Debunking 3 Myths About Design and Creativity

In my early years as a designer, I was constantly frustrated. I worked at an agency separated from the development team, and every project seemed like a survival test. The designs I put so much effort into ended up being destroyed by the programmers. Additionally, deadlines were never met, and requirements were left incomplete. I felt like I was in an eternal battle with the developers, where I only wanted the best for the product, and they seemed to sabotage me.

When I joined Runroom, I faced a drastic change: a work culture where everything revolved around collaboration and feedback. I remember very well my first review of design with the team. Jordi, a back-end developer, looked at my work and pointed out accessibility errors and suggested some improvements. Instinctively, I became defensive: what did a developer know about design? However, after processing his feedback, I realized he was right. Thanks to his critique, we built a better product.

This way of working, focused on collaboration, continuous improvement, and shared value, led me to discover that several of the “myths” in design are nothing more than barriers we set for ourselves.

In this experiment, different groups (architects, college students, kindergarten children, lawyers, and CEOs) are asked to build the tallest tower possible using spaghetti, tape, and marshmallows. After the architects, the children always achieve the tallest towers. Why? Because while adults focus on planning, children simply test, adjust, and test again. It's a constant experimentation process that allows them to see what works and what doesn't.

Myth 1: Agile ≠ Creativity

Reality: Agile 🚀 Creativity

Let's start with the first belief: that Agile limits creativity. How are we going to create something innovative if we are constantly running, delivering in sprints, and adapting to rapid changes? The Marshmallow Challenge illustrates how the agile mindset enhances creativity.

That is, in essence, the Agile mindset: doing, testing, and adjusting based on what is learned. Agile is not a list of inflexible rules; it's a philosophy. Instead of hindering creativity, Agile enhances it, allowing us to adapt, experiment, and improve with each iteration.

⭐️ Agile enhances creativity by allowing us to learn with each step. It is not an obstacle but a path to better solutions.

Myth 3: Discovery → Delivery

Reality: Discovery 🔗 Delivery

One of the most common myths is that discovery is an isolated initial phase that must be completed before moving on to the delivery stage. The reality is that discovery is not a preliminary step that can be “completed” and left behind; it is an essential and continuous part of the product creation process.

Let's remember the infamous case of Amazon's Fire Phone. A product launched after exhaustive research but failed because its hypotheses did not address the real needs of users. The lesson? No matter how rigorous the prior analysis, no plan withstands the first contact with the user. This is where discovery plays a crucial role as a living component of the process, accompanying delivery to adjust and validate in real-time.

The same happens between design and development. We often work as if success depended solely on our individual effort, which ends up creating friction and limitations. At Runroom, we break that myth by promoting a constant exchange of ideas. Thus, developers become interested in accessibility and usability, and designers care about performance and technical architecture.

⭐️ Design and development not only can coexist, they must. By working together as a team with the same goal, we achieve better and more robust products.

Myth 2: Dev ≠ Design

Reality: Dev 👩‍❤️‍👨 Design

Let's move on to the second myth, one that generates quite a bit of friction: the idea that design and development are like oil and water. To illustrate, let's talk about soccer. Imagine a forward only wants to score goals and doesn't care if his team loses 4-5, as long as he scored five goals, or a goalkeeper prefers a zero-zero draw, even if his team doesn't win, just to avoid conceding goals. If each pursues their own goal, the team will never win.

For us, working in Agile is not just applying Scrum or Kanban. It's a mindset that prioritizes people and their interactions over processes, values a functional product over exhaustive documentation, fosters collaboration instead of negotiation, and allows us to adapt to change instead of clinging to a rigid plan.

Every project is an opportunity to apply these values and see how they enhance both the process and the final product.

Working this way not only improves design or development; it also transforms relationships within the team. It drives us to challenge ourselves, learn, and grow together.

At Runroom, we adopt a Lean approach, where discovery and delivery go hand in hand. We work in short, repetitive cycles that allow us to make small deliveries, evaluate user feedback, and refine our understanding of the problem with each iteration. This process not only helps us ensure we are on the right track but also allows us to quickly adapt when user needs or context change.

Instead of relying on an initial plan that may become obsolete, we make discovery a continuous process. It is our compass to keep the focus on the user, validating each step and allowing us to make precise adjustments that add real value to the product.

⭐ Discovery is not a phase to “complete” before designing; it is the engine that drives and feeds the design process. The key is to integrate it into every step of development to create more robust products aligned with the real needs of users.

From Myths to Practice

Jordi, the back-end developer who criticized my design years ago and taught me the value of collaboration between roles, is now the CTO of Runroom. He still critiques my designs, but now I value his feedback instead of fearing it. At Runroom, this mindset of collaboration, adaptability, and focus on the product is not an exception or a “different way of working”; it is the foundation that guides all our projects.

Jordi and I, debunking false myths about developers and designers.