My Design Process: From Brief to Shipped

Every project is different, but the underlying process is consistent. Here's how I move from a client brief to a shipped product.

1. Understand Before You Design

The first thing I do with any new brief is ask the questions the brief doesn't answer. Who exactly is the user? What does success look like six months after launch? What are the current friction points? What decisions are already made?

Good design solves the right problem. This phase is about making sure I know what the right problem actually is.

2. Define the Constraints

Constraints are the designer's best friend. Time, budget, technical stack, existing brand, each constraint eliminates a category of solutions and focuses the work. I spend time mapping these explicitly before opening Figma.

3. Start with Structure, Not Style

I resist jumping to high-fidelity too early. Low-fidelity wireframes are faster to question and faster to throw away. I'm solving for information hierarchy and user flow at this stage, not pixels.

4. Design in Systems

Every interface element I design gets built as a reusable component. This isn't just engineering hygiene, it forces design decisions to be deliberate. If a button has five visual variants, that's a signal that the design hasn't been thought through.

5. Test with Real Constraints

Prototypes are tested on real devices, in realistic lighting, with users who have no context. The goal is to find the places where my mental model diverges from the user's.

6. Handoff and Follow Through

I stay involved through development. A design handoff is not the end of the designer's job, it's the start of the implementation phase, where design decisions get stress-tested against technical reality.