in UI/UX | Bachelor in Industrial Design | 2 Years Professional Experience
- Expert Product Designer | IoT & Wearables Specialist | Human Factors | Chartered Society of Designers | 12 Years Exp.
Choosing your opening statement: a product designer CV summary or objective
At the top one third of your CV, you have the chance to make a more personable impression on recruiters by selecting between:
- Summary - or those three to five sentences that you use to show your greatest achievements. Use the CV summary if you happen to have plenty of relevant experience and wish to highlight your greatest successes;
- Objective - provides you with up to five sentences to state your professional aims and mission in the company you're applying for
CV summaries for a product designer job:
- With over 8 years of dedicated experience in consumer electronics design at a leading tech firm in London, I possess a deep understanding of user-centred design principles, agile methodology, and material innovation. I spearheaded the team that developed the award-winning ergonomic smartwatch design that saw a 150% increase in user adoption.
- As a seasoned creative from the high-end furniture design industry, I bring 10 years of experience translating client visions into beautiful and functional pieces. Holding a patent for a modular sofa system, my transition into product design is fuelled by a passion for crafting user experiences that blend form and function seamlessly.
- Boasting a decade of expertise in graphic design and branding for a prominent marketing agency in Manchester, my pivot to product design is underpinned by a talent for visual storytelling and an intrinsic understanding of the user journey. Awarded for creating a viral brand campaign which resulted in a 200% ROI, I aim to transfer my skills to tangible user-centric products.
- Culminating 5 years of experience in UX/UI design for a renowned software developer in Edinburgh, I excel in user research, prototype testing, and cross-functional team leadership. I am proud to have led the design of an intuitive interface for a finance app that increased customer retention by 30% within its first year.
- Passionate about entering the product design industry, I bring a fresh perspective, a relentless drive to learn, and an unwavering commitment to consumer satisfaction. Eager to merge my rapid prototyping skills and a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Design from the University of Leeds with the practicalities of creating market-responsive products.
- Determined to embark on a career in product design, I am a recent graduate with a Master’s in Design Innovation from the Glasgow School of Art. Keen to leverage my theoretical knowledge in human-centered design, coupled with my enthusiasm for sustainable material research, to create products that resonate with users and contribute to a greener future.
The best formula for your product designer CV experience section
The CV experience section is the space where many candidates go wrong by merely listing their work history and duties. Don't do that. Instead, use the job description to better understand what matters most for the role and integrate these keywords across your CV. Thus, you should focus on:
- showcasing your accomplishments to hint that you're results-oriented;
- highlighting your skill set by integrating job keywords, technologies, and transferrable skills in your experience bullets;
- listing your roles in reverse chronological order, starting with the latest and most senior, to hint at how you have grown your career;
- featuring metrics, in the form of percentage, numbers, etc. to make your success more tangible.
When writing each experience bullet, start with a strong, actionable verb, then follow it up with a skill, accomplishment, or metric. Use these professional examples to perfect your CV experience section:
Best practices for your CV's work experience section
- Outlined design specifications for over 30+ unique products, working closely with engineering and marketing teams to ensure feasibility and market alignment.
- Utilised advanced prototyping tools such as Sketch and InVision to create and test user interfaces, improving user experience metrics by up to 25% for three major web applications.
- Led a cross-functional team in the agile development of a new home appliance product, which resulted in a 15% increase in sales revenue within the first six months post-launch.
- Implemented user-centred design methodologies in all projects, resulting in a 30% reduction in customer support queries due to improved product usability.
- Conducted comprehensive market research to identify emerging trends, informing the development of a new software tool that captured an additional 10% market share
- Collaborated with materials scientists to research and develop sustainable packaging solutions, reducing material costs by 20% while maintaining design integrity.
- Presented design concepts and prototypes at 10+ industry conferences, establishing thought leadership and contributing to a 40% brand visibility increase for the company.
- Authored three patent applications for innovative product mechanisms, demonstrating a strong ability to create proprietary solutions with potential for commercial success.
- Optimised design processes by introducing 3D printing for rapid prototyping, slashing the development timeline by 50% for time-sensitive products.
- Led the user-centred design project for a major e-commerce platform, increasing user engagement by 35% through intuitive interface redesign.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to align product design with customer needs and business goals, contributing to a 20% increase in year-over-year sales.
- Conducted comprehensive A/B testing to refine product features, reducing user churn rate by 5% within the first quarter after implementation.
- Generated innovative design solutions that enhanced functionality and aesthetics, leading to the successful launch of four new product lines.
- Facilitated user-testing sessions with over 200 participants to gather feedback on product usability, informing subsequent design iterations.
- Mentored a team of junior designers, fostering professional development and leading to a 30% improvement in team efficiency.
- Pioneered the application of sustainable materials in product designs, propelling the company towards its goal of becoming an industry leader in eco-friendly products.
- Managed the entire design process of a flagship product, which captured a 15% market share within six months of launch.
- Optimized design workflows using Agile methodologies, speeding up the product development cycle by 25%.
- Orchestrated the rebranding initiative for a suite of products, receiving the Design of the Year award from a recognised industry body.
- Enhanced UX design practices, resulting in a 40% reduction in customer support calls due to user errors.
- Developed a patented user interface element that simplified navigation and was later adopted industry-wide.
- Spearheaded the integration of VR technology into product design, creating immersive user experiences and increasing customer satisfaction ratings by 28%.
- Directed a cross-cultural design team to accommodate international market variations, leading to a 50% boost in global product adoption.
- Implemented a data-driven design approach, leveraging customer insights to guide the creative process and enhance product-market fit.
- Conceptualized and delivered a mobile application that achieved over 1 million downloads within the first year of launch.
- Employed user behaviour analytics to refine app features, which boosted average session times by over 10 minutes.
- Advocated for accessibility in design, ensuring compliance with WCAG 2.0 standards and broadening product reach to underserved populations.
- Drove the design of an award-winning wearable device that increased company market penetration by 22% in the competitive tech space.
- Established key partnerships with software developers to incorporate advanced features, elevating the user experience and outperforming rivals.
- Championed the adoption of rapid prototyping techniques, which cut down the design-to-market time by 30%, allowing for quicker response to market trends.
- Modernized user interface designs for a flagship software, enhancing the overall aesthetic and functionality and leading to a record high in client acquisitions.
- Initiated and executed a successful redesign for the company's online toolset, improving user task completion rate by 18%.
- Proactively sought feedback from users to drive continuous improvement and stay ahead of industry standards.
Writing your CV without professional experience for your first job or when switching industries
There comes a day, when applying for a job, you happen to have no relevant experience, whatsoever. Yet, you're keen on putting your name in the hat. What should you do? Candidates who part-time experience , internships, and volunteer work.
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If applicable, briefly mention a situation where things didn’t go as planned and what you learned from it, demonstrating your ability to learn and adapt.
Key product designer CV skills: what are hard skills and soft skills
Let's kick off with the basics. You know that you have to include key job requirements or skills across your CV. For starters, take individual skills from the job description and copy-paste them into your CV, when relevant. Doing so, you'll ensure you have the correct skill spelling and also pass the Applicant Tracker System (ATS) assessment. There are two types of skills you'll need to include on your CV:
- Hard skills - technical abilities that are best defined by your certificates, education, and experience. You could also use the dedicated skills section to list between ten and twelve technologies you're apt at using that match the job requirements.
- Soft skills - your personal traits and interpersonal communication skills that are a bit harder to quantify. Use various CV sections, e.g. summary, strengths, experience, to shine a spotlight on your workspace achievements, thanks to using particular soft skills.
Remember that your job-winning CV should balance both your hard and soft skills to prove your technical background, while spotlighting your personality.
Top skills for your product designer CV:
User Experience (UX) Design
User Interface (UI) Design
Wireframing and Prototyping
Interaction Design
3D Modelling
Adobe Creative Suite
Sketching and Rendering
Design Thinking
Usability Testing
Responsive Design
Creativity
Problem-solving
Collaboration
Communication
Empathy
Attention to Detail
Critical Thinking
Time Management
Adaptability
User Empathy
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If there's a noticeable gap in your skillset for the role you're applying for, mention any steps you're taking to acquire these skills, such as online courses or self-study.
Further professional qualifications for your product designer CV: education and certificates
As you're nearing the end of your product designer CV, you may wonder what else will be relevant to the role. Recruiters are keen on understanding your academic background, as it teaches you an array of hard and soft skills. Create a dedicated education section that lists your:
- applicable higher education diplomas or ones that are at a postgraduate level;
- diploma, followed up with your higher education institution and start-graduation dates;
- extracurricular activities and honours, only if you deem that recruiters will find them impressive.
Follow a similar logic when presenting your certificates. Always select ones that will support your niche expertise and hint at what it's like to work with you. Balance both technical certification with soft skills courses to answer job requirements and company values. Wondering what the most sought out certificates are for the industry? Look no further:
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Order your skills based on the relevance to the role you're applying for, ensuring the most pertinent skills catch the employer's attention first.
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Key takeaways
Write your professional product designer CV by studying and understanding what the role expectations are. You should next:
- Focus on tailoring your content to answer specific requirements by integrating advert keywords through various CV sections;
- Balance your technical know-how with your personal skills to showcase what the unique value would be of working with you;
- Ensure your CV grammar and spelling (especially of your key information and contact details) is correct;
- Write a CV summary, if your experience is relevant, and an objective, if your career ambitions are more impressive;
- Use active language by including strong, action verbs across your experience, summary/objective, achievements sections.
