"you stop designing AT developers, and start designing WITH them"
Tech Takes | How do I actually get my designs used by my dev team?
__
#productdevelopment #productdesign #startup #webdev #webdesign #ai #design
If you want to learn more and get notified when it's live, check out our site! technicallylit.com/courses/java...
Split-screen showing a Notion course list for “JS for Designers” with lessons marked “Not started,” and a code example explaining arrays of objects with merchants like Taco Bell and McDonald’s, followed by examples such as Airbnb listings and groceries apps.
Prepping my JavaScript for Designers course!
After lots of iterations, I feel like I've finally cracked how to sequence all the JS content so it just clicks right away for designers 😁
We're up to 6 sections and over 50 lessons--can't wait to start filming!
A Figma layer list using HTML elements and Tailwind CSS classes as layer names.
Anyone else naming their Figma layers like this? 👀
Feels like it helps dev/ai <> design collaboration, but could also get confusing on larger teams. Plus, it assumes design team can work with HTML/CSS structures.
If you're a designer who's always been curious about how JavaScript variables work, then tomorrow's Technically Lit newsletter is just for you 😄
Sign up today to make sure it lands in your inbox: technicallylit.com/newsletter
Want to make smarter technical decisions, collaborate effectively with developers, and thrive in an AI world?
Join the Technically Lit newsletter for practical coding lessons & tips, our latest content, plus a little something extra every Friday: technicallylit.com/newsletter
If you’re a designer, PM, or builder trying to figure out how to keep up with all the change, this one’s for you.
📺 Watch here → youtu.be/iZ16iS9I7Dc
Some of my favorite insights:
🎨 Balancing new AI tools with timeless design principles
⚖️ How to decide which new tech is worth adopting (and which to skip)
🤝 Building strong collaboration between designers, PMs, and engineers
🔑 Keeping users at the center, even as tech reshapes the process
Sylvia shares what it’s like to design at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and collaboration while navigating the flood of new tools without losing sight of what matters most: the people you're designing for.
How do product designers keep up with today’s ever expanding list of responsibilities?
On the season two premiere of Technically Lit, I sat down with Sylvia Nguyen Dang, Principal Product Designer at DIG, to explore this question and a whole lot more.
Interested in more technical tips for designers? Join our newsletter and get a few in your inbox every Friday: technicallylit.com/newsletter
If you’re a designer who wants to understand the real interplay between design and development, this one’s for you.
Check out the full episode here and let us know what you think! www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa5n...
We break down the edges of the skeleton pattern, why “designing for max states” matters, and how designers can push creativity without losing sight of what’s technically possible.
It's often where design intent meets dev reality. Miss the mark, and the product feels clunky or broken. Nail it, and even a 10-second wait feels intentional.
Skeleton loaders, spinners, previews… they aren’t just filler. They’re the direct translation of how data flows, how fast systems respond, and how dev decisions surface to the user.
Our latest Tech Take episode gets into one of the most overlooked parts of product design: loading states.
As designers, we love to obsess over finished screens, but the in-between moments are where trust is built (or lost).
We’ve given our site a light refresh for season two, so check it out to stay in the loop with all of our latest content!
technicallylit.com
Thank you as well to everyone who has taken the time to listen or watch one of our episodes. Your kind feedback truly means the world and makes it all worth it!
We have a couple of incredible conversations lined up already that I can’t wait to share, and we’re looking for more! So, if you’re a product designer, please reach out! We’d love to have you on the show.
Looking forward, I’m so incredibly excited to be kicking off season two! This season, we're going to focus a little bit more on product designers - specifically, how they're leveraging technology and coding skills to do their jobs better, faster, and smarter than ever before.
It feels like every product conversation these days is hyper-focused on one discipline, and it was so refreshing to hear everyone share how they connect the dots between different roles and job titles, and what it actually takes to build incredible products.
And… that’s a wrap for season one of the Technically Lit podcast! Thank you so much to all of the incredible guests who joined us on the show. I feel so lucky to have had the chance to speak with each of you.
👉 If you’ve ever wondered how product management changes when you go from a 30-person startup to one of the biggest companies in the world, you won’t want to miss this episode.
youtu.be/7LPGK2t65dI
Adam also shared how his technical background has been a superpower. Early in his career, he was writing code to replicate customer bugs. Today, that fluency lets him navigate Microsoft’s most complex products and collaborate deeply with engineering teams.
At a startup, a PM’s ideas can become the roadmap by default. At Microsoft, Adam is one of 10,000 product managers competing to influence priorities. That means the real job isn’t just writing PRDs--it’s selling optimism, generating buy-in, and aligning entire orgs across multiple leadership chains.
Most of our Technically Lit conversations have been with people building in scrappy startup environments. That’s why I’m so excited for our latest episode with Adam Wilson who brings a very different perspective straight from Microsoft.
– And ultimately, good product means solving real pain. Code, design, and process only matter if they multiply against that.
Check out the full conversation on YouTube! youtu.be/_WiI8aZnb4M
– Most founders underestimate how hard product design really is. The “what now?” moments for users take far more thought than you expect.
– Cross-functional collaboration is the antidote to the “us vs. them” tension between product, design, and engineering. Squads work better than silos.
– Agency work reveals that tech choices are business choices. Code quality matters, but incentives and constraints often decide the direction.
– The best product managers don’t dictate every step. They give teams freedom, trust them to figure it out, and refine together.
Our conversation was jam-packed with so many incredible insights, I had a hard time picking what I should share as the lead-in here.
These are a few of my favorites:
