I've seen design docs work when you have a relatively high number of junior roles compared to seniors. It forces the junior developers to think through their solutions ahead of time and justify their decisions, and it also allows senior developers to validate those decisions and give feedback asynchronously.
Granted, I've never worked in an org with more than 30-40 engineers, as I've always worked in startups. I'm sure things are different in big tech, but I've had positive experiences with them.
Need time and effort to ensure junior docs are thorough. Usually multiple revision in my experience. This require acceptance from management that "just write code fast" is not a success path.
Granted, I've never worked in an org with more than 30-40 engineers, as I've always worked in startups. I'm sure things are different in big tech, but I've had positive experiences with them.