Sometimes the most critical part of building great products is the handover between designers and developers. It's the process of transferring one person's thoughts for a solution to another person who is going to build it. This process requires great communication. Especially if it's a one-off event. To take the pressure off this one-off event, of handing over designs we started to have smaller updates along the way.
We started to run workshops together. Everyone inputted into the project early. We all know why we were doing this piece of work and what the constraints and opportunities were. Everyone was contributing. It seems like we were doing everything right.
Then I'd create the design handover, only to get messages in Teams or a tap on the shoulder once the work had been started.
"We can't do this" or " it can't work this way".
...."but I thought we were aligned?"
Why does this happen?
- Designers might be too close to the solution to be able to bring others in and up to speed.
- The prototype is not developed enough to explain the concept or they are too developed and the concept is lost.
- The team may be focused on other things and not have a vested interest in this piece of work yet.
- A one-way meeting where just the designer is talking no one else speaks up.
How might we overcome this issue?
Communication is key to overcoming this issue. I believe the solution is to start a quick collaborative discussion. A back and forth discussion, not a one-way conversation.
We’ve started to do a simple, focused discussion. It's super low fi. I print out mocks and stick them to a whiteboard. I get the fattest marker I can find in the office. The aim is to not be precious about the design at this point. We can use the marker to draw over the mocks and on the whiteboard.
The key thing that we’ve found is to keep asking throughout this exercise is "Does this look right to you?". Keep asking this question over and over. Think, 5 Why's but with Does this look right to you? You’ll see a much higher engagement with your designs.
People switch into a delivery mindset, which gives them the authority to speak up and critique the design. Now we have feedback early, not later in the process. The squad has seen our design-related bugs drop since we have adopted this method. This session is quick, like 15 minutes. It is like a focused check-in which over time has huge benefits.
We are still doing design handovers with annotated documentation, and handover meetings. These focused "Does this look right to you check-in?" makes all the difference.