Joining Forces: An Epic Process for Designers and Developers

An exploration of developing a process that empowers designers and developers to work together and create amazing things together

Transcript

1. Joining Forces
   An Epic Process For Designers And Developers
   Chris Ford, Project Manager at Reaktiv Studios | @ci_chrisford
   

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2. True Confessions
   Star Wars Version
   This is the first and last time I ever saw a Star Wars movie. I
   was 6, it was 1977, my Dad’s shorts were VERY short, our
   appliances were Avocado Green, and my glitter R2D2 and
   C3PO shirt was from the iron on t-shirt store at the mall.
   That is the story behind why, even though I always try to
   theme my talks to match the WordCamp that I am going to
   skip trying to make this themed because all I would do is
   make the fan-folks incensed.
   You’re welcome ;)
   

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3. Project Overview
   Work with the Atlassian Design Team to build a new corporate blog.
   

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4. I Atlassian
   A leader in diversity and inclusion
   https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/balanced-teams
   

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5. I Atlassian
   Excellent content focusing on project management, teamwork,
   collaboration, productivity and leadership
   

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6. I Atlassian
   Company values I can get behind.
   

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7. I Atlassian
   Leader in designer and developer collaboration.
   invisionapp.com/talks/atlassiancollab
   

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8. #SolopreneurLife
   

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9. My Personal Mission Statement
   I want to do work that matters, with
   people I like, where design is valued.
   

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10. Challenges of working with other people
    1 Variety of skill levels
    2 Anticipating others’ intent
    3 Communicating your intent
    4 Paying attention to nuance
    

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11. Team solutions to working with other people
    1 Commitment to mentoring
    2 Assuming good intentions
    3 Over communicating
    4 Respecting everyone’s unique abilities
    

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12. Personal solutions to working with other people
    1 Know what you don’t know
    2 Work with people you like
    3 Be trustworthy
    4 Learn to delegate
    

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13. Cruelty is cheap, easy,
    and chickenshit.
    —Brené Brown
    

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14. Good communication requires
    1 Regular, focused meetings
    2 A shared vocabulary
    3 Organized design assets
    4 Clear documentation
    

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15. Regular focused meetings
    Meeting don’t have to suck. Seriously.
    1 Kill meetings that could be emails
    2 Have an agenda
    3 Nobody ever complained about a
    meeting ending early.
    

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16. Shared vocabulary
    How can you communicate without knowing what you’re talking about?
    

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17. Organized design assets
    I love this designer so, so much right now.
    

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18. What about cross platform teams?
    Don’t have Sketch? Use Zeplin!
    

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19. Clear documentation
    Because six months from now people will forget things.
    

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20. Atomic Design FTW
    1 Build components, not pages
    2 Makes content portable and flexible
    3 The Block Editor is already modular
    4 Separate functional and visual QA
    

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21. The only dumb mistake is the one
    you make more than once.
    —Chris Ford
    Iterate and Improve
    

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22. Thanks for listening
    Questions? Let’s talk at the Happiness Bar!
    Chris Ford, Project Manager | @ci_chrisford
    

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