Design for Implementation
How to Bridge the Gap Between Design and Development Early in the Innovation Process
Have you ever found yourself part of an endless discussion about all the bunch of meaningful user problems and the urgency that those entail, to soon after suffer a reality shock of the actual technological capacities and limitations to tackle those? Have you ever spent days, weeks or even months defining THE solution that was going to have a significant impact in improving your users’ lives to ultimately be told that it is simply not feasible? Have you ever been handed over a concept and have thought to yourself “how do these people think that I’m gonna build this with such limited time and resources”? If your answer to any of these questions is a yes, this article might be just right for you!
The problem
In theory, both design and development work towards a shared goal: the delivery of problem-solving digital products. Why is it then that many times there’s such a lack of harmony, communication and cooperation that it makes it almost impossible to integrate both domains for the delivery of successful solutions? It all comes to their distinctive focus, mindset and overall approach.
Focus
Rooted in the experience, expertise and activities that each domain entitles, their goals and focus sometimes collide with each other: designers being the legitimate advocates of the users, their behaviours and their needs, and developers natural defenders of exploiting technology for building the most effective and efficient digital solution.
Meaningful innovations need to not only be rooted into answering key user problems and satisfying their underlying needs, but also build on strengths of current operational and technological capabilities and ultimately be wrapped in a sustainable business model. If you fail to find the right balance between user desirability, technology feasibility and business viability, implementing any idea becomes potentially riskier and costlier.
Horizon
For innovations to be successfully brought to life two worlds need to be merged: the fuzzy front and the concrete end. In any traditional digital innovation process, the disciplines of design and development have a role at different stages of the process. On the one hand, a set of design sub-disciplines execute different activities throughout the process: from research and discovery of problems and opportunities, to the actual orchestration and design of solutions, taking into consideration factors such as a visual appeal, accessibility, usability and the overall context of solutions. On the other hand, developers are faced with the challenge of translating those solutions into algorithms so that to build a product that can be used as effectively and efficiently as possible by users, while maximising technical capabilities and reducing potential risks.
The diversity of disciplines and focuses, and the interplay between all the processes and activities, leave room for problems to arise when moving along the process and handover the outcomes of one step to another.
Mindset
The logical, systematic and hands-on process of a developer is just right for solution-centred algorithms to exploit technological capabilities, and the analytical, creative and inclusive process of a designer is perfect for user-centred solutions that are driven by underlying people’s problems and needs.
The solution
We know then that in order to deliver successful digital innovations design and development need to work closely and cooperatively together. But how do we achieve this?
At wearereasonablepeople we help our clients bring successful digital innovations into the market, and for that we cover in-house the spectrum of skills and expertise needed throughout the process. Following our very own experimentation process, we’ve gained some learnings on how to, if not fully close the gap between designers and developers, slowly but steadily get the disciplines closer in order to deliver solutions that are not only meaningful for our clients’ users, but that also maximise their operational and technical capabilities.
1. Set up projects around multidisciplinary teams
Building digital products and services requires a wide range of knowledge and skills. Hence make sure those are involved from the beginning of the project in order to avoid potential silos and knowledge gaps. Eliminate the time-constraints when it comes to an adequate handover and onboarding of the different team members at later stages of the project. Everyone has their own secret ingredient to add to the recipe, so resource the time and set-up the space for collaboration and experimentation from day one.
One of my favourite quotes from the design world that for me indirectly illustrates the need for this collaboration is:
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” — Steve Jobs
The point here is: while design helps to uncover opportunities and defines the best solutions and rationale behind those, we need to make those solutions work. In other words, we need skilled developers bringing those digital solutions to life and being part of the team from the beginning of the project’s lifecycle. Reaching that successful end-solution is everyone’s job, so make it a joint effort instead of just simply stating: “this is the design for the solution, our users love it, there you go build it”.
One example of this multi-disciplinary approach is our Design Sprints 2.0: four days during which we put both designers and developers to work together for the delivery of validated user-centred and technically-assessed functional prototypes.
2. Collaborative experimentation as a basis for exploration and exploitation
Don’t leave the work for developers at the later stage of the innovation process, but rather maximise the added value of their technical expertise by involving development from the very beginning, in a way that both disciplines can support and benefit each other.
At wearereasonablepeople we bring the knowledge of our developers and assure they bring impact on the delivery of innovations, not only by taking care of building the products, but also by exploring technical capabilities and opportunities prior to the delivery of those digital innovations and in pararel with any user research activities. You can maximise development efforts by, for example, validating technical directions, integrations and limitations through prototyping, or exploring and mapping-out current technical ecosystem to define risks, limitations, and potential implementation plans.
We boost the value of exploration through hands-on experimentation from both a user and a technological point of view. We ask ourselves: what are the underlying user needs, and which are the technical possibilities, limitations, opportunities and risks associated to those?
Working collaboratively at early stages highly enriches the process due to the diversity in mindset and the lenses through which the same problem is seen. With pararel technical and user researches, we assure that not only user needs and technical possibilities are aligned since the beginning, but also that any decision made and solution proposed is based on an accurate technical and human assessment. Furthermore, having multiple collaboration and alignment touchpoints helps everyone to bring their own expertise and knowledge to the table and ultimately the team to move together towards the same goal.
3. Co-define opportunities and co-create solutions
Move along the process together! You want to increase the input and collaboration even though there will always be an expert within the field and activity facilitator. That will make sure that not only all the three equally-important focuses of desirability, viability and feasibility are brought into the mix, but also high involvement and a sense of ownership is reached.
“Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember; involve me and I will understand.” — Confucius
Co-creation sessions work magically for any decision-making or problem-solving point along the process: scoping sessions, concept ideation, MVP definition, strategic road-mapping, just to name a few. Make sure all the important stakeholders are involved, not only internal but also external. This point is specially applicable for an agency set-up, in which you should not work for clients but together with them.
4. Deliver actionable outcomes
You want to avoid as much as possible falling into the discipline fallacy of “this was my task and this is my delivery, have fun!”. Making great innovations happen is a joined effort, and while you’ll have your expertise and specialty involved, you need to make sure to smooth the process and actually deliver things that is actionable and usable for the next required activity.
You just executed a great user research, found meaningful problems and opportunity gaps and define some directions for the concept? Great! Sit down with a developer and a UX designer and define the implications of that on further work and how that is going to be implemented. Pinpoint in advance what is that needs to be deliver from your side in order to smooth the whole chain of effects. Let that be wireframes, an experiment roadmap… What is going to be the delivery that we need once we’ve defined the opportunity to make next steps? Define that together, and make sure to involve next person who might potentially be involved in that step.
In conclusion, our disciplines and job roles come with a set of beliefs, mindset and behaviours built on what we’ve seen and experienced. The way we observe and interact with the world and the focus we have on our work is necessary but can become a blocker rather than an enabler when delivering digital solutions. The task at hand is no longer about changing these rooted behaviours and practices but managing them in a way that fits and smooths the collaboration and integration of work amongst disciplines throughout the whole innovation process.
Working in multidisciplinary teams, collaboratively exploring problems and solutions through experimentation, co-defining opportunities and co-creating solutions, and delivering actionable outcomes can help your organisation steadily bridge the gap between design and development efforts.
What does this world need? Empathetic creative developers and logical hands-on designers.
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What is your experience with bringing digital innovations to life? What are your pains and gains from design and development? Which tricks do you have to successfully bridge both disciplines? I’d love to hear about them, so please share your comments and remarks below!
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