How collaboration makes us better designers

Designing alone is faster right up until the moment somebody else has to build, sell or support the thing you designed. After that it is the slowest option available.

Introduction

The version of collaboration most teams practise is really approval: work is made in private, shown at the end, and defended. It looks collaborative because there is a meeting, but nothing about the design was ever genuinely up for discussion.

Real collaboration is earlier and less comfortable. It means showing the rough version, naming the parts you are unsure about, and inviting the engineer to tell you which of your three layouts is going to cost a fortnight.

The trade is straightforward: you give up some autonomy over the first draft and get back a design that survives contact with production. Most designers find that a good deal after the first project.

Structure helps. Say what kind of feedback you want before you show anything, and say what is already settled. Without that, every review defaults to the loudest available opinion.

Write decisions down in the file rather than in a thread. A design with its reasoning attached can be handed to someone new; a design without it has to be re-argued every time it is questioned.

And close the loop. Tell people what you did with their feedback, including the parts you rejected and why. Ignored feedback is how you teach a team to stop giving it.

Software and tools

Shared files beat exported images, and comments beat screenshots pasted into chat. Beyond that, the tool matters far less than whether people feel allowed to open it and poke at your work.

One rule worth enforcing: whatever the source of truth is, there is exactly one of it. Two half-current files cost more goodwill than any feature ever bought.

Other resources

If you want to make collaboration a habit rather than an event, start here:

1. Share the version you would normally be embarrassed to share.
2. State the question you want answered before you present anything.
3. Record what changed and who changed your mind.

None of this requires a new process document. It requires one person to show unfinished work on purpose and to be visibly better off for having done it.

Do that twice and the rest of the team will follow without being asked.