​AI has made it easy to produce a decent interface. That raises the bar for product designers: their value must come from product thinking, software fluency, and a thorough understanding of the user.

​In this Deep Dive, Cody Miles makes the case for integrating product designers into the engineering department and the software development lifecycle. Drawing on a recent project with Kadeya, he will show how designers can build working interfaces in shared repositories while engineering retains ownership of architecture, integration, and release. The session will explore a practical workflow for tightening the design-to-engineering handoff without requiring teams to merge their sprints or ceremonies.

​The session explores the emerging role of the product design engineer and what CTOs can change to keep user-centered judgment inside an increasingly AI-driven delivery process.

​Takeaways

• ​Recognize where separate design and engineering workflows repeat discovery, delay validation, and lose product intent.

• ​Define the product design engineer around product judgment, software and data-model fluency, and thorough coverage of states, use cases, and edge cases.

• ​Map shared-repository responsibilities, from realistic mock data and agreed types to engineering review, API integration, and release.

• ​Identify a practical pilot that tightens the handoff while preserving engineering standards and separate design sprints where useful.

​This is a presentation followed by Q&A. Expect a high-velocity exchange that grounds executive theory in real-world technical leadership.

​This is a 7CTOs Member-only call.