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Discussion on: Dev and Designer Communication

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Kasey Speakman

Is the designer embedded in the same team with the developer? If not, it is like someone from your neighborhood homeowner's association dropping by and informing you that you have to move your house away from the road 2 inches due to new HOA rules. It is better to have the other person understand the vision for what you are trying to accomplish. If they understand, but don't see a value in it, then both should cross-train in the other person's field so they understand what the other values. That will lessen the amount of asking for the impossible or not respecting the other's contribution.

Line between easy and impossible is hard to know in CS.

When they are on the same team, generally it is understood that they are "in the trenches" together for the good of the user/customer. They see each other's struggles at stand up meetings, ad hoc conversations, etc. So one won't knowingly lobby for something that is obviously intractable for the other. Instead they will try to find a compromise that addresses both their concerns.

If there is still no empathy or working together, then it sounds like a team or employee issue (one or both). And at the end of things, you have to have two people who are both respecting that the other person has a job to do and thinking in terms of goals. Usually two goals ("it should have these effects") can be worked into a cohesive solution. But two specific implementations ("it has to work like this") may be intractable together.