Forrester analyzes the ROI of Dev Mode

Today’s teams know that it’s not enough for a product to just work—every detail matters. This means creating dynamic experiences defined by smooth micro-interactions, fluid performance, and consistency across platforms. Delivering this level of craft is as important to developers as it is to designers. But even before a developer writes a single line of code, they have to track down the source of truth and go back and forth with their collaborators to understand design intent, on top of managing difficult implementations. That’s why we built Dev Mode—to help developers work faster and more efficiently, without changing what is working for them.

Two years into the launch of Dev Mode, we wanted to better understand how we were delivering on that goal, so we commissioned Forrester Consulting, who employed their Total Economic Impact Methodology to tell us. What they found validates for us the most common challenges we set out to improve with Dev Mode—inefficient handoff processes and redundant work—and modeled how teams use the tool to improve efficiency and time to market.

The amount that Forrester estimates time savings add up to in developer efficiency over three years.

Their findings quantify the impact—estimating increased developer output of 20-30% and weekly time savings of more than 90 minutes for each developer using Dev Mode—but they also underscore the factors that are harder to measure. Today, many designers and developers take a craft-driven lens to the systems and processes that support their work. This focus on the how elevates the what. They might think critically about broad methodologies, like how their team integrates AI, reimagine old workflows, or deploy new tooling, like Dev Mode. The Forrester study helps those trying to justify process or tooling changes understand what it means for them. Here, we share Forrester’s findings on how developers reduced context switching, saved time, and worked better with their collaborators.

Increased profit that Forrester estimates when modeling a composite organization and the benefit of faster time to market.

Read Forrester’s Total Economic Impact study here.

One source of truth

Minutes per week saved on average, based on one company's survey of 200 developers.

Amidst pressures to go faster and ship more, many leaders are wrestling with how to make the product development process more efficient—without sacrificing quality. Forrester found that bringing teams together in a shared space fosters a more fluid workflow and improves time to market. In fact, one company reported that they went from “zero code to release” within six to eight months. “Designers and developers were working back and forth while both were still in progress, rather than [using] the old handoff process where it might have taken two or three years,” said the respondent. Another surveyed 200 of their developers and found average savings of 98 minutes per week.

Previously, many developers lost time having to clarify design intent or find exact specifications. Dev Mode provides them with inspectable design files so they have the exact assets and documentation they need, without needing to clarify with their design counterpart or dig through documentation. This means that rather than having to send a Slack message to the designer or wait for a meeting to discuss—assuming there’s even time zone overlap—developers can more easily self-serve and pull details directly from the file.

One systems designer in the fitness industry said, “Dev Mode enables developers to be more autonomous. Instead of constantly asking designers clarifying questions, they can directly see variables, specs, and code snippets in Figma. This saves them time and eliminates the need for extra meetings or [messaging] threads to clarify designs. Developers are able to focus on building rather than spending time on manual annotations or back-and-forth discussions.”

Reducing manual work and mental overhead ultimately improves the developer experience more broadly. Perhaps most encouraging, one developer referred to Dev Mode as a non-negotiable, and said, “You cannot take this away from me. I can’t work without this.”

Tighter development workflows

Today, developers find themselves pulled into meetings, answering Slack messages, and going back and forth between a number of different tools. Forrester found Dev Mode’s connection to the tools developers already use in their day-to-day workflows to be impactful in reducing this context switching. For example, with the Figma for Jira integration, which links tickets in Jira directly to Dev Mode, developers can update a project’s status and leave comments without having to break their flow.

Code Connect gives developers access to production-ready code, so they don’t have to toggle between sources of truth to find what they need. As one respondent said, “Code Connect is a valuable resource for engineers, allowing you to quickly access and retrieve code, rather than having to read the design system documentation and then navigate to our internal GitHub [repository] to find the component. The component is presented to you, and Code Connect even has a VS Code integration, so engineers don’t even need to leave their IDEs.”

Leaders from Bumble, GitHub, and HP share how they unlock the power of Code Connect.

The amount one organization measured in “reuse value” as a result of making the design system easier to use with Dev Mode.

Plus, Code Connect is the key to tackling one of the greatest challenges with design systems: driving adoption. Design systems speed up development, improve accessibility, and lead to more maintainable and cohesive products, so design leads are always looking for ways to encourage usage. Forrester found one organization measured $4M in “reuse value” with more than $10M expected in 2025, all created by making the design system easier to use with Dev Mode. Quality assurance testers also saw time savings and productivity gains because Dev Mode encouraged use of approved code.“We’ve seen testing savings on average of an 85 to 90% reduction,” said a Chief Design Officer at a financial services organization. “This has made delivering features and capabilities significantly faster.”

A bridge between design and development

The product development process is no longer defined by a linear handoff from design to development, but a more iterative and fluid workflow. This is compounded by the impacts of generative AI, which has designers prototyping ideas and developers scoping designs. As these workflows evolve, it’s more important than ever for designers and developers to understand each other’s work. By giving designers visibility into how their work is implemented in code, Forrester said, Dev Mode helps them understand how to structure and annotate designs for developer efficiency. And, we think this shared understanding supports their efforts to design the process of design and development itself.

More broadly, Forrester found Dev Mode accelerated this process in measurable ways and led to revenue impacts, but the unmeasurable impacts were perhaps even more important. At the companies interviewed, design and development’s relationship was described as “wholeheartedly a joint effort” and “the discussions are now much clearer because they can come together and collaborate.”

As leaders look to navigate an evolving landscape of shifting pressures, competitive forces, and new tooling, this foundation of better collaboration will set teams up for success, whatever comes next.

You can read all the findings from Forrester’s Total Economic Impact study here.