Like many designers these days, they’re absolutely a developer too. Look at their past work!

I'm definitely a designer first, so I see things through a design lens. But I think that taking the time to truly understand your users as best you can—whether you're a designer, developer, PM, support, sales, etc—is the first step to building a good product and being able to identify these high impact areas.

just to be clear, when I said you were a designer rather than a dev, it wasn't intended to denigrate you, just to correct the inaccuracy in the "other devs" phrasing.

from your writing, it was very clear that design was your priority, whatever other skills you might also possess. so I feel a bit vindicated seeing your username.