figmaMar 26, 2025

What Makes Designers and Developers Happy at Work? | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Designers and developers are generally becoming happier at work: 41% report higher satisfaction than the previous year. Based on a survey of 943 product builders, Figma identifies organizational design strategy, hybrid-work policies, leadership, and cross-functional collaboration as major influences. The article argues that clear expectations, empowered teams, and stronger designer-developer partnerships can improve workplace satisfaction. ## Design’s Place in the Organization - Designers are more satisfied when design is treated as a strategic partner rather than a service function. - Strategic design encourages greater customer focus and gives designers more influence on product direction. - Designers can strengthen this position by balancing exploration with execution. - Wise recommends a “now, next, future” model: - 70% of effort on current deliverables - 20% on upcoming work - 10% on longer-term possibilities ## Company Policies on Hybrid Work - 97% of respondents work remotely at least part of the time; more than half are fully or mostly remote. - One-size-fits-all hybrid policies can create logistical problems, such as overcrowded offices on certain days and empty workspaces on others. - Organizations should establish clear, predictable expectations around where and when employees work. - Companies may need to choose a coherent model—fully remote, mostly in-office, or a deliberately structured hybrid approach. ## How Leaders Empower Their Teams - Managers influence happiness by understanding what support employees need and ensuring good work is recognized. - Effective leadership focuses on results rather than monitoring hours or physical location. - A flexible management philosophy can give employees autonomy while maintaining accountability for the quality of their work. ## Effective Collaboration and Communication - Among highly satisfied designers, 69% rate collaboration with developers as effective or very effective. - Developers with higher job satisfaction also collaborate with designers more frequently. - 84% of designers work with developers at least weekly. - Whiteboarding and collaborative design tools support the real-time, iterative nature of modern product development. - Despite frequent collaboration, 91% of developers and 92% of designers believe their processes could improve. - Misalignment remains a significant issue, including gaps in designers’ understanding of engineering constraints. Organizations can improve satisfaction by positioning design strategically, creating practical work policies, empowering managers and employees, and investing in better designer-developer collaboration.

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figmaJun 17, 2020

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.

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