How to get closer with your developer | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Bringing engineers into product design early helps teams uncover technical constraints, explore better solutions, and move faster. Rather than waiting until designs are polished, designers should use early, exploratory collaboration to expose assumptions and edge cases. The post recommends partnering closely with one engineer through ideation using straw man mocks, brainstorming, and clearly defined questions.

Technical Knowledge Improves Ideation

• Engineers can identify technical constraints and unexpected edge cases early.
• This input helps designers avoid solutions that seem promising but are difficult or costly to build.
• Early collaboration does not eliminate creativity; it makes ideas more thoughtful and grounded.
• Sharing unfinished work can be more productive than protecting designs until they appear complete.

Establish a Close Engineering Partnership

• For Coda’s Packs Tables feature, Helena Jaramillo worked closely with one engineering partner, Gil.
• Packs Tables connected services such as Spotify, Google Calendar, and Gmail to Coda documents.
• Because the feature had to work across multiple APIs, close engineering collaboration was essential.
• The broader team was involved, but having a consistent partner enabled faster brainstorming and continuous feedback.

Start with Straw Man Mocks

• Straw man mocks are quick, rough visual proposals intended to generate discussion rather than finalize a design.
• They should:
  • Be fast to create, since early assumptions are often incorrect.
  • Ask more questions than they answer.
  • Present multiple directions instead of prematurely narrowing to one solution.
• Designers should first imagine how the feature might work if it were easy, then test those assumptions with an engineer.
• Useful questions include:
  • What assumptions or misconceptions are we making?
  • What are we overlooking?
  • Which directions are interesting?
  • Which directions are technically difficult, and what trade-offs would they involve?

Brainstorm Through Visualization

• Early brainstorming should involve both designers and engineers, not just a finished design review.
• Teams can use wireframing kits, high-fidelity components, paper sketches, iPads, or screen sharing.
• During Packs Tables, Helena and Gil used whiteboarding to explore UI ideas and clarify potential problems.
• The goal at this stage is alignment and exploration—not polished interface design.

Define Key Questions

• Key questions act as principles for making later decisions.
• They help teams address foundational issues before debating individual solutions.
• Answering questions about constraints, resources, priorities, and desired outcomes makes detailed decisions easier.
• Helena and Gil recorded their key questions in a Coda document and reviewed them with the engineers involved in the project.

Designers should treat engineers as creative partners from the beginning of a project. Rough mocks, shared brainstorming, and agreed-upon guiding questions create a faster path to feasible, thoughtful solutions.