Editor’s note: When we first interviewed Natalya, she was at the New York Times, and she’s currently at Github as the Director of Primer Design, Github’s Design System.
Natalya Shelburne, Tech Lead for Design Engineering at The New York Times, sits at a fascinating crossroad of design and development. She leads a team of front-end developers and brings her own experience as a designer and art director to her current role.
We chat with Natalya about her move from design to front-end dev, and some of the fears she faced along the way. We also talk about her approach to bridging design and dev, and what she brings from her prior career as a teacher into product design.
Takeaways:
Ways to approach the unnecessary dichotomy between designers and engineers
Why respect is key to developing good cross-functional partnerships
How to overcome fear of moving into a technical role as a designer
Bio
Natalya Shelburne is a seasoned design and engineering leader who heads the team behind Primer, GitHub’s open-source design system, serving over 150 million developers daily. With a multidisciplinary background in design, software engineering, and education, she previously worked on both experimental and core products at The New York Times and taught Modular Design Patterns with React at Harvard Extension.
An author and frequent speaker, Natalya co-wrote the Design Engineering Handbook and shares her insights through writing and watercolor sketchnotes. She holds degrees in Studio Art, Psychology, and a master’s in Creativity and Talent Development. Her work focuses on bridging design and engineering and building collaborative teams that create at scale.
