1 min lesson
Make the code visible
Name the key items in "Make the code visible", then explain why each one matters.
Step 1 of 2
Make the code visible
A Design Engineer who only shows renders invites the worst suspicion in this role: that a designer handed you the visuals and an engineer wired them up. Close that door before it opens.
- Link the repo, a CodeSandbox or a live deploy for at least one piece - let them read your component API.
- Be ready to talk through the actual implementation: how state flows, where the animation runs, why the markup is shaped that way.
- If the code is closed-source, rebuild one interaction as a small public demo you fully own.
Open with a thirty-second map of your three pieces before you dive in: “I brought a design system I built, one genuinely hard interaction and a small detail I obsessed over.” It signals you curated on purpose and lets the reviewer steer toward what they care about most.
If you have anything IDE-adjacent - a code editor pluginA Cursor marketplace package that bundles MCP servers and skills (sometimes sub-agents and hooks); one click installs all of it into your Cursor instance. Press Enter for the full definition., a terminal UI, a diff viewer, a command palette, a developer dashboard - lead with it or weave it in. Cursor invents interaction paradigms for developer tools, so adjacency to that world is a direct signal you understand the surface. No such work? Say so honestly and point to the transferable interaction craft instead.