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The golden mean of design and engineering - The Intercom Blog
Summary
The post draws on Aristotle’s golden mean to argue that great products require a balance between design and engineering, not compromise. Engineers naturally focus on functionality and performance, wanting to ship features and increase speed often without customer requests, while designers aim for optimal user flows and catch subtle interaction details. The OAuth implementation exemplifies this, with engineers building the technical side and designers crafting user flows, each pursuing their own self-interest through daily stand-ups and whiteboard sessions rather than compromising. This self-interest, guided by Adam Smith’s invisible hand, yields superior products than continual compromise, which leads to mediocrity. The post recommends embedding designers in product teams via a hub-and-spoke model, and leaders trusting their teams to find equilibrium rather than imposing rules.
Takeaways
Great products require balance between design and engineering, not compromise; each side should pursue its self-interest through interaction and debate.
Designers should operate in a hub-and-spoke model: embedded in product teams alongside engineers but reporting to a central design team.
Leaders must trust their teams to find equilibrium and avoid imposing strict rules or structures to force collaboration.
FAQ
How should designers and engineers collaborate on features?
They should each pursue their own self-interest rather than compromise. Daily stand-ups and whiteboard sessions allow them to debate how each piece adds value, leading to breakthroughs that compromise would miss.
What is the hub-and-spoke model for designers?
Designers are embedded in product teams alongside engineers while still reporting to a central design team. This keeps them true to company design principles while interacting daily with engineers.
Why is compromise not ideal for design and engineering?
Continual compromise leads to mediocrity. Instead, each side should advocate for its best solutions, and healthy debate produces better products than meeting in the middle.
Source and freshness
- Source
- intercom.com
- Published
- Added to Yomu
Summaries are generated from the original by a language model. Check the original before relying on it.
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