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ISCO 2166 · O*NET 27-1021.00 · codes unverified

Product designer

A bundle of tasks that has already been rebuilt twice in one career. The drawing is the part that moved. The deciding is the part that did not.

The role I have done for most of my working life, and the one she started in. Read the essay →

55
Resilience Blending

The job is becoming a partnership. Output goes up, and the judgement calls become most of the value.

0 rebuilding 100 anchored

Scale, labels and thresholds are provisional. This is open question Q-02.

11 of 20 in the launch set

How the score is made

Four declared inputs, never collapsed into one number. Assistance is kept apart from outright automation, because a tool that makes you faster and a tool that replaces you are not the same event. Physical work counts as shelter only to the extent robotics cannot reach it.

The full method is written out, including what it cannot tell you.

Note on this occupation ISCO-08 appears to group this role with graphic and garment designers in a single unit. The separation between product and fashion design on this site comes from O*NET-level detail, not ISCO. Codes to be verified.

Assisted
78

Higher is generally good news. It means more of the work gets faster without the work going away.

Done outright
46

This is the number most people mean when they say exposure. It is kept separate from assistance on purpose.

Physical
6

Protective only for as long as robotics cannot reach it. Read this one next to the robotics number, never alone.

Robotics reach
40

Low reach turns physical work into shelter. High reach turns it into the main exposure.

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What changes

Tasks moving to machines, in whole or in part.

  • Producing variations on a layout, a flow or a component set.
  • First-pass copy, placeholder content and asset resizing.
  • Translating a finished design into front-end code.

What stays human

Tasks that need a person, and why.

  • Deciding which problem is worth solving before anything is drawn.
  • Holding a position in a room full of people who want different things.
  • Knowing, from having been wrong before, which cheap answer will cost more later.

What's new

Work that did not exist in this job ten years ago.

  • Directing and editing machine output rather than producing every artefact.
  • Designing the behaviour of systems that respond differently to every user.
  • Being accountable for what an automated interface does to someone.

These three lists are editorial commentary, written against task-level data but not generated from it (OCC-05). Treat them as the author's reading, not as output.

Compare with another job

Pick one. You get a card with both scores, both sets of components, and a link worth sending to someone.

Sources used on this page