In growing organizations, the relationship between design and engineering teams can make or break product development. Many companies start with strong engineering teams and bring in design expertise later. As EdTech products scale, lurking usability problems become emergencies that tax customer support teams and divert engineering teams away from the roadmap. The most successful growing products emerge from strong partnerships between engineering and UX. Drawing on our experience working with growing organizations, we’ve identified key patterns that lead to successful collaboration between design and engineering teams.
This article is the last of a three-part series examining how EdTech product leaders can optimize their UX program for growth. Part One focuses on user research and testing strategies and Part Two explores ideation and planning processes. Together, these pieces provide a comprehensive framework for scaling your EdTech product thoughtfully and successfully.
When design and engineering teams work in silos, the consequences can be severe and long-lasting.
These issues compound over time. The longer organizations delay addressing communication gaps between design and engineering teams, the more design and technical debt accumulates. For growing companies, establishing healthy collaboration patterns early is crucial for sustainable growth.
We’ve observed three common ways that projects begin, each requiring a different approach to fostering design-engineering collaboration:
Regardless of how a project starts, design teams play a crucial role in establishing shared language around goals, problems to solve, and user needs. This foundation of mutual understanding prevents misalignment down the road.
Successful collaboration isn’t just about kickoff meetings — it requires ongoing engagement throughout the project lifecycle.
During the design phase, engineers can provide invaluable input on technical feasibility and architecture implications. “At that point, it’s almost like the engineers are playing a backstop role to design,” articulated one of our Lead Designers. “They’re looking at designs to make sure that they make sense for the way the product’s architectured.” They may also have solution ideas that have come up in their work that they can share. This also allows them to start thinking about how they would build any of the developing solutions.
Once development begins, the roles can flip. Designers become the backstops for engineering, ensuring the implementation maintains the intended user experience and helping tackle edge cases that inevitably emerge. In one recent client project, ongoing communication between teams revealed that certain error messages needed UX input. While the engineering team could have created technically accurate messages, having designers involved meant the errors were presented in a way users could understand and act on.
This doesn’t mean endless meetings. Modern tools like video updates, chat channels, and asynchronous reviews can maintain alignment without overwhelming busy teams. The key is establishing clear communication patterns that work for your organization’s size and culture.
While early collaboration is ideal, teams often need to establish working relationships mid-project. The key is to pause and align on fundamentals:
Engineering teams naturally think in solutions, while design teams focus on user needs and problem framing. When joining an engineering-led project, designers can add value by helping “peel back the onion” — moving from implementation details to core problems and opportunities. Sometimes engineers have existing technical discoveries or proofs of concept that can accelerate the solution, but need help ensuring they truly serve user needs.
Similarly, when designers bring engineers into an existing project, creating space for technical perspective and constraints leads to better outcomes. We’ve seen projects where late engineering involvement led to multiple redesigns due to technical constraints that weren’t considered early enough. In one case, cross-platform development requirements meant certain features worked differently on web versus mobile, forcing late-stage compromises in the user experience.
This situation creates what one of our designers calls a “chicken and egg” problem: Should technical discovery happen first, or should design exploration lead? The answer often depends on project specifics, but the risk of working completely separately is high. When design teams get too far ahead without engineering input, organizations essentially place a bet: either the designs will be buildable (saving time) or they’ll require extensive rework (doubling effort and potentially burning out teams).
Whenever and however your collaboration begins, here are five priorities to remember:
Growing organizations face unique challenges in balancing innovation speed with sustainable practices. The investment in strong design-engineering collaboration pays dividends through faster development, better products, and happier teams.
At Openfield, we specialize in helping growing organizations establish effective collaboration patterns between design and engineering teams. Whether you’re bringing in design expertise for the first time or looking to level up existing practices, we’d love to help you build better products together. Reach out to schedule an introductory meeting.
This article completes our three-part series on optimizing your UX program for EdTech growth. For a comprehensive approach, be sure to read Part One on strategic research methods and Part Two on effective ideation and planning processes that set the foundation for successful design implementation.