A Love Letter to Design Pairing

One of my favorite things about working as a designer on software teams at VMware Tanzu Labs is the "A-ha!" moment. I just love it. I'm curious by nature and really immerse myself in the work of software. On the weekends and after work it's pretty common for me to talk to friends and family about all kinds of software related topics from XP and DevSecOps to DesignOps and Figma grids.

It's very challenging for me, however, to do those things alone. I keep a journal but it's not so satisfying, I listen to podcasts but it's not as engaging as having a conversation, and I've designed software as the lone designer on a team but it's dry. Dry! That's the word that comes to mind when I think about solo work. The instant feedback of having a partner there with you to say "I love that idea!" or "I disagree and here's why..." is addictive. It's flashy, fun, and fluid.

The best outcomes I have helped achieve for clients have come in the context of my strongest pairing situations.

Pairing has enabled my software teams to quickly arrive at key conclusions, execute, and scale.

So this is my love letter to design pairing.

I know it's cheesy, but let's have some fun!

Dear Design Pairing,

I love you.

We've always been collaborative by nature as designers. Even when I was in my first few months of learning UX design and I barely understood what UX was, I was still expected to talk to my fellow designers and to share my thoughts, work, and yes, even my feelings. I learned that sharing is caring and that caring meant a step closer to empathy. Even today I still strive for empathy and nothing has helped more than working with so many people who were different from me.

When we're bouncing ideas around it's exciting. Electric! I love being able to listen to great ideas and seeing how they bubble up. If you've ever been around a jazz act and seen how great jazz musicians say "Oh that riff is great! Now check this out!" then you know that good music is rarely the product of sitting alone and writing notes on a page. When we pair as designers we're live and improvising, throwing out impromptu ideas and solutions all at the same time.

The best ideas bubble up from collaboration.

There's a spectrum that ranges from "Full Agreement" to "No Agreement". I love that when we pair we are often positioned in the middle. If we agree too much then we can challenge our assumptions live, in real-time. We don't have to schedule a meeting or type asynchronous notes on Slack. We're already sitting next to each other or on a Zoom call. We can talk about our assumptions and identify them and then go chase down answers right away.

If we don't agree enough then we need to build alignment. It's so much more difficult to do these things alone. How can I build alignment without collaborating? Here, too, we don't have to delay. We can just dive right in. Start sharing, thinking through ideas, and get to the root of the issues. It's so fast and effective!

Remember when skills lined up and it was like throwing endless fuel on the fire? How pairing brought our team to new heights, and ensured there was always a backup who could shoulder the weight alone? Vacation time? No problem. Sick? Feel better. No progress lost, no speed diminished. Iron sharpens iron!

Remember when skills were lopsided and it was like balancing on a see-saw? One of us could handle enabling and executing on the user research and the other on the visual design and everything else in between? Always learning. Always moving forward. Iron sharpens iron (again)!

Design pairing, my love, you've seen me through some of the hardest projects from medical analytics to the Department of Defense. You've helped me find the best solutions for such a wide array of problems. It's been a lot of fun and I can't wait to have even more in the years to come.

Yours always,

Andrew

P.S. VMware taught me a lot about pairing and I've been fortunate enough to pair by default on almost every project. The body of knowledge on pairing centers on paired programming, but design pairing and PM pairing can be just as important and effective for organizations that are looking at ways to improve the quality of their software.

P.P.S. A huge thanks goes out to everyone I've ever paired with. I've learned so much from all of you!

If you want to know more about my experiences with pairing or you want some tips on how you might bring design pairing into your organization, I'd love to hear from you!! Hit me up!