Shifting Roles

We are now in a transformational period that could be called 'Shifting roles.' Designers might code, take on product manager or product owner responsibilities, or move into strategy. Managers might design, and so on. This shift has happened before, is happening now, and will continue in the future. Roles like 'designer' are becoming more generalist in nature. Some of us have already experienced this, while others have not, but now it is official. On September 15, Figma released 'How Product Development Teams Are Evolving in 2025,' with a title closely matching this concept: 'Shifting Roles.' I would like to copy and share the first paragraph of this research document, because every word in it speaks for itself.

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Over the past few years, we’ve seen a gradual shift away from linear ways of working and toward a more collaborative and integrated structure. Today, the roles that shape product development are no longer neatly defined. Where product managers once wrote requirements and designers translated them into interfaces that developers would build, today’s reality sees PMs rapidly prototyping concepts, engineers scoping early designs, marketers influencing UX through user insights, and designers stepping into higher-order strategic thinking. As the market adapts to new tools that enable faster iteration cycles, product teams are wrestling with evolving role boundaries that bring traditional titles into question.

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#shiftingroles #figma #productdesign #productdevelopment #productmanagement

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