On symbiotic relationship between designers and

developers

Adit Gupta
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Adit Gupta Product Designer

@aditgupta
2009 Freelancer, Author on Smashing Magazine

https://aditgupta.design 2010-2018 Technology Evangelist

Python Lead
Designer - Furlenco, PayPal
Founder - Function Space

2019- ServiceNow
GDE Design
Design Mentor - Google Launchpad
Academic Philosopher

DevFest Bangalore 2019 Adit Gupta

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DevFest Bangalore 2019 Adit Gupta

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DevFest Bangalore 2019 Adit Gupta

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Stories
Inspired by true events

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#1
A new designer in the town

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All hail skeuomorphism!

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A Nightmare!

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All that was wrong :(

No collaboration My way or the highway

01 I was trying too hard to prove
02 Thr highway to hell
myself as a “good” designer

Review meetings from hell

03 Playing the blame game

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DevFest Bangalore 2019 Adit Gupta

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The solution was…easy!

Work together!
"Alone we can do so little; together we
can do so much." – Helen Keller

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Learnings

No silos! Empathy begins at home

01 We can’t make products
02 Consider your managers and
working in our own worlds development team

Stop blaming It’s all about our users

03 Understand. Respond, don’t react.
04 It’s not about designers or developers. We
have to work together.

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#2
Startup days

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How we collaborated at Function Space

Guiding principles for the Understand user intent

01 feature/product
02 Analytics, task analysis and surveys.
Engineers were always involved in
You need tech and design to follow them properly
read-outs.

Together from start Well-defined deliverables

03 04 Not just words but actions

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DevFest Bangalore 2019 Adit Gupta

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Visual Equation Editor Recommendation engines

Vector Discussions
Quarter Topics Equation Caller
Scientific Notebook

DevFest Bangalore 2019 Adit Gupta

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Visual Equation Editor Recommendation engines

Vector Discussions
Quarter Topics Equation Caller
Scientific Notebook

DevFest Bangalore 2019 Adit Gupta

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Learnings

No silos! Empathy begins at home

01 We can’t make products
02 Consider your managers and
working in our own worlds development team

Stop blaming It’s all about our users

03 Understand. Respond, don’t react.
04 It’s not about designers or developers. We
have to work together.

Share ideas Pairing

05 That’s the key to innovation
06 For mutual benefit!

Define deliverables
07 The team should have a clear understanding
of the deliverables

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#3
The big machine

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Design and
Managers engineering orgs

KPIs, targets
Design system

Program managers/
Sprint Masters

Q1, Q2…deadlines, Meetings! And more

ramps, launches, GA meetings.

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We still have The boon and bane of design systems

some issues.. Brings consistency and standards, but governance is an issue.

The “Scrum” constraints

Design is still a sort of misfit in the entire agile scrum process

Feasibility, Scalability, and Modularity

You always have to consider the trio!

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Effective Collaboration

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A structured
approach for Align Sync-ups
collaboration

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Align Sync-ups

1-3-30 What? Why? When? Resolve Document

- Once per week - What are we doing? Understand the blockers, - Action items
- Designer+Content, - Why? dependencies. - Follow up items
engineer, and manager - When?
- 30 minutes

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A structured
approach for Align Sync-ups WaH sessions
communication

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Why and How session - Prerequisites

Ideation phase Mid to high-fidelity designs

- All grooming and A prototype would be even
research is done better!
- Team had a few align
sessions

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Design - Explaining Why
Sidebar navigation is perceived as
easy to use - Concept testing
results (95%)

Overview of primary numbers

based on survey

Line graph and pie charts are

easiest to comprehend - concept
testing and secondary research

A dedicated section for quickly

creating new drafts - Competitor
analysis.

Latest comments - Standard

feature for CMS

Top referrals - Survey, Feature

requests

DevFest Bangalore 2019 Template - https://designrevision.com/demo/shards-dashboard-lite-react/blog-overview

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Development - Explaining How
Sidebar navigation is perceived as Can be developed
easy to use - Concept testing from existing NOW

results (95%) component

Overview of primary numbers Numbers possible. NOW

based on survey Can’t show trends in
this version. NEXT

Line graph and pie charts are Possible from Chart NOW
easiest to comprehend - concept JS library
testing and secondary research

A dedicated section for quickly No component NOT

creating new drafts - Competitor available. Also, can

analysis. we add it to new
post?

Latest comments - Standard Comments can be NOW

feature for CMS shown. Quick
actions will take NEXT

time.
Top referrals - Survey, Feature Can be done from NOW
requests existing component

DevFest Bangalore 2019 Template - https://designrevision.com/demo/shards-dashboard-lite-react/blog-overview

Adit Gupta
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A structured
approach for Align Sync-ups WaH sessions
communication

Retrospective

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Retrospective

What went well? What can be improved? What are the next steps?

Use green post-it notes to Use red for pink post-it notes Use blue or yellow post-it
write down all the went well to write down that needs notes to write down any next
improvement steps

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Learnings and Methods

No silos! Empathy begins at home

01 We can’t make products
02 Consider your managers and
working in our own worlds development team

Stop blaming It’s all about our users

03 Understand. Respond, don’t react.
04 It’s not about designers or developers. We
have to work together.

Share ideas Pairing

05 That’s the key to innovation
06 For mutual benefit!

Define deliverables Align Why and How

07 The team should have a clear understanding
M
of the deliverables
Retrospective

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We
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Thank you!
@aditgupta

DevFest Bangalore 2019 Adit Gupta