# Design and build collaboration across roles

*Platform Strategy Designer Study Guide · Leveraging Adjacent Roles/Skills · Last updated November 2, 2026 · https://www.certifyforce.com/study-guide/platform-strategy-designer/leveraging-adjacent-roles-skills/design-and-build-collaboration-across-roles*

How a strategy designer keeps design and build work pulling the same way: giving builders the vision's context, tailoring and starting early, knowing which stakeholder owns which question, unsticking decisions with outcomes, accessibility duties by role, whole-team prototype testing, and the agile and lean habits that keep sub-teams out of vacuums.

- Certification: Salesforce Platform Strategy Designer
- Exam section: Leveraging Adjacent Roles/Skills
- Study guide: https://www.certifyforce.com/study-guide/platform-strategy-designer

**Official exam objective:**

> Given a scenario of disparate business and technical deliverables within a design/build team, facilitate productive collaboration.

## What the exam expects

- Give developers and other builders the vision's context and listen to their constraints instead of handing over instructions.
- Tailor what each audience hears, share work early, and pick the stakeholder group that owns an open question.
- Move a stuck design/build decision forward by orienting around outcomes, and win over quiet critics one-on-one.
- Assign accessibility responsibilities to the right roles (product, design, front-end development, program management, testing).
- Run prototype sessions and synthesis as a whole team, and correct the belief that agile means no planning, using the lean principles.
- Key terms: **key stakeholders** (internal people directly affected by the outcome who actively contribute); **orient around outcomes** (start with value, not tactics); **listening roles** (team members assigned to hear feedback through their discipline's lens); **post-test processing** (when and how the team synthesizes insights and decides what to act on); **lean principles** (Salesforce's seven values taken from Lean Software Development).

## Key facts

| Fact | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Developers want | What the product does and why, how features benefit the customer | [Get Stakeholders Aligned](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/go-to-market-planning/get-stakeholders-aligned) |
| Executives want | High-level results and outcomes for the company | [Get Stakeholders Aligned](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/go-to-market-planning/get-stakeholders-aligned) |
| Building trust | 1:1 conversations elicit candid perspectives | [Get Stakeholders Aligned](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/go-to-market-planning/get-stakeholders-aligned) |
| Measurement owner | Data and analytics stakeholders | [Get Stakeholders Aligned](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/go-to-market-planning/get-stakeholders-aligned) |
| Release priority for accessibility | Product managers | [Champion Accessibility at Your Company](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/accessibility-basics/champion-accessibility-at-your-company) |
| Time to fix and retest accessibility | Program managers | [Champion Accessibility at Your Company](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/accessibility-basics/champion-accessibility-at-your-company) |
| Listening roles | Each discipline hears different implications | [Create a Prototyping Plan](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/design-strategy-prototyping/create-prototyping-plan) |
| Agile planning cadence | Yearly, release, increment and daily | [Learn the Basics of Agile](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/salesforce-agile-basics/learn-the-basics-of-agile) |
| Lean values | Seven, from Lean Software Development | [Learn to Use Lean Principles](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/salesforce-agile-basics/learn-to-use-lean-principles) |

## Check yourself

- Why did Cloud Kicks' CEO overrule the team's decision to postpone delivery tracking?
- Why can a larger group watching one low-fidelity prototype give weaker feedback?
- What did Salesforce create to eliminate waste before work starts?
- Which basic issues should testers and quality engineers know how to test for?

## Sources

- [Get Stakeholders Aligned](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/go-to-market-planning/get-stakeholders-aligned)
- [Champion Accessibility at Your Company](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/accessibility-basics/champion-accessibility-at-your-company)
- [Create a Prototyping Plan](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/design-strategy-prototyping/create-prototyping-plan)
- [Learn the Basics of Agile](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/salesforce-agile-basics/learn-the-basics-of-agile)
- [Learn to Use Lean Principles](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/salesforce-agile-basics/learn-to-use-lean-principles)
- [Leverage Adjacent Roles and Skills](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/salesforce-strategy-designer-certification-prep/leverage-adjacent-roles-and-skills)

## About the full unit

The "Core concepts", "Exam traps" and "Worked scenario" sections of this unit, its 14 linked practice questions, and unlimited timed mock exams are included with the Platform Strategy Designer pack (USD $19): https://www.certifyforce.com/practice-exams