It depends on what the feature request is or what the real problem is. In the effort assessment, at least as a starting point, once we understand the need, we're really looking for a rough scoping - Is it 1-3 days, 1-3 weeks, 1-3 months etc? With an understanding of the size/technical effort and understanding of the alignment with Product Objectives/Direction, we can make a decision.

Design should be involved in the initial scoping if there are UI requirements or user workflow (i.e. vs. an API solution or something internal), but it wouldn't be from the perspective of specific designs and UX in most cases. That would come later once the green light was given to start implementation. i.e then start design work etc. as per any implementation.