"We're seeing a fundamental shift in how enterprises approach digital product development," says Noah Levin, Design VP at Figma. "The traditional siloed approach between designers and developers is giving way to more collaborative, integrated workflows that better serve modern digital needs."
This transformation is particularly evident at Atlassian, where global teams operate across multiple time zones. "Figma has made async collaboration so much easier. Developers spot edge cases we might miss in the design phase, leading to better solutions," says Jade Jiang, Senior Product Designer at Atlassian.
The Challenge of Scale
As digital products become more sophisticated, the coordination between project managers, designers, and developers has become increasingly crucial. While this evolution has improved product quality and speed to market, it has also introduced new challenges in managing larger teams.
Commonwealth Bank, one of Australia's largest financial institutions, exemplifies these challenges. The bank previously struggled with time-consuming designer-developer handoffs, requiring approximately 6.5 minutes to annotate each UI screen manually.
"With Dev Mode, developers can hover over elements to get all layout details, making handoffs smoother and less time-consuming," explains Joshua May, Senior UI Designer at CommBank. The bank reports a 77% reduction in annotation time since implementing integrated design tools.
The integration of design and development processes has become particularly critical for companies managing multiple digital products. SafetyCulture, a global technology company providing mobile-first solutions, found that streamlined workflows significantly reduced project delays. "Dev Mode now part of every handover has led to new clarity and efficiency," notes Josh Orr, Head of Design at SafetyCulture.
This experience mirrors the broader industry trend towards unified platforms that can handle increasingly complex digital product development while maintaining team efficiency.
Cross-functional Collaboration
For major retailers like Coles, the challenge extends to managing consistent design processes across multiple brands and digital platforms. "The transparent setup we have with the platform fosters understanding and collaborative learning, even in remote sessions," says Nathan Streater, Group Design Manager at Coles.
The impact of integrated platforms on team efficiency is becoming increasingly measurable too. For example, EndeavourX, managing digital operations for major retail brands including BWS and Dan Murphy's, reports concrete time savings: three hours weekly in designer collaboration and 1.6 hours in cross-departmental coordination.
"Figma is a strong pillar that supports our ways of working in cross-functional teams," says Hallan Moulin, Chapter Lead UI at EndeavourX. The company's experience with over 45 multidisciplinary designers demonstrates how integrated platforms can scale effectively across large organisations.
Future of Digital Product Development
The trend towards unified platforms reflects a broader industry move to streamline processes while maintaining product quality. As Atlassian's experience shows, these platforms can create a culture of shared ownership across teams, improving both efficiency and innovation through tools that facilitate brainstorming sessions and workshops.
"The future of digital product development lies in breaking down traditional barriers between teams," adds Figma's Levin. "Companies that can effectively integrate their design and development workflows are seeing significant advantages in both product quality and speed to market."
The experiences of these major Australian organisations highlight how integrated design platforms are becoming essential tools in modern digital product development, enabling teams to overcome the challenges of distributed work while maintaining high standards of quality and efficiency.
