You’ve built a solid business case. The solution design aligns with what the client wants. The sales team is fired up. But your dev team? They're cringing. Again.
Sound familiar?
If you’re a solution architect or technical presales lead, this tension isn’t new. You’re straddling two worlds, one focused on customer needs, the other rooted in technical feasibility. And when the translation breaks down, it’s usually the dev team that bears the brunt of ambiguity, oversights, or overpromises.
So, why does your dev team really hate your solution designs? And more importantly, how can you get them to love, or at least trust, your work?
1. Your Diagrams Don’t Tell the Whole Story
Developers live in systems, not slides. They don’t want conceptual diagrams that look like marketing collateral. They want structure, flow, and detail, without the guesswork.
What to do instead: Use flowchart generators or AI diagram tools that let you map the full process with context. Tools like Splotch help you create diagrams tied to the source conversation or technical documentation. Splotch, for example, lets you turn call transcripts into editable process maps, so what you show reflects what was actually discussed.
Note, you should include data flows, error states, and edge cases in your diagrams, not just the happy path (although we love the optimism).
2. Your Docs Are Too Vague (or Too Dense)
Overly high-level documentation feels useless to developers, while a wall of technical jargon without context is equally frustrating. If your solution design doc reads like a mix of business buzzwords and shallow flows, don’t expect a warm reception.
What to do instead: Strike the right level of detail. Write documentation that answers key dev questions: What are the inputs/outputs? What systems are impacted? What constraints or dependencies exist?
Use collaborative tools like Notion or ClickUp to document decisions transparently. For added clarity, embed visual diagrams that update with the underlying text (Splotch can help here too).
3. You’re Creating Solutions in a Silo
If you only bring devs in once the solution is “ready to hand over,” you’ve already lost half the battle. By then, technical misalignment is often baked into the plan.
What to do instead: Involve developers early; during discovery or solution shaping. Let them poke holes in your assumptions before you commit to timelines or features.
Co-designing solutions in tools like FigJam, or live-syncing diagram platforms builds buy-in and uncovers edge cases early. Bonus: it turns your solution design from a sales artifact into a collaborative blueprint.
4. You’re Not Surfacing Risk Transparently
Dev teams hate being blindsided. When solution designs fail to highlight risks, be it data migration complexity, API rate limits, or unusual edge cases, they're left holding the bag when things go wrong.
What to do instead: Make risk a visible part of your design process. Use a standard section in your documentation or diagrams to call out:
- Assumptions
- Technical unknowns
- Areas of potential rework
Some teams use AI-enabled assistants like Fireflies to capture key risk discussion points in meetings, then tie those notes to visual outputs in tools like Splotch. This ensures context doesn't get lost between call and build.
5. Your Design Isn’t Modular or Scalable
If your solution requires bespoke work for every client, developers will push back hard. Monolithic designs are difficult to test, maintain, and scale.
What to do instead: Think like a developer. Present your solution in modular building blocks that map to reusable components. When your diagrams reflect composability, it’s easier for devs to plug-and-play, test parts in isolation, and iterate faster.
With Splotch (live text-to-diagram sync) you can break complex systems into smaller, visually linked components.
Get Your Devs On Your Side
Solution architects don’t need to code every feature, but you do need to communicate with the people who do. If your diagrams, documents, and processes aren’t making developers’ lives easier, you’re just adding friction.
Winning them over doesn’t mean overhauling your role. It means:
- Diagramming systems with precision and process context
- Writing docs that guide, not confuse
- Involving devs before it’s too late
- Highlighting risk, not hiding it
- Designing for reuse, not one-offs
Use tools that help you show the solution as clearly as you explain it. Whether it’s a flowchart generator, or a wiki, your job is to bridge the gap between conversation and implementation.
Because when your dev team stops rolling their eyes and starts nodding along, you know you’ve done your job.