Published on <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/making-better-design-decisions-by-breaking-down-the-barriers-between-roles-ac4ffb5a00ad?source=rss----eb297ea1161a---4">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Jessica Lascar <img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*Xyc9OKgxjww523Vc4sO3WA.png">
The most important thing to know about design is that it involves other people.
Great products can’t happen because of just one single person’s contribution. They are instead the result of collaboration between different roles within a company.
<blockquote>“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” &#8211; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Ruth">Babe Ruth</a></blockquote>
I’ve been lucky enough to have the opportunity to work in a cross-functional team where I was able to learn from my colleagues and to get useful information and insights from them about their field of work.
<blockquote>The best way to learn is to ask.</blockquote>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*14SwuFgvI66cpS5EKQm_pA.png">
<h4>Designers ❤ Product Managers</h4>
As designers, when we’re presented with a problem to solve, I think we all experience a strong temptation to jump right into Sketch and start mocking up solutions.
This is bad practise because if we don’t start with why we’re even doing what we’re doing, we’re just wasting time and going completely off track. In a famous <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action">Ted Talk</a> (if you haven’t watched it already, you should definitely do it), <a href="http://simonsinek.com/">Simon Sinek</a> states how understanding why is fundamental to establishing how you work and what you produce.
Product Managers are usually the right people to ask for clarification and details about the scope of the task at hand. We can learn a lot from them as they possess a set of very valuable skills: good communication, analytical thinking, ability to break down big problems into smaller chunks, and prioritization so that we can focus on what matters most first.
I’ve definitely learnt a lot by sitting with my Product Manager. Asking him about why we were focusing on certain problems instead of others has helped me understanding the business better. It also, or therefore, shaped the design solutions I propose.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*VYaow20fxU29Ks9wLFoPJA.png">
<h4>Designers ❤ Data Analysts</h4>
Data engineering is fascinating. I didn’t really fully understand their role before sitting next to one day-to-day. By observing the way they work, the way they gather data, segment different users and scenarios, I started appreciating how data helps making a meaningful story out of numbers. There’s a lot of analytical thinking involved, which applies to design as well.
Working closely with data, we can understand better the people we’re designing for by observing how they interact with our product. Being able to connect the dots on how and why people behave in a certain way helps us moving in the right direction for our design challenges.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*6I7oPjH8tLNyPx0454JqDw.png">
<h4>Designers ❤ Developers</h4>
I’ve already talked about <a href="https://medium.com/carwow-product-engineering/designers-and-developers-no-more-two-worlds-apart-e452c363a2d6">the importance of collaboration between designers and developers</a> in one of my previous posts, but I’m gonna remark it again here as well.
Let’s make sure to always involve our developer buddies at the very early stages of our design process as the benefits of getting feedback that early outweighs the mistakenly perceived advantage of ‘getting it done’.
Also, developers tend to look at problems in a different light compared to a designer. This helps opening our mind to things we haven’t even considered before.
<h3>In conclusion</h3>
Let’s try to promote a more collaborative environment and let’s make the notion that the overlap of different disciplines plays a fundamental role in building great products.
The more we understand what our colleagues do and the more we learn from them, the higher the chance of creating a better solution.
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Making better design decisions by breaking down the barriers between roles

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