Less handoff, more building together

For a long time, an important part of my work ended roughly like this: the design was ready in Figma, the flow was documented, and then the handoff to development began.

But I started to notice that this separation created a problem.

The more complex the experience, the harder it became to represent every decision in a static interface alone.

Figma showed the result, but not always the decision behind it

A screen can show hierarchy, components and states.

But some decisions only really appear when the product starts being built: behaviors, exceptions, technical limitations and situations that simply did not surface during design.

When Design and Engineering work as two separate stages, those decisions tend to be made too late — or without the context that led to the original solution.

So I started reducing that distance.

AI made that proximity even more interesting

When I began using AI to turn design decisions into functional interfaces, I realized I could test some of those decisions before handoff.

That does not mean replacing development.

It means being able to explore closer to the real product.

A flow stops being only a sequence of frames and starts revealing behavior, states and issues I might otherwise find much later.

It also changed my conversations with engineering.

Instead of bringing only a visual representation, I can arrive with a better understanding of how that experience might behave.

Not everything needs to be resolved before building

That was another important lesson.

I used to think I needed to resolve almost the entire experience before it reached implementation.

Today, I see more value in clearly defining intent, rules and boundaries, then allowing some decisions to mature while the product is being built.

That requires collaboration.

Design remains responsible for the experience. Engineering remains responsible for implementation.

But there is a space between those responsibilities where many important things happen.

That is exactly the space I want to bring closer.

For me, less handoff does not mean less documentation or less accountability.

It means reducing the distance between the person defining the experience and the person turning it into a product.