3 reasons why engineers should be involved from the early design process

Uijun Park
Bootcamp
Published in
5 min readMay 17, 2022

Not long ago, I read “Inspired” by Marty Keegan, which was recommended as a must-read book for product management and design. From the perspective of planning and designing as a product designer, I really sympathized with the following contents of the book.

The biggest opportunity missing from the (waterfall) model is that engineers get involved too late.

If there’s a little secret in product development, it’s that engineers are usually the best source of innovation.

“Inspired” recommended for product management and design

I have worked in organizations that involve developers in the planning and UX/UI design process , and in organizations that do not . This article resonated with me a lot because there were so many good things about inviting and participating in the process of planning and designing a developer . So , I‘ve put together 4 things to see what‘s effective .

1. Ideas from various perspectives.

Doing UX design means trying to solve problems that users experience. However, no idea is guaranteed to solve the problem. More importantly, the idea is to be validated by users with fast execution, so a lean approach seems to be becoming more and more important.

No matter how great an idea may be, it cannot be concluded that it will actually be effective in solving a user’s problem. More importantly, it’s about running quickly and “testing” your hypotheses so that you can judge whether your idea works.

That means that just because an idea came from a UX/UI designer or PM, it cannot be said that the possibility of success is better than that of people in other teams.

So, it is very important to get ideas from various perspectives. Because a developer may look at a problem from a different point of view than a planner or a designer, it is helpful to invite a developer to the early stage of planning/design to get various ideas. For reference, it is always good to keep the door to accepting ideas open because employees in other occupations can also come up with good ideas. I like to invite not only developers, but also customer center team members and sales team members to brainstorm meetings in brainstorming meetings, but it was so good to hear their own point of view.

2. Ideas you can really make

What sets developers apart from other jobs like marketers, designers, and product managers is that they are the people who actually implement the product. In other words, these people can create software, apps, and websites that actually work.

I thought on my own and put a lot of resources and effort into creating a design result and asking the developer to review it. After discussing this with the developer, it was impossible to develop at all within the given time frame, and as a result, the design had to be drastically changed. Since you are not a developer or someone who actually implements, there is a limit to knowing all the positions of implementation. So, there is a high possibility that the ideas you come up with will become a tabletop debate.

Conversely, I have had experiences of inviting developers to brainstorming meetings and coming up with ideas together. Among the ideas that the developers came up with at this time, there were many good ideas that were both novel and realistic. As a result, their ideas were reflected in the design and finally implemented, leading to good results.

The best memory was that, as my developer colleagues took part in the process of deciding their own ideas or final ideas, they took ownership of the implementation and development so that wonderful results could come out. As we all went through the process from product planning to release and hypothesis verification, it was also good that we became strong as a team member.

3. It can save time and money.

This part is related to the second part above. If developers can participate and express their opinions in the early stages of planning and design, it greatly reduces the possibility that planners and designers waste time on desk discussions in the early stages of planning. Of course, just because an idea doesn’t lead to development right now doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. It’s great to keep these ideas as well and test them when it’s time to run them.

What I’m trying to say here is that whatever ideas you come up with, if you discuss them with the developer early, you can put your resources into something more realistic and high-priority. No matter what organization, time and resources are not infinite, so it’s only natural to put them where they are of higher importance and higher value.

After all, we are people who solve problems “together”.

The purpose of product and development organizations is to ultimately solve user problems and turn them into successful businesses. In other words, it is a team that comes together to solve one problem. And, as mentioned earlier, the key to solving a problem is not “judging” the idea as good, but quickly validating it.

Teamwork is important to creating something together.

As such, if you invite developers to the initial stage of planning and design and share the process with them, you can get ideas from various perspectives and come up with realistic ideas or extracts, which leads to quick execution and quick verification of effectiveness. . So, for me, it seems that planners and designers do not distance themselves from developers or other team members in other occupations, but rather work together and share their concerns with the lean flow.

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Bootcamp
Bootcamp

Published in Bootcamp

From idea to product, one lesson at a time. Bootcamp is a collection of resources and opinion pieces about UX, UI, and Product. To submit your story: https://tinyurl.com/bootspub1

Uijun Park
Uijun Park

Written by Uijun Park

Entrepreneur, interaction designer and a cook in NYC

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