From talking with my peers, it seems most of us do 20-30% of actual design work (and it's not always the cool stuff). The majority 70% is spent to build alignment for your work:

• Meetings and async communication

• Project and stakeholder management

• Documentation

• Prepping for reviews

• Informal and formal reviews

• Iterating work from feedback

• Presentations
  
  

Basically, most of it is compromised of responsibilities you have in almost any other corporate job.

As a product designer, I focus most of my time on:

• Product thinking and storytelling.

• Strategizing with multiple functions and teams.

• Gathering feedback for iterations

When I was first looking to break into this field, I saw a lot of the content focused on UI and craft. Their content generally geared towards meeting client expectation.  This made sense, as freelancers and contract workers usually had more flexibility to film during the day. However, if you're trying to break into product design, understand that if given the choice, you'll be far more successful in tech thinking like a product manager rather than a design freelancer.

My advice for anyone trying to transition into product design now is to:

1. Learn from mentors who walked the path you want to walk. I learned so much from other people who had to fight hard to get into the tech industry. I found that people who were internally promoted or received a job out of university did not have as introspective advice. They didn’t struggle to get into the industry, and so there wasn’t as much awareness about what it takes to break in. were not people I could relate to. Instead, I sought out mentors and content creators who did what I was trying to do with my career.

2. Focus on learning product strategy significantly more. When I first started, I only consumed content about product design, visual design, and building a portfolio. I struggled to land an interview anywhere. I wasn’t making it past most of my recruiter screenings, which were dire times. It was only when I started reading about product management and business strategy that I leveled up my thinking, got through interviews, and nabbed a job. You have to know how to speak product to talk work in product.

3. Be selective of the content you consume. Just luje books you read, pay attention to the authors. I’ve noticed when someone has experienced what they teach, their advice tends to be leagues ahead of someone who has only studied it. An example is comparing books written by a millionaires vs. a researcher who studied and interviewed millionaires. The former advice tends to be much more direct and actionable. If you want to work as a freelancer, then consume content from freelancers. But if you want to work in product, seek content from people working in product.

This is what I would do if I had to start over again. If you are a beginner and want to start learning product strategy, I recommend checking out my free eBook.