Reduce Email Back and Forth with Designers

Here's a step-by-step to drastically reduce the deluge of emails between you and your clients/internal team. An absolute GAMECHANGER 👇 Enter: The Collaboration Doc 👏 I’ve stolen this idea from Cal Newport’s podcast Deep Questions. I immediately implemented it with my own clients and they LOVE it. Fundamentally, most people don’t need a response *right now* – they just need to be safe in the knowledge that everything is being taken care of. So all the Collaborative Doc is is a very clean, clearly outlined document that you and your clients and/or your internal teams can use asynchronously to reduce overhead tax. Overhead tax is all the unnecessary (and exhausting) meetings and emails flying back and forth that surround a project. Here’s how to drastically reduce your overhead tax immediately: Step 1: Create a shared document This could be in Notion, Google Docs, Word or whatever works best for you and your client. Make sure your privacy settings are all correct. Step 2: Make it incredibly easy to navigate I have mine split into: 📆 Key Details 📝 Meeting Notes 🧠 Brain Dump Within Brain Dump I’ve further split that into all the key stakeholders so they know exactly where to put their notes. Break this down however you want. They key is that it's all clear and formatted, it looks nice, but it's not overworked. This should be as bare bones as possible. Step 3: Agree a cadence The point here is to reassure your client that you will absolutely refer to their notes. If you have a weekly Wednesday meeting for example, say that you will check all notes first thing on a Tuesday. They can be confident that nothing will go un-reviewed and anything that needs to be actioned before the meeting will be. Meanwhile, you get to be clearer on when you work on each client/project, as everyone has a set cadence. Step 4: Be religious about your collaborative documents This only works if your client has absolute trust that you will keep the document updated and reviewed. Do not let anything slip! WHY THIS WORKS Instead of emailing back and forth, clients put any questions, ideas, notes etc into this one, living document. It helps you to whittle communication down to the essential, increasing the value of your work, your time and the experience your client has (remember it's reducing overhead tax for them, too!) I've done the above example for working with a client, but it works just as well for internal teams, too. It gives everyone more time as people know that things are documented and will be picked up, so there's no need to just fire little things off on slack unless they're actually needed there and then. For both groups, streamlining like this means that you can save time and energy for when a response really is needed right away. Simple, I know, but honestly SUCH a winner. Do you do this already? What problems do you foresee and how would you tweak it?

💡Hot Potato Process as Replacement for Design Handoff Design handoff is by far the most stressful part of the design process. In many organizations, design handoff causes a lot of friction and back and forth. All too often, it happens because design team thinks about design handoff as a one-directional exchange ("We send them to design, all they need to do is build it"). But in reality, there can be a lot of factors that impact design, from tech feasibility to business requirements. But there is a solution to this problem—The Hot Potato Process, originally defined by Dan Mall and Brad Frost. ✅ What is the Hot Potato Process The process gets its name from the children's game "hot potato," where an object is passed around quickly, with no one holding onto it for too long. Product teams that follow the Hot Potato process pass ideas quickly back and forth from designer to developer and back to designer, then back to developer for the entirety of a product creation cycle. ✅ Why to use the Hot Potato   The best handoff is no handoff. Teams that follow the Hot Potato process don't have a handoff, a separate step in the design process. Instead, they exchange ideas all the time. And this exchange is bidirectional, meaning that designers and developers refine product ideas together in real-time. The prototype designers and devs are working on becomes the living spec of the project. And since the interaction happens on a regular basis, both designers and developers start to use the same language when discussing it. ✅ How to make the most of Hot Potato ✔ Designers and developers sit together Create designer + developer pairs to maximize work efficiency. Ideally, they should sit together in person, but if it is impossible, it's okay to use real-time synchronous tools to simulate working together in a co-located way. For example, have a Zoom chat open during working sessions. ✔ Both designers and developers work together at the same time Unlike the waterfall process, where developers wait for designers to provide a ready-to-implementation design, the Hot Potato process invites developers not to wait for designers. Consider what designers could do while developers are busy and what developers could do while designers busy. This will enable both teams to work together simultaneously. ✔ Iterative prototyping New ideas should be quickly turned into prototypes. Once prototypes are created, they're passed around quickly for feedback and refinement. Each new iteration builds on the previous one, leading to better solutions over time. ✔ Start small  Hot Potato can introduce a radical change in how people design products, so you can expect a lot of pushback from team members. To minimize the risk of resistance to change, start introducing Hot Potato for small projects. Pick one or two projects where you could test the new collaborative approach. Demonstrate the success of the projects to motivate team members to embrace the new approach. #design #ux #ui

One of the easiest ways to improve your collaboration with product managers and engineers is to improve your design handoff files. - It doesn’t take a lot of time - It drastically improves how people interpret your designs - It reduces backs and forths between engineers and designers - It gives engineers confidence that they are doing the right thing - It increases the chances that what’s implemented will match the design Great handoff files, for me, are an instant sign of design maturity. It shows me that designers think not only of themselves but also the ecosystem of people around them. Coming up with great handoffs boils down to the following: - Setting context - Adding structure - Adding annotations - Including all states - Visualizing the flow - Including a prototype - Doing a run-through Not everything is required for every design initiative; a small feature update may not need a full handoff, whereas a big, impactful one may require everything from the above. In this cheat sheet, I’ve put together my top tips for delivering the “perfect” handoff file. Bonus: I have also created a Figma Annotation and handoff kit with handy components for the above. Find the link in the comments. 👇 — If you found this useful, consider reposting ♻️ PS: By handoff I'm not referring to the process of handing over a design, which should be a collaborative process from problem to solution, but rather the organized design file that is the single source of truth for what needs to be implemented. #uxdesign #uiux #productdesign

PROACTIVE VS REACTIVE LEADERSHIP How you manage client communication can make or break your projects. Many designers fall into the trap of being reactive - i.e. responding to client requests or problems as they come in. But the most successful designers are proactive - i.e. they guide the entire process with authority and expertise. Here’s how you can make the shift from always reacting to starting to proactively anticipate your clients' needs: • Set key milestones in advance: Don’t leave feedback and decisions up to chance. Take control by setting firm dates for major milestones and decisions and clearly communicate them as a non-negotiable. For example, if a fixtures selection requires approval by a certain date, explain the ripple effects of delays on the overall project timeline (e.g. if we don't have bathroom fixtures selected this will hold up the rough in for plumbing etc.). When clients understand the potential consequences, they’re far more likely to meet deadlines and stay on track. • Anticipate challenges: Avoid unnecessary delays by proactively anticipating common issues. If a phase typically drags due to client indecision, present them with a “decision deadline.” This eliminates endless back and forth and shows that you have the experience to foresee challenges and keep the project moving efficiently. Be fun and cheerful about setting deadlines and turn it into a fun challenge for the client to meet (rather than something that feels punitive). • Review process: Replace the typical client "back and forth" with a scheduled review session where you present the next phase of work. This gives you control of the narrative, positioning you as a trusted professional partner rather than simply reacting to client requests. By structuring the review process you make clients feel engaged and informed without overwhelming them. Plus it improves the overall client experience.