Increase performance & fun at work: get your devs and designers to understand each other
A quick step-by-step guide to adding an extra spark to your team
Two different species, working on the same goal… or are they?
There’s a certain awkwardness that comes out of mixing designers and developers. The stereotype dictates: one is extroverted — the other introverted, one likes typefaces — the other likes logic. But they work together on the same project.
Even if the aforementioned stereotype doesn’t apply to your team — the nature of the work these two separate species do is grossly different. And this means there’s a slim chance a smooth collaboration will happen organically, on its own. I’ve witnessed more than once when the only thing that happens organically is conflict. This conflict results in the entire project being inefficient and the people involved feeling stressed and frustrated. All this leads to people from the team browsing the job market — dreaming of a place more suited to them.
It’s not you — it’s our evolution!
What makes human conflicts so common? Like in any other case where two different kinds of people share physical (or digital) space, whether different nations, sports clubs or belief systems, it produces anxiety on both sides. This is simply an inherent behavior, and it goes way back to our tribal past when we had scarce resources. It’s the thing that (still) makes wars, makes courts necessary, and sports fun. Fear.
But great news! There’s a super-simple way to overcome these differences and for people to become great collaborators, even turn from enemies into friends. It’s a classic tale found in many books and movies, and I’m sure you can remember a few. How does it happen? THEY GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER! They realize they’re not so different after all, and in fact, they have the same goal that is connecting them on a deeper level.
What’s that? You have a robust design system and don’t need your team to be human?
Design systems and design handoffs, when done well are great and useful, that’s a fact. But they also take time to build. In a lot of cases, the reality is that there simply isn’t enough time to wait for fabulous documentation. You might be familiar with sentences like: “we’re launching the MVP next week!”
So go ahead and build your design system but invest in your team to start properly collaborating and they will solve all problems even without a full style guide.
Let’s put this into practice
Our experience shows that dev and design are growing more and more together in a team. Therefore, it’s more than crucial nowadays to GET THEM TO UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER. If you want to prove this to your PMs and POs, take the following steps:
- First, you need to realize you need to invest some time and effort into making it happen. It’s not gonna resolve itself.
- Track the performance: Everyone wants numbers. So be sure to track the status quo of your working speed at the beginning. You will need this to measure the improvements later.
- It's all about professional planning: Get specialists to tailor the best education for your team members. Focus on what makes their counterparts tick, i.e., “why are designers such hipsters and like avantgarde fonts?” or “why do developers always say it’s impossible to develop”?
- This is where the magic happens: Get everyone in the same room. Make sure that everyone gets included in every step of the process. Let everyone contribute.
- Let's go back to numbers: Check how your project speed skyrocketed. Get a clear metric as evidence of an ROI.
- Iterate: Nothing is ever finished. Feel free to adapt to your specific needs. Enjoy the bliss of smooth collaboration.
Keep in mind
It’s not a one-off thing. You must dedicate yourself to this and maintain the flame. Train the newcomers, encourage team members to design new workshops or talks, shape it into a culture.
No design system, PM tool, rockstar Lead Designer, free coffee, Friday beers, or team events will help you unless you get some of that cross-team empathy.
Or just get them a common enemy.
