Bridging the Communication Gap Between Engineers and Non-Engineers

Had the great opportunity to hear one of my favourite engineer-heads out there, @Jad, speaking on how to bridge the communications and alignment gap between the designers of products with those who build those products. If you couldn't attend, follow us @Intersect, drop me a line or see below (heck, do all three!)

Here @Intersect we are all about momentum, and we’ve found one place that just plain kills momentum, is the time wasted, frustrations escalated during the back-and-forth between what a team envisions to be built and what is actually built. From accessibility, as it relates to colours, fonts and the desired friction in the experience, to how reusability and scalability need to be considered, how you align designers and engineers is critical.

Today’s webinar broke down the solution like this:

EMPATHY

Start with the principles and objectives of what you are trying to do. What are the behaviour and actions you want users to take? You’ve got to align on the impact of what you're building, for whom, in order to get everyone building for that outcome. 

"If I give you a Ferrari and no destination, you’ll get nowhere, really, really fast."

Coding and software engineering today is nothing like it was 10 years ago. Engineering was about understanding the business logic, implementing it and then collecting income. Now, considerations include, analytics, insights, e-commerce and omni-channel. Engineers spend upwards of 2 days a week just learning new client code, architecture, API, cloud integration, etc. Along with new skills and technologies, engineers also need to consider a broader cycle of deliverables inc. planning, building, testing, QA’ing, releasing, deploying, and monitoring.

Point? It’s hard for engineers to keep up, and designers need fast response. Empathy on both sides is needed, and alignment to a clear purpose is critical in achieving this.

FRICTION

Because of the increased complexity of coding, many more people, roles and accountabilities have arisen, not to mention more integration with compliance, marketing, security etc. More people increases the chances of mis-aligned activities and behaviours.

Greater visibility and focus on the inherent friction between time, cost, quality, and features is required. And within that understanding, also align the right project approach: agile is about costs and features, waterfall is about time and features. 

More people does not (repeat not) increase momentum. They create more friction and slow momentum with the hidden costs of on-boarding them.

Point? Friction is an inherent part of the creative design process. "No friction" is neither possible nor desired. Again, a clear purpose and impact is needed to highlight that the friction is about a collaborative push for the same purpose. When we are aligned on why, the friction comes from passion over stress, and passion makes the friction growth oriented.

TOOLS

Like anything tools are only that. If they are used improperly they tool is not to blame. The first key to alignment and momentum is leveraging the concepts of MVP as a mindset versus a set of checkboxes. Everyone in the product life cycle should be thinking KaiZen (Be Better) as it relates to cost, efficiency, effectiveness, experience etc. MVP should be the output of how people think.

The constraints of time, cost, quality and features need to be kept in balance.

Designers and builders need to be protected from legacy and institutional thinning and behaviours through organizational firewalls. They need to be left to their roles of visionaries and builders, not constrainers and operators. 

Backlog management, and the use of agile requires a single person of accountability and stories that are manageable in length to deliver but not so simple as to be untestable.

Point? Leveraging the 4 constraints, backlog management best practices, organizational firewalls and MVP as a culture, can help keep your teams on page, narrative and purpose.