Another Case for Design-First Product Development

AI is currently better at coding than creation, and hence the rate of execution of engineers is rapidly increasing, whereas the creative process continues to require space and time to mature.

I expect this gap to continue to widen: engineering tasks leave more data and tend to be more predictable than the artistic practice of designers, making it easier for AI to learn, replicate, and improve on.

Designers will therefore need more lead time in the product development cycle to imagine and craft experiences that the engineers can translate into code and software.

Placing design ahead of engineering will become increasingly necessarily to ensure teams are in-sync, and free of rate-limiting bottlenecks. Alternatively, design teams will be forced to opt for shortcuts (i.e. UI kits and generative AI) that optimise for efficiency at the cost of creativity and differentiation.

Placing design ahead of engineering is often a signal of what the team values most: user experience before technology, or the other way around.

Deriving technology from the ideal user experience tends to benefit the end-user and produce more usable and delightful products, which is a very positive thing.