Lesson 2: Respect and appreciate thy engineer (even if you drive each other a little nuts sometimes)
As Julie Zhuo puts it, engineers are the translators of ideas into reality. In the past year, I've come to experience first-hand the joys, tensions, and challenges that come with pushing a build from ideation to handover. Here's a couple of lessons I learned about communicating with engineers effectively.
1. Trust each other
As a designer who only has a surface level understanding of code, it can get a little intimidating when an engineer starts talking about databases and lambdas. I've also seen an engineer's eyes gloss over when I went into a spiel about ems, line heights, and page gutters. Designers and engineers have different skill sets and expertise. We may not understand each other sometimes, but that's completely okay. What's important is that we trust that the other person is doing their best to design and build for our users' needs.
2. Fight for your users, not your ego
It's important to care about and take pride in your work. However, this should never be at the expense of creating the best possible experience for your users. I've fallen into the trap of wanting to get my designs exactly the way they were prototyped. I'm glad that my team lead Bekah was there to remind me who the product is for at the end of the day - the users.
3. When in doubt, just ask
Another important lesson I learned from Bekah early on is that it's perfectly okay to be the "least smart" person in the room. As a designer, you should never be afraid to ask questions. "What happens if the user tries to do x?" "Why does the user need to fill in y and z here?" The more questions you ask early on in the design process, the more likely you'll create something that solves problems for your users.
As I journey through my career in product design, I know that bumps and disagreements within the team are inevitable. At the end of the day, I'm grateful to have team leaders who have fostered a vulnerable and trusting environment. I can focus on doing my best work because my team has my back. I know it sounds cheesy, but I look forward to solving problems and making more magic (products) with the engineers at Supahands.