Ideally, I like to design after the core experience has been established.

In any case, design can happen in many forms, usually following the method that best describes the element at hand. Whatever get’s the job done.

I tend to design very visual, and ideally in sessions involving communication. We ususaly discover more than the sum of all inputs along the way.

Then I document, a feature-design approach has proven quite useful. I am well versed in Confluence and JIRA which makes tracking and linking the design process easy for production.