design-engineering
Help users understand and build design engineering capabilities. Use when someone is creating a design engineering function, hiring design engineers, or bridging the gap between design and engineering teams.
What this skill does
# Design Engineering Help the user understand design engineering using frameworks from 2 product leaders who have built design engineering functions at companies like Snap, Captions, and Vercel. ## How to Help When the user asks for help with design engineering: 1. **Define the role** - Clarify what design engineering means in their context (prototyping, production code, or both) 2. **Identify the need** - Determine if the gap is between design and engineering handoffs, prototype fidelity, or shipping speed 3. **Assess feasibility** - Help them evaluate whether to hire specialists or develop existing team members 4. **Design the function** - Guide them on where design engineering should sit organizationally ## Core Principles ### Merge UX design and engineering Gaurav Misra: "A big part of what I did there was create this function called design engineering." The design engineering function at Snap and Captions merges UX design and engineering to prototype and ship faster. ### Combine design sensibility with shipping ability Guillermo Rauch: "A lot of the people that we were noticing were being very successful at Vercel were people that had both the design and engineering skills." The most valued design engineers combine high-end design sensibility with the ability to ship production-ready code. ## Questions to Help Users - "What's the current handoff friction between design and engineering?" - "Do you need prototypes for validation or production-ready code?" - "Where would design engineering sit in your org - design, engineering, or product?" - "Do you have existing team members who could grow into this role?" - "What tools and frameworks would design engineers use?" ## Common Mistakes to Flag - **Unclear scope** - Not defining whether design engineers prototype or ship production code - **Wrong org placement** - Isolating design engineers from both design and engineering teams - **Hiring for unicorns** - Looking for people who are world-class at both rather than strong at the intersection - **Ignoring AI tools** - Missing how AI-assisted development is making this role more accessible ## Deep Dive For all 2 insights from 2 guests, see `references/guest-insights.md` ## Related Skills - Technical Roadmaps - Managing Tech Debt - Platform & Infrastructure - Engineering Culture
Related in Design
contribute
IncludedLocal-only OSS contribution command center. Auto-refreshes the user's in-flight PR and issue state on invoke so conversations start with full context — no need to brief Claude on what's in flight. Helps the user find issues to contribute to on GitHub, builds per-repo dossiers of what each upstream expects (CLA, DCO, branch convention, AI policy, draft-first, review bots, issue templates), runs deterministic gates before any external action so AI-assisted contributions don't reach maintainers as slop. State is markdown-only: candidate files at ~/.contribute-system/candidates/, repo dossiers at ~/.contribute-system/research/, append-only event log at ~/.contribute-system/log.jsonl. No database, no cloud calls. Use when the user asks about their PRs / issues / contributions, wants to find new work to take on, claim an issue, build/refresh a repo's dossier, or draft a Design Issue or PR. Trigger with "/contribute", "what's my PR status", "find a contribution", "claim issue X", "draft a Design Issue for Y", "refresh dossier for Z".
architectural-analysis
IncludedUser-triggered deep architectural analysis of a codebase or scoped subtree across eight modes — information architecture, data flow, integration points, UI surfaces, interaction patterns, data model, control flow, and failure modes. This skill should be used when the user asks to "diagram this codebase," "map the architecture," "show the data flow," "give me an ERD," "trace control flow," "find the integration points," "verify the layout pattern," "audit the UX architecture," or any similar request whose primary deliverable is mermaid diagrams plus cited reports under docs/architecture/. Dispatches haiku/sonnet sub-agents in parallel for per-mode exploration, then verifies every citation mechanically before any node lands in a diagram. Not for one-off prose explanations of code (use code-explanation) or for high-level system design from scratch (use system-design).
mcp
IncludedModel Context Protocol (MCP) server development and tool management. Languages: Python, TypeScript. Capabilities: build MCP servers, integrate external APIs, discover/execute MCP tools, manage multi-server configs, design agent-centric tools. Actions: create, build, integrate, discover, execute, configure MCP servers/tools. Keywords: MCP, Model Context Protocol, MCP server, MCP tool, stdio transport, SSE transport, tool discovery, resource provider, prompt template, external API integration, Gemini CLI MCP, Claude MCP, agent tools, tool execution, server config. Use when: building MCP servers, integrating external APIs as MCP tools, discovering available MCP tools, executing MCP capabilities, configuring multi-server setups, designing tools for AI agents.
react-native-skia
IncludedDesign, build, debug, and optimise high-polish animated graphics in React Native or Expo using @shopify/react-native-skia, Reanimated, and Gesture Handler. Use when the user wants canvas-driven UI, shaders, paths, rich text, image filters, sprite fields, Skottie, video frames, snapshots, web CanvasKit setup, or performance tuning for custom motion-heavy elements such as loaders, hero art, cards, charts, progress indicators, particle systems, or gesture-driven surfaces. Also use when the user asks for fluid, glow, glass, blob, parallax, 60fps/120fps, or GPU-friendly animated effects in React Native, even if they do not explicitly say "Skia". Do not use for ordinary form/layout work with standard views.
plaid
IncludedProduct Led AI Development — guides founders from idea to launched product. Six capabilities: Idea (discover a product idea), Validate (pressure-test the idea against fatal flaws, problem reality, competition, and 2-week MVP feasibility), Plan (vision intake + document generation), Design (translate image references into a design.md spec), Launch (go-to-market strategy), and Build (roadmap execution). Use when someone says "PLAID", "plaid idea", "help me find an idea", "product idea", "idea from my business", "idea from my expertise", "plaid validate", "validate my idea", "pressure-test", "is this idea good", "find fatal flaws", "validate the problem", "plan a product", "define my vision", "generate a PRD", "product strategy", "plaid design", "design from image", "translate image to design", "create design.md", "extract design tokens", "plaid launch", "go-to-market", "launch plan", "GTM strategy", "launch playbook", "plaid build", "build the app", "start building", or "execute the roadmap".
nextjs-framer-motion-animations
IncludedAdds production-safe Motion for React or Framer Motion animations to Next.js apps, including reveal, hover and tap micro-interactions, whileInView, stagger, AnimatePresence, layout and layoutId transitions, reorder, scroll-linked UI, and lightweight route-content transitions. Use when the user asks to add, refactor, or debug Motion or Framer Motion in App Router or Pages Router codebases, especially around server/client boundaries, reduced motion, LazyMotion, bundle size, hydration, or route transitions. Avoid for GSAP-style timelines, WebGL or 3D scenes, heavy scroll storytelling, or CSS-only effects unless Motion is explicitly requested.