Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Zélia Sakhi

A couple of days ago, my work-and-life partner and myself celebrated our 16th anniversary. We were also invited to talk at Hyper Island about our learning journey as a design and tech duo.

So we took the opportunity to put together a list of 16 things we have learned together — professionally and personally through those years working together. And as it happens, we split them into steps of 4, as one does when they tango.

4 things we have learned (painfully) about.

“To solve great challenges, break them down in small pieces.”

This goes for tackling a design, tech or concept problem. Things are only big until you start breaking them down in manageable, bite sized pieces.
These days, we try to understand each parts of a problem and tend to prototype and test each bit to then reassemble them to get the whole picture. Literally, and figuratively.

“The less time you are given, the more time you should spend preparing.”

Ever hear that Einstein anecdote? ” Einstein is reported to have said that if he only had one hour to solve a problem he would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and the remaining 5 minutes solving it routinely.”

Well apparently, he said something more like “I would spend 30 minutes analyzing the problem, 20 minutes planning the solution, and ten minutes executing the solution”

Nothing worse than being caught up by an unexpected corner case at the last minute. Spending time understanding the whole picture and preparing the team to tackle the issue will save you time. Always. Don’t trust the people who just tell you to start doing without thinking.

“Don’t teach yourself a technology or a software, teach yourself how to learn.”

One word: Macromedia.
We both saw the death of flash and fireworks, the rise of the iPhone, the dawn of skeumorphic and the weird ascension of Ruby. In a field where things change every 7 days, being attached to a single piece of technology is like being a flat-earther. It was maybe relevant at some point, but you’d be a fool today.

“Focusing solely on an issue is the worst way to solve it. Take a step back, sleep on it, it will solves easily the next day.”

Let. It. Go.
Nothing gets solved after a full day of work.
No problem will find a solution after banging your head for two hours on it.
Go home. Take a shower. Read a book. Your brain will process it and solve it. We promise.

4 things we wish we had been told before starting to work.

“Plan and Document any part of the projects you are working on, your future self will thank you”

Do you remember what you had for lunch 6 days ago?
Yesterday?
No?
That’s why documentation exists. It’s not for other people. It’s for you.
Keep a diary of decisions, ideas, and so forth. You brain is not infaillible.

“Fake it until you make it: if whatever you need to achieve a result is too hard to design or develop, there is often a simpler solution that is a good-enough replacement.”

Smoke and mirrors. no one cares that you actually achieved that very conplicated technical salto. Especially if that has impacted he whole team. Even more so if that made you late or more expensive. Done is better than perfect. Done, looking like the real thing, is better than not done idea.

“Practice is not sufficient by itself, especially if you’re self taught, . Having the theory behind the skills you are practicing facilitates your everyday work, and allows you to pass the constraints of the medium.”

Do you know why you are doing what you are doing? Design and code are two disciplines where theory has sometimes been ahead of practise. being a top performer means knowing your backyard better than anyone else.

“Having hybrid skills is worth more money. We both have waited way too long to ask for what we were worth.”

All companies need people who understand tech and design. Period. This skillset is still unusual therefore valuable. Play your cards right.

4 things we would do completely differently. Cause we fucked up.

“Stop being a goddamn perfectionist.”

Spend less time focusing on the small details, but more time on the greater picture. It’s better to achieve the goal than to have a beautiful failure. (Sometimes, we have spent so much time polishing stuff that we almost missed the important parts. Like delivering on time, on budget or on sanity)

Also, being a sustainable teammate means being one that doesn’t overwork until 3AM. You’re not being professional, you are just burning yourself out.

“But still, finish what you start when it comes to your own personal development”

Being a serendipity learner means two things:
it’s great cause you explore a lot of new things.
it’s terrible cause you are not prioritizing the things you and the business need. Be systematic about your leanings.

“Listen in class”

Mathematics are definitely useful for examples… Statistics, Geometry, Linear Algebra, Lambda Calculus are all used today in coding. At this very moment, one of our colleague is doing chemistry in the office.
Knowledge needs are like the spanish inquisition, you never expect them.

“Confrontation is okay at work and in life.”

Too many situations end up fucked up because nobody dared to say what they were truly thinking.Playing nice and trying to just make it work sometimes is not enough. If somebody demonstrates unwillingness to work together, no tools or frameworks will help you. You need to talk it through.

4 things we are looking for when hiring. So that those people are better than us.

“We don’t need designers who code. we need curious designers who think. We don’t need developers who design, we need devs who care.”

My best designers are not the ones who can code… but those who understand technology, why we use it, how it impacts our clients. If you need to learn code to do that great. Same goes for devs, we need people who care about users but not always who know how to solve allll of their problems.
It’s ok to focus on your own area if you make the effort to understand the other’s.

“We prefer a good teammate that communicates than a bright teammate that does not.”

Talk. to. people.
Brilliant assholes are the ruin of our industry. Being over communicative is never a problem, unless you share your bathroom habits.

“We hire people to bring change, not to wait for us to tell them what to do”

When you join a company, you have 3 months to make yourself invaluable. Sitting there waiting for stuff to happen will get you nowhere. Bring change, talk about previous learnings, things you’d like to try, things you are surprised about. Proactivity is expected from all our team members: and if you’re here to sit behind a screen for 8 hours by yourself, you’ll be better off as a consultant

“Grit is the secret weapon if you want to deliver great work”
Shit will happen.
Clients will be painful.
You will have bad days.
You will be frustrated.
What we are looking for is people who do not give up in the face of adversity.
Our biggest learning from the past 16 years is this: nothing will ever be perfect but it can damn well nearly be if you work on it.

And now, if there is one last thing that we have learned:
the world changes and so do you. We are very lucky to have been able to stand by each other for 16 years.Will we work for 16 years more together, who knows? But we embrace he change, so in the end, whatever happens will be a lot of fun.

Luv,
Z+Z

Design and Tech Tango: 16 years of learnings. was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Design and Tech Tango: 16 years of learnings.

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