u/Oak_WineMC

TL;DR: I'm the only UI/UX designer supporting eight developers. I'm excluded from sprint planning, standups, and most development discussions, so I often only find out about work by accident.

Developers sometimes build features before designs are complete, and many implementations don't match the designs. I'm looking to understand how other UI/UX Leads work with development teams and what a healthy design, development process looks like.

I'm a UI/UX Design Lead, but I'm also the only designer supporting a team of eight developers.

Lately I've been struggling with how we work together, and I'm trying to figure out if this is normal or if our process is fundamentally broken.

At the moment, the process looks something like this:

- A new project starts. Sometimes the Project Manager tells me about it, sometimes I find out later.

- I work on the designs and documentation mostly in isolation.

- Once everything is ready, I hand it over to the developers.

- Sometimes development starts before any designs or documentation are complete.

- The developers build the feature.

- I test it before deployment, if I'm informed...

- A lot of the implementation doesn't match the designs or requirements.

- The developers fix it, I test again, and we repeat the cycle until it's ready. If they don't bypass me completely.

The biggest challenge is that I'm completely disconnected from the development process. I'm not invited to sprint planning, backlog refinement, or daily standups. When I ask the developers what they'll need from me for the upcoming sprint, I usually don't get a response.

Most of the time I only accidentally discover that they need a design, have started developing something, or are about to deploy. By then it's usually too late to influence the solution, and I'm left finding issues during testing that could have been prevented much earlier.

I don't expect to control development, but I do feel like design should be part of planning instead of being treated as a handoff at the beginning and QA at the end.

For those of you who are UI/UX Leads or Senior Product Designers working in Agile teams:

- What's your design and development process?

- Do you attend sprint planning, standups, or backlog refinement?

- How do you make sure developers have what they need before a sprint starts?

- How do you prevent developers from building features before designs are complete?

- What has worked well for collaboration between design and development?

I'm trying to understand whether this is just the reality of being the only designer, or whether there are process changes I should be pushing for. Any advice or examples of how your team works would be greatly appreciated.

TL;DR: I'm the only UI/UX designer supporting eight developers. I'm excluded from sprint planning, standups, and most development discussions, so I often only find out about work by accident. Developers sometimes build features before designs are complete, and many implementations don't match the designs. I'm looking to understand how other UI/UX Leads work with development teams and what a healthy design, development process looks like.

I'm a UI/UX Design Lead, but I'm also the only designer supporting a team of eight developers.

Lately I've been struggling with how we work together, and I'm trying to figure out if this is normal or if our process is fundamentally broken.

At the moment, the process looks something like this:

- A new project starts. Sometimes the Project Manager tells me about it, sometimes I find out later.

- I work on the designs and documentation mostly in isolation.

- Once everything is ready, I hand it over to the developers.

- Sometimes development starts before any designs or documentation are complete.

- The developers build the feature.

- I test it before deployment, if I'm informed...

- A lot of the implementation doesn't match the designs or requirements.

- The developers fix it, I test again, and we repeat the cycle until it's ready. If they don't bypass me completely.

The biggest challenge is that I'm completely disconnected from the development process. I'm not invited to sprint planning, backlog refinement, or daily standups. When I ask the developers what they'll need from me for the upcoming sprint, I usually don't get a response.

Most of the time I only accidentally discover that they need a design, have started developing something, or are about to deploy. By then it's usually too late to influence the solution, and I'm left finding issues during testing that could have been prevented much earlier.

I don't expect to control development, but I do feel like design should be part of planning instead of being treated as a handoff at the beginning and QA at the end.

For those of you who are UI/UX Leads or Senior Product Designers working in Agile teams:

- What's your design and development process?

- Do you attend sprint planning, standups, or backlog refinement?

- How do you make sure developers have what they need before a sprint starts?

- How do you prevent developers from building features before designs are complete?

- What has worked well for collaboration between design and development?

I'm trying to understand whether this is just the reality of being the only designer, or whether there are process changes I should be pushing for. Any advice or examples of how your team works would be greatly appreciated.

My husband wants us to go visit his sister and her baby, but I don't want to go.

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For context, my husband and I have been together for 6 years, and during that entire time I've felt like we were never welcome in my sister-in-law's life. I don't know exactly what happened between her and my husband before I came along, but there has always been a weird distance and I've spent years trying to improve the relationship with no success.

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When the baby was born, we went to visit her in the hospital. She was visibly unhappy that we were there. Later, we wanted to drop off a gift for the baby and asked when we could come by. We were told "No, that doesn't work for me." We then asked when would work, and she never replied.

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My mother-in-law is allowed to visit and does so regularly, but we aren't included. We don't even know where my sister-in-law lives. That's how excluded we've been.

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Recently, my husband asked when we could come see the baby, and for the first time she replied with, "Whenever you want to."

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The problem is that after 6 years of feeling unwanted, I don't want to go. I don't want to walk into someone's home when every previous interaction has made it clear they don't want us there. My husband is more than welcome to go by himself, and I've told him that. I have no issue with him having a relationship with his sister and niece. I just don't want to keep putting myself in situations where I feel tolerated at best.

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My husband thinks I should come with him, but at this point I've stopped trying to force a relationship that doesn't seem to exist.

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So, WIBTA if I refused to go and told my husband he can visit without me?

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping to get some advice from gynecologists or anyone with experience.

I have an appointment coming up where I’ll be having my Mirena (hormonal IUD) removed, and I’d really appreciate some guidance on how to prepare and what to expect during and after the visit.

A few things I’m wondering about:

- Is there anything I should do beforehand to make the removal easier or less uncomfortable?

- How painful is the removal typically, and how long does it take?

- Are there any symptoms I should expect right after (cramping, bleeding, hormonal changes, etc.)?

- Anything you wish patients knew or did before coming in?

- Also, do doctors have any preference when it comes to grooming (waxed vs natural), or does it not matter?

I’d really value both medical perspectives and personal experiences so I can go in feeling more prepared.

Thanks in advance! 😊😊😊

I’m looking for some honest advice because I’m starting to question myself.

I’m a senior manager and the only UI/UX designer in my team. I’ve been at my company for more than 3 years and have more than 10 years experience, so I’m not new, and I understand the product and workflows pretty deeply.

The issue is that some colleagues, mostly junior developers, still don’t seem to respect my role or the importance of UI/UX.

A few examples:

- I’ve been excluded from meetings with comments like “this meeting is only for important people.”

- I’ve heard that some devs told partner companies things like “ignore her, we do.”

- My designs, notes, and testing feedback often get ignored or bypassed completely.

- People sometimes go ahead and build things without looping me in at all.

What confuses me is that not everyone behaves this way. Some (male) colleagues are very respectful and collaborative, so I don’t think it’s purely a company-wide culture issue.

Also, all the negative examples happen to be from male colleagues, but I’m hesitant to jump to the conclusion that it’s because I’m a woman. I’d rather first understand if there’s something I might be doing (or not doing) that contributes to this dynamic.

So I’m trying to reflect honestly:

- Am I not asserting my role strongly enough?

- Is this a communication or visibility issue?

- Should I be escalating this more formally?

- Or is this something beyond my control?

Has anyone dealt with something similar, especially as a solo designer or in a dev-heavy team?

I’d really appreciate constructive feedback. I’m open to hearing if I need to change my approach, but I also want to understand where reasonable boundaries should be.

Thanks in advance.