Early in my career, I once spent three full days polishing wireframes during a sprint. Every flow, every edge case, every detail was carefully mapped out. I walked into the review meeting proud of the work-only to realize a teammate had built almost the same thing. We had solved the same problem separately. The room went quiet. What should have been progress turned into wasted effort.

That moment stayed with me. The problem wasn’t design skill, it was communication. We never shared intent, never synced on ownership, never even checked in. From then on, I promised myself: design doesn’t start with Figma, it starts with conversations. A two-minute chat can save days of duplicate work.

Since then, I’ve built new habits. Before I open a design file, I align with the team on who’s tackling what. We use a shared board to track ownership, run quick weekly syncs for visibility, and rely on Slack for fast clarifications. The difference has been huge-no more duplicated flows, and a lot more trust in the process.

• Talk early about what you plan to tackle
• Share drafts even when they feel rough
• Log progress in a central place
• Clarify roles and respect ownership
• Celebrate collaboration openly

What I learned is simple: duplicate work isn’t a design problem, it’s a communication problem. Once we fixed the way we talked, efficiency and energy followed. Projects felt less like individuals running in parallel and more like a team moving together. In the end, good UX isn’t built on tools alone-it’s built on good conversations.