Designers often have a much more intimate view of the application as an abstraction. I don't think you want to be benching that knowledge very often. Having e

Designers often have a much more intimate view of the application as an abstraction. I don't think you want to be benching that knowledge very often. Having extended research phases or personal development would be great to cycle in between major releases. In the interim they might develop better tooling or A/B a subset of features, or strategize with the analytics dept. We really all should have a designer mindset, but truly professional designers are product gurus.