26 Feb 2025

Push the button 2: a guide to a smoother design-to-development workflow

Illustration of a finger pushing a button

Following on from our first article about how the Button Test revealed critical delivery risks in a recent project, here’s our practical guide to running it with your team.

What’s the problem?

Product managers and design leaders often face a frustrating reality: user-centered design efforts don’t always translate smoothly into development as unexpected challenges emerge late in the process.

What if there was a way to spot these challenges earlier? What if you could de-risk your plan quickly and cheaply? Enter – The Button Test.

What’s in a button?

Add as much complexity as you can as this is more likely to uncover dependencies, data handling challenges and limitations that might not be immediately apparent.

As a minimum, include:

  • Multiple states (hover, active, focused, disabled)
  • Multiple variants (primary, secondary, icons, text only)
  • Accessibility requirements (keyboard, contrast)

Testing the full pipeline

After designing the button, integrate it into your development workflow. Create tickets and acceptance criteria just as you would for any feature. Run it through your complete development lifecycle:

  • Sprint planning
  • Design handover
  • Development
  • Testing
  • Deployment
Illustration of a button being adjusted with a dial

Learn from the process

Document everything you observe:

  • Where do assumptions prove to be wrong?
  • What technical limitations emerge?
  • How accurate were time estimates?
  • Where does communication break down?
  • What quality issues surface?

Observing this process reveals inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and communication gaps, helping teams refine their approach. These insights will help you improve collaboration between design and development for the rest of your project.

At CXPartners, we believe that user-centred design should be part of the delivery process and not just a front-loaded research activity. If you’re looking for a partner to help you align user-centred design with real-world delivery, we’d love to collaborate.

Learn more about Push the button 2: a guide to a smoother design-to-development workflow

Ross Penlington-Young

Reach out to Ross Penlington-Young

Principal Product Designer

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