Erica Jorgensen

Breaking Down the Walls: Fostering Healthy Collaboration in Design Teams

Cross-team collaboration is difficult, even painful. But it’s something that’s often ignored or simply accepted because we’re so busy trying to get our work done. Are we really that different from each other—engineering, product management, design, research, content, and leadership? Yes, we certainly are! Technological improvements like Figma, while amazing for helping us get design work done more quickly, have highlighted these differences, instead of making collaboration easier. Working from home or in hybrid work environments add to the friction. So what can be done to help? Looking back on 25 years of working for companies of all kinds, from struggling startups to global successes, I’ll share stories and compare some dysfunctional teams and projects to wonderfully successful ones, to offer a way forward.