WRITE-FIRST DESIGN

Summary from the TLDR Design newsletter

Most design teams make decisions in Figma, where directions accumulate into plans without explicit agreement — but the author's team writes decisions before opening design files. Writing exposes flawed reasoning that mockups can hide, separates decisions from craft execution, and creates durable documentation that keeps teams aligned. The process uses written artifacts like discovery docs and design peer reviews as checkpoints, with decisions happening in written threads rather than meetings.