Collaboration is the key.
As a designer, we always want to wait till the last pixel is perfect before sharing it with the development teams.
But over the years, I have come to realise that the earlier you start collaborating and sharing your designs the faster you come to creating a holistic solution.
Tips to embrace collaboration
1. Regular design huddle
Having internal design reviews and sync-ups allow us to share any blockers that we as designers might be facing during the design process. You get an opportunity to share the inspiration, thought process behind the designs that you have created in those sync-ups. Technical feasibility concerns highlighted during those sync-ups by developers/engineers and open conversations to solve for those concerns help build trustworthy relationship between the team members.
2. Discuss low-fi fidelity sketches
Starting to design directly on a digital medium using a tool/software can be a bad idea, because it makes you focus more on what can be achieved by the tool. I always kick-start my ideation process with pen/paper or post-it notes and share them with the team quickly to gather feedback on the initial approach.
3. Incorporate Prototype testing
Prototypes can be in any form - paper prototype, mind map with micro-frames, post-it notes describing a user journey or a fully interactive invision mockup board. Testing any form of prototype with end users allow you to see the gaps real quick. If you do not have access to the end users, try to find a peer group to do a gorilla testing of some of the screens and you would be surprised by the amount of focused feedback you would receive from the test.