It’s weird and wonderful how often we ask this question—and how the answers keep changing.

Design is interpreted in countless ways, and the meaning often depends on who you ask and when you ask them.

To me, design means making plans before you act.

Product design is about defining, validating, and solving real problems.

Using a variety of methods and tools, we test ideas early—through prototyping and user feedback—to reduce risk before investing heavily in development.

In short: product design helps you avoid waste and build with purpose.

Tools

Design ladder

The Design Ladder is a simple model showing how deeply design is integrated into an organisation.

Knowing where your team stands helps you grow your design maturity—and make better decisions.

Design checklist

A comprehensive tool designed to guide teams through each phase of the design process, ensuring no critical steps are overlooked.

Design process

Research

Discover insights and form hypotheses. Based on output from Evaluation.

Ideation

Generate and shape ideas. based on output from Research.

Implementation

Bring designs to life. Based on output from Ideation.

Evaluation

Gather feedback and iterate. Based on output from Implementation.

Materials

Resources

A curated collection of articles, tools, and references that inspire and inform the design process.

Frameworks

A collection of design methods and models—each explained with how it works and why it matters in product design.

<aside>

profile.png

Contact

Whether you have a question, a collaboration in mind, or just want to say hello—I'd love to hear from you. The best way to reach me is via email at mailto:[email protected].

You can also find me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/olaf-muller/. Looking forward to connecting!


Olaf Muller

↪︎ Resume

↪︎

↪︎ Slides

Product design

↪︎ Import Apr 7, 2025

↪︎

↪︎ Research

↪︎ Ideation

↪︎ Implementation

↪︎ Evaluation

↪︎

↪︎

Other stuff

↪︎

↪︎

↪︎

↪︎

</aside>