The medium changed. The job didn’t.
2026, May 18
In product, they call it the design process. Problem framing. Research and understanding, analyzing data. Wireframes and user flows, prototyping and usability testing, iterating based on testing. Final hand-off, ship.
In fashion, we simply called it work. Trend research and market analysis. Concept decks, mood decks, designs, line sheets. Tech packs, prototypes, fittings, and iterative refinement based on sales and early market feedback. Final production hand-off, ship.
Research
I thought product research would feel completely foreign. Instead, it felt familiar.
In fashion, culturally listening is our market research. We look to the runways and the streets for inspiration and rigorous trend research. Both shape what trends emerge for upcoming seasons. We analyze across runway collections, document our findings, and make a detailed shopping report from our trips to Tokyo, Paris, Seoul, and Amsterdam. Research means nothing if you can’t communicate what you found to people who didn’t go on the trip with you.
In product, it’s called market research. It’s the same instinct, yet different input.
People management & alignment
A big part of design is getting people to move in the same direction.
We might be advocating for a novelty fabric, a specialty wash, a new fabric mill, wash house, new manufacturing partner. Everyone is optimizing for something different. Merch is thinking about assortment and sales. Product development is thinking about timelines and delivery. Production is thinking about volume and feasibility.
Where there’s a gain, there’s a loss. Sometimes that means killing ideas you loved because they were wrong for the customer. Sometimes it means choosing a more commercial fabric, reducing complexity, or narrowing an assortment in service of a larger goal. It’s about bringing people together around a shared vision and involves more communication, influence, and persuasion than you’d expect.
In product, every stakeholder is optimizing for something different too. Product manager, Engineering, User researchers, Data analysts. It points to the same tension, different titles.
Every function feeds into another.
Design doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
The further I got into fashion, the more I realized my work depended on everyone around me. We all had to pass the baton to get our work done efficiently. Everyone needed to be looped in.
A design decision is never just a design decision. It affects the entire team responsible for bringing the product to life. People often think changing a fabric or assortment is a small decision. Designers know it affects everything downstream and creates a ripple effect across the entire process. Changing a fabric impacts fit, wash, cost, and production. Changing a fit impacts pattern and technical specs. Every function depends on one another to keep the product moving forward.
The longer I work in product, the more familiar that feels. Great products aren’t created by an individual, they’re created by teams.
Accessibility
Accessibility was one area where product expanded my perspective. It wasn’t something I’d thought much about before entering the field.
In fashion, I often found myself asking: how can we make this trend more approachable enough that more people can wear it? Fashion taught me to think of a broad range of customers.
In product, I find myself asking: how do we make this experience accessible enough that more people can use it? The instinct feels familiar, but the lens is different. Product taught me to think about the customers I wasn’t seeing.
Different inputs, same goal.
