Ways to improve Designers- Developers team collaboration
When we talk about Designers and Developers, we are referring to the same birthday party but two different perceptions of the birthday cake. Designers keep thinking of, how the whole cake would look like and developers keep thinking of, how its pieces will come off efficiently. Basically 2 different perceptions of same world. Designers live in the world of experiences, concepts, flows, layouts, themes whereas Developers live in the world of modular code, components, exceptions and user stories. These difference in perspectives and attitudes towards the same goal, is why seamless collaboration is more important between these two teams.
Gone are the days where a designer could sit next to the developer with a cup of coffee, a smile on his face and hope in his eyes and tell him to just scoot out some time from his coding time and shift a component some pixels here and there or change the font size by one or two and make adjustments and Voila the front end looks close to the design!
But, things are different now due to COVID 19 ! We are in a situation where remote way of working and distributed teams are here to stay for long and may become the new normal. We can no longer think of physical collaboration like before.
So, the means and processes to collaborate have to be seen in a very different light.And collaborating seamlessly is extremely important in these sensitive times because it directly affects the relationships with the teams and quality of life.
According to Gallup Organization, people who have positive and happy relationships at work are seven times more likely to be engaged in their jobs.
So let’s look at some communication fixes and processes which can help better collaboration between designers and developers
- Have designated communication Channels
The most essential element necessary to develop healthy relationship with teams is communication. Communicate with transparency and show consistency in your expressions
Decide a single channel for below activities and declare it officially and clearly to the teams so that they stick to those channels while communicating.
a. Informal communication for chats, design queries, walkthroughs, options and alternatives : This could be hangout, slack, teams or any channel on which you are most accessible. This is the most important channel as it is your substitute for physical presence. So choose the one which you are most active on. Install that app on your mobile. Make relevant groups and look forward for transparent seamless communication.
b. Formal communication channel for approvals, reviews: This can be your mail client where u want all your stakeholders involved.
c. Channel for Design feedback clarifications, comments, changes etc. This could be comments on your adobe guish the latest version.
Be as detailed and spxd, or comments over a mail thread or even an excel that you shared. But decide and declare and request everyone to follow the same channel for design related comments so that they don’t get lost.
d. Channel for your deliverables: Decide a channel for your deliverables and keep managing the versions well and clearly distinecific as possible.
These different dedicated channels will help you to organise your communications with not only developers but with POs and other stakeholders and avoid any communication gaps.
2.Knowledge Transfer of each other’s domains
One of the most important and beneficial activity that can help the teams understand each other better is to transfer each other’s domain knowledge and give clarity on their processes of working. This activity will help in empathising environments, understanding the constraints and dependencies better.
Design team can give KT of the style guides, layouts,components , naming conventions, field formats and design processes.
Whereas, development team can give KT on the technical architecture, the framework, underlying technical constraints.
This increased understanding about each other can make communications smoother and deepen the relationships between teams.
3. Include the Developers or representative of developers in Design requirement and estimation phase
It is important to involve developers or representative of development team early on it has many benefits. They become prepared of what is coming next. They can start planning and lay the foundation of their future work early on. They get to know the design direction and approach and can raise flags about technical constraints and feasibility checks early. This will also bring additional clarity to the designers and now both well cognizant parties can feel excited, challenged towards and work towards the common goal.
4. Developer sign off before final design and Designer sign off before UAT
Take formal signoff on final design for ‘Tech feasibility’ before sharing it with the client. Organise a detailed design walkthrough call with the developers and give them 2–3 days for detailed evaluation of technical feasibility. Consider these 2–3 days support in your design and development estimations.
Similarly, before the UAT, developers should share the build with the designers and take formal ‘Design sign off’ so that they can ensure UI is same as designs. The designers should come up with proper testing process and framework to test the build from design perspective. The designers should include the testing efforts in the estimates and consider this as a formal step in design process. Similarly, developers should also consider support estimates during this step.
These formal sign off steps filter out unpredictability in the quality and process and help maintain trust in each other.
5.Being Informal
Finally , along with introduction of formal process there is a need for informal communications as well to maintain a positive environment during these tough times. We all are in this together so both the teams need to be more understanding, more patient, empathetic and kind towards one another. Breather and fun calls should be organised to discuss everything in the world except project. The teams can play online games, have fun digital activities which in turn helps in bonding and deepening the relationships.
Since remote way of working is going to be new normal, designer and developers have no other option than collaborating effectively. So the early you start following formal processes and communication fixes towards collaboration the better it will be.
Customise the above guidelines according to your team structures, needs, goals and way of working to build stronger team collaborations and make it the new normal.
