How Atono helps designers stay aligned with devs and PMs

At Atono, our designers are embedded in cross-functional teams, working closely with product managers and engineers to shape what gets built. Atono—the product—is designed to support that kind of collaboration from start to finish.

This article highlights how our designers use Atono to stay aligned throughout the development cycle: shaping stories during refinement, tracking upcoming work, staying involved through build and rollout, and reviewing outcomes. While every team works a little differently, these examples reflect how Atono is designed to support cross-functional collaboration—whether your design process is fully embedded or runs alongside.

Atono brings it all together. It helps designers stay tightly connected to product managers and engineers, so design stays relevant, accurate, and impactful at every stage of the development cycle.

Atono’s Story refinement product backlog gives designers a seat at the table before anything is sized or scheduled. In the ‘Refinement’ workflow step, designers collaborate with PMs and the team to clarify user stories, define acceptance criteria, flag edge cases, and add mockups or behavior notes. Once a story is ready for sizing, it’s moved to ‘Ready for assignment’—clear signal that design is complete and context is in place.

Custom widgets on the Home screen help designers stay focused without digging through backlogs. For example:

• A widget for ‘Stories in Refinement’ highlights upcoming stories that need design input.

• ‘Assigned to me’” shows active stories and bugs you’re involved in.

• A custom widget filtered by development teams can surface when design is needed urgently for in-progress work.

Product themes help designers see how a story fits into the broader product and where design assets should live. When reviewing a new story, themes make it easier to decide where to place related mocks or flows—such as organizing work within the right page or section in Figma—so it’s easier to revisit later. They also help frame conversations with PMs and devs by clearly tying work to a specific part of the product.

Timelines show which stories are planned for upcoming sprints, grouped by timebox. Designers use these views to plan ahead—making sure design is complete before development begins. It also helps identify when multiple features might need coordinated design or content work.

In Atono, stories are the central place where work is shaped, shared, and built. Designers link Figma files directly in the story, so everyone has access to the latest version. The story becomes the shared reference point for everyone involved—linking to the latest mocks, capturing key conversations, and tracking changes throughout implementation.

If deeper collaboration is needed, you can create a Slack channel from the story and bring the right people into the discussion—without losing context.

Once a feature is built, designers can use feature flags in the story to enable it in a sandbox environment and test behavior directly. This helps ensure the implementation aligns with the intended experience before a broader rollout. Feedback can be shared in the associated Slack thread or story comments.

When bugs are reported, Bug triage helps designers assess UX issues, provide clarity on behavior, and weigh in on priority. Stories and bugs can be linked to preserve context and ensure nothing gets missed when issues are addressed.

Atono’s search and filtering tools help designers locate what they need quickly—whether that’s a past story, an item in a specific workflow step, or all stories related to a product theme. Combined with sorting and saved filters, it’s easy to stay organized and pick up where you left off.

These examples reflect how our designers use Atono as part of a cross-functional team, but they aren’t rules. Atono gives you the flexibility and structure to support how your team works—whether that means being involved from the start, checking in during QA, or validating work post-release.

It’s not about following a rigid process. It’s about giving designers the visibility and connection they need to stay aligned with PMs and devs—and deliver great experiences with confidence.

Curious how Atono could support your team’s design process? Start a free trial to explore the platform and see how it fits the way you work.