Designing in Pairs
by Amy Whitney and Guy Moorhouse
We’re product designers in a part of Facebook called Audience Network, which helps publishers make money by showing ads from Facebook advertisers in their apps and websites. It’s an important and rapidly growing part of Facebook’s business.
Ad tech in general has become a notoriously complex and dynamic space. As product designers, we have to continuously find new ways to improve experiences and results, both for the industry and for our users. Facebook product teams are cross-functional, and the team working on a given product or feature typically includes just one product designer. But we’ve found that the more quickly we’ve had to respond to publishers’ changing needs, the more we’ve leaned on each other for help on our product problems. And we’ve found that we’re better at solving those problems as a pair. The two of us now work closely together on the same teams.
Reasons to try design pairing in a product team
Pairing engineers is a well-understood practice, but we’ve never heard of design pairing as a recognized thing.
We thought it might be useful to share what we’ve discovered from working this way.
1. You get a different design perspective
The publishers we design for are based all over the world, speak different languages, and have varied levels of expertise. We work closely with research to help us understand their needs. But it’s still easy to fall into the trap of designing for our own biases. Working alongside another designer who has a different background and perspective is a constant reminder to question your assumptions. It also keeps you honest and accountable, since a fellow designer focused on the same problem is uniquely qualified to spot aspects of your work that haven’t been fully thought through.
2. You blend your strengths
Two skill sets are better than one. Design pairing works best when the designers’ core areas of expertise are slightly different. Perhaps one designer specializes in graphic design and communications, while the other is a stronger service or interaction designer.
Blending core competencies like this gives you a broader base of expertise to apply to the product. It also lets both designers learn from each other.
3. You get stuck less
Because our product teams at Facebook are cross-functional, our best friends on day-to-day product work are engineers, researchers, and product managers. And while it’s obviously important to collaborate with everyone on your team, collaboration time with another designer is very powerful — especially when you’re tackling a stubborn design problem.
Breakthrough ideas happen much more often when you combine two designers’ perspectives and experiences.
4. You can address different aspects of the product at once
For example, one designer can work closely on the details of execution while the other adopts a more strategic product-thinking role. As the work progresses and gets challenged harder and more often from different design perspectives, it can be particularly powerful to swap these roles at different points.
Switching also helps you avoid the fatigue and frustration that can set in when you’ve worked in any one mode of design for too long.
5. Less pressure, more fun
Crits and design meetings are helpful, but they don’t always alleviate the sense of isolation and weight that can set in when you’re tackling tough design problems by yourself.
Working alongside another designer can replace that pressurized solitude with camaraderie — and fun! Problems are shared, stress is minimized, and energy levels are increased. On days when you’re feeling low, your design partner can pick you up, and vice-versa.
Shared ownership also means that if one designer goes away or is ill, it’s less likely to delay the work.
6. Easier buy-in for good design
We make products for publishers from a lot of different verticals with different needs. As a result, team members often have conflicting strong opinions on what to build. We’ve found that when two designers work through the same problem together, the results are not only more coherent but also more persuasive. When you play back your work to the team, they’ll see a more thoroughly considered solution, complete with two complementary perspectives on why it works.
As successful as design pairing has been for us, we’re sure it wouldn’t work as well for all types of work, or for all designers. But our experience suggests that if you’re doing complex product work over a long period of time, working alongside a compatible designer is a great way to get things done — and to stay healthy and happy.
We’re curious to hear about other designers on product teams who’ve paired up. Tell us about your experiences in the comments.
