7 Successful Habits of Designers & Developers Who Actually Like Each Other

Delivered at HOW Interactive Design conference in Chicago / October 21, 2014
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Designer and developer skill sets are complimentary, but often the personalities are not. In this highly practical session, you’ll discover opportunities for increased productivity, strategies for creating more harmonious teams, and collaborative habits that produce stellar work.

Whether you are a manager, team lead, developer or designer, getting two stubborn characters to play nice is an exercise in walking on eggshells. This session will take a look at the intricacies of these working relationships.

3 Main Takeaways:
• Learn the best workflows for designer / developer cooperation.
• Find out how to develop work habits that will allow you to get the job done, even if you can't stand your colleagues.
• Get tips for a happy “marriage” between a designer and a developer.

Transcript

1. @cassiemc cassiemcdaniel.com 7 Successful Habits of Designers & Developers Who Actually Like Each Other
2. yamith head
3. glenn jones
4. webydo
5. designer developer coders-survey.com, 2012 what are you? 11% 38% 50% both designer & developer
6. Hybrids, who have one foot in each discipline, beg the question of whether we need to get along better or simply become more like each other. “ ” bit.ly/twocatsinasack
7. tomek ducki
8. design dev 10 1
9. design dev 10 1 4 6
10. design dev professional amateur html / css javascript node.js ui typography ux
11. teams skip hursh
12. working hiring shipping
13. ? ? ? ? ?? ?
14. 1. work transparently
15. startup ad agency 6 employees freelance just me tech company 100s of employees boutique agency 30 employees healthcare 15-100 employees 50 employees
16. Transparency is a really good way to make people understand what kind and how much work a group is doing. “ ” – bobby richter
18. bug tracker 2 week sprints wiki irc vidyo etherpad email closed meetings
22. air.mozilla.org/channels/webmaker
24. 2. find the same page
25. everyone accounted for
26. audience problem success
27. audience
28. brief
32. ask questions
33. Groups of people that are naturally inclined to share & respect each other usually just have a common goal that's too looming and important to not use everybody's skill. “ ” – bobby richter
34. 3. clear the way
36. demolish roadblocks
37. document the scope of work
38. sprintr
39. 4. share your screen
40. pair-programming
41. nearsoft inc
42. I think the biggest key to good designer- developer relationships is that the people involved view each other as creative partners rather than resources to hand-off work to. “ ” – atul varma
44. pair-designing pair-programming
45. pair-creating
47. 5. reviews
48. it is impossible to ignore the reviewer when he or she is sitting right next to you. “ ”
50. ILLUSTRATION: KEVIN CORNELL
51. design review
52. redpen.io
55. 6. always be mentoring
58. students don't know where to ask (irc, bug, email, ???) and if they try the one thing they know how to do and it fails, they can give up. Pay attention to new people on all your channels. do your reviews fast; prioritize contributor reviews. draw them out on irc, comment on their blogs, check in on bug comments. Quiet means you're losing them. reassure them that they're doing OK, tell them not to give up, be encouraging. make it okay for non-experts to be here. be [extra] friendly. file bugs with lots of details you're not filing a bug for colleagues. give more context. blog, tweet, or otherwise recognize their work/presence
59. I feel the role of UX is always downplayed. “ ” – nadine lessio There's a common misperception that devs are not creative. – simon lindsay
61. 7. perfect the handoff
62. sean inman
65. T H E D E N tomek ducki
66. @cassiemc cassie@mozillafoundation.org thank you!