While working on one project as a consultant, I worked with a team where developers genuinely resented designers, feeling their designs made life harder. The designers, lacking the technical knowledge to communicate effectively with the developers, unintentionally created friction between the two teams. “There is a deep mistrust between us and developers”, one designer told me. And this highlighted how deeply misaligned we were and how communication was the real barrier.
And this dynamic is not uncommon: we (designers) often focus on visually creative and user-centred interfaces, while they (developers) are more logical, systematic and technically oriented—and very often—much more direct. A recipe for tension.
We all have the same goal
I started my career more than 20 years ago – a designer turned developer turned UX engineer. I am usually the person who bridges the gap between business stakeholders and project managers on one side, and design and development teams on the other. I think of myself as a designer primarily, but one who understands developers and their struggles too.
Despite our differences, there’s one thing that we share in common: we all aim to create the best possible product/website.
But understanding that we share common objectives is just the first step. The real challenge lies in how we communicate to achieve these goals. Today in a world that’s more than ever online and remote, we tend to use channels that don’t attend to one important thing – emotions. That’s why—while I love async communication—it’s crucial to communicate as openly as possible and as fast as possible.
But speaking completely open and being fully transparent – that’s not in our nature, that’s not something you’re born with – you need to learn it, especially in work environments.
Personally, the best approach for making great products is to foster transparent communication – either through Slack channels (or other tools you might be using), or through ad-hoc video calls or screencasts. But remember even if you “fix a misunderstanding” in a video call – write it down in proper channels for everyone to see.
One project particularly highlighted the importance of communication for me. A designer created a beautiful UI, but the developers were struggling with the implementation due to the lack of technical specifications. After an honest conversation, the designer realised they didn’t know how to bridge the technical gap, but we made it happen by promoting transparent communication and making extra efforts to help developers understand the designs. Eventually, we shifted to regular design-development syncs, which prevented these issues in future projects.
Is there a problem in your project? Let’s try to work it out. Video call is not about talking about the problem – it’s about expressing emotions too.
And this is important because our body language can also share our fear or our enthusiasm, and let me tell you – this approach saved us sometimes hundreds of hours of both design and development time.
Psychological safety
As people we are all different – we have our fears, our thoughts about everything (including why a project is going in the wrong direction), our dreams – and we need to be able to speak openly about it.
We need to feel safe to share our thoughts.
For teams to communicate openly, they need to feel psychologically safe—where they can share ideas without fear of judgement or repercussions. This concept, known as psychological safety, is key to fostering innovation and collaboration.
In my experience, fostering psychological safety can truly transform a team. On one project, a junior developer was hesitant to voice concerns about a design. When I encouraged open feedback, he pointed out a potential database performance issue the rest of us missed.
His input led us to rethink the design early, making small but vital changes, saving us days of future rework.
Fostering transparency and open discussions
So, now that you have your safe space – transparency can flourish. Open dialogue allows both the creative and logical minds to collaborate effectively. This will boost creativity and promote innovation. Have a problem you can’t solve? Jump on a group call and discuss it with everyone who wants to participate. See if someone can suggest a workaround, a different approach and then discuss and test it. You will be surprised with the result.
This will also foster team learning – you will learn from both your successes and mistakes that you will share openly with others. And don’t be afraid to do so – by being open to learn from your own actions is a path towards becoming a better person and a better work buddy.
In the end, if we feel encouraged about sharing our thoughts, this might prevent burnouts and will definitely reduce stress levels – something that every good manager will welcome with open hands.
Although the term psychological safety was first used in a original research by Amy Edmondson, Google also did it’s own research called Project Aristotle where they found out that teams that embrace psychological safety are more successful, and the ability for team members to feel safe when expressing their ideas without fear of judgement – was the most important factor.
There are problems too
But does full transparency come at a cost? Prolonged discussions can drag projects, making decision-making slower.
There’s a simple solution though and it’s called structured decision-making. Having a clear leader (this might be a different person depending on your project type) allows teams to stay on track while encouraging open dialogue.
Remember, time is our most valuable asset. If you try to fix a problem by talking and talking for days or even weeks, it will make you forget the problem you started with in the first place. Whatever you do – you need to do it fast. Define a problem, come up with different solutions/approaches, discuss them on a (preferably video) call and make a decision.
If it needs to be amended by a senior, – you do it now rather than later. And don’t forget to inform everyone on the team about the decision.
In the end
In the end, it’s not just about the tools we use but about creating a culture of trust and transparency. It’s about the lessons learned from real-world collaboration. From that one project where we finally bridged the communication gap, to those when a junior developer was free to express their thoughts – I’ve seen firsthand how fostering trust and transparency unlocks creativity and success.
As you embark on your next project, remember that fostering psychological safety and open communication isn’t just good for collaboration—it’s the key to creating something truly great.
As a company – create safe space. Use async communication to promote transparency and quick calls to resolve conflicts. Have one decision maker who will ultimately listen to all the ideas and decide on the path forward, but make sure this person is the one who will foster open communication that will generate numerous ideas and different possible outcomes.
And that’s the recipe to making remarkable products.
…
Featured photo by Vlad Hilitanu on Unsplash
Leave a Reply