Just because you work in the same department doesn’t mean you’re a team. Teams work together towards a common goal. If your backend, frontend, and design teams are all moving independently of one another, how can they ever be able to move as one and deliver a feature on schedule? 

The key to solving this problem isn't more chat. The solution is to set clear boundaries for what the feature is going to be and what it isn't going to be. By setting boundaries at the start, your people can be free to flex their creativity while knowing what they must include and what rabbit holes they should avoid. It creates a starting point for everyone to start working at the outset, and then the designer can follow up with programmers about what specifics (i.e. affordances) the design needs.