Engineers need designers who understand constraints — not designers who code¶
Insight: According to Niki Tisza, engineers do not inherently dislike designers — they resent designers who ignore technical realities. "Engineers don't wake up trying to ruin your designs. They wake up trying to ship working software on schedule." The critical need is not for designers to code, but for designers to ask "what's hard about this?" before finalizing designs, respect implementation consequences, and engage with engineering constraints during design phases rather than after.
Detail: Concrete pain points: designers proposing features requiring complete data model rebuilds without considering existing systems, interaction specifications ignoring API response time limitations, and design decisions disregarding established component libraries. Thriving designer-engineer relationships operate on mutual respect for each discipline's constraints — when designers treat technical limitations as legitimate design parameters rather than obstruction, collaboration becomes productive.
Sources
- Niki Tisza — "Engineers don't hate designers" (2026-02-21)