What running a multidisciplinary studio actually looks like

The pitch for a multidisciplinary studio is easy. You put designers and engineers in the same room, they collaborate from day one, and the product that emerges is better than anything either discipline could produce alone. The pitch is true. The execution is hard.

“Design always runs one sprint ahead of engineering. Close enough for engineers to challenge decisions. Far enough that design is never the bottleneck.”

How we make it work in practice

The third problem is client communication. We've stopped trying to manage that perception. We introduce every project with both a design lead and an engineering lead in the room, from day one. It's more expensive. It's also the reason our clients rarely feel they've been handed off.