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Follow Up Afterward

When the meeting is over, you still have plenty of work to do. The time immediately after a meeting is nearly as important as the meeting itself, so don’t rush off and leave everyone behind. Wait and talk to people afterward to debrief and gain insights that weren’t apparent at the time. Informally have one-on-ones with people who can help champion your cause and then follow up quickly while it’s still fresh. This time immediately following the meeting is your best defense against making a decision that could ultimately spell disaster for the user experience of the project. Plus, you might be able to correct some concerns even if you think the decision has already been made. Let’s quickly review some of the things you’ll need to do immediately after the meeting:

• Stick around to chat with people.
• Follow up quickly with your notes.
• Apply filters and remove the fluff.
• Seek out individuals who can help you.
• Make decisions when there is ambiguity.

The Meeting After the Meeting

For whatever reason, people don’t always speak up and say what they’re thinking in front of a group. Often it’s because the purpose is to allow the boss to have his or her say, but sometimes it’s because what people are thinking might be unpopular or risky and they don’t want to upset the status quo. And so they’ll wait until the meeting is over, pull you aside, and tell you what they think. It is amazing how many decisions are made immediately after a meeting is dismissed. This is a great opportunity to wrap up any unfinished business and work with the influencers to get the support you need.

Post-Meeting Popularity

Sometimes, the hallway outside a meeting is the most productive place. I was in a meeting with an executive to review the implementation of a design that had been previously agreed upon. The meeting itself was fine. There were no huge hang-ups and nothing major to report. But immediately afterward, once the executive had left, everyone stuck around specifically to talk to me.

One person asked me to keep her in the loop in the future so that she could back me up during our next meeting. She wanted to help me succeed and was willing to be direct about it. Another person wanted to rewind to an earlier decision and give me permission to move forward, even without explicit approval from that executive. He wanted the project to move forward and was willing to stick his neck out for me. And a third person apologized for being absent from my other meetings, asked to meet with me directly to share her concerns, and promised to be more involved going forward. All three of these conversations might not have happened with the same degree of urgency if I had rushed off somewhere else.

Always make plans to stick around for a few minutes after the meeting, chat with people, thank them for their participation, and see what happens. If you work remotely, you can stay on the call for a bit or even message one of the participants and ask them to debrief for a few minutes. I promise that just as much will get done outside the meeting time as it did during the actual meeting itself.

Follow Up Fast

As soon as possible (preferably within an hour or at least within a day) send a follow-up to the entire team. It doesn’t need to be written perfectly; the purpose is more functional than poetic. You need to follow up while it’s still fresh on everyone’s mind, including yours, before anyone has a chance to forget and disagree with the decisions they’ve already made.

A quick follow-up demonstrates that the meeting was a priority to you, so much so that you’re not going to do anything else until it’s settled. Second, it values the participants because it shows that you’re doing the legwork, keeping them informed, and making the best use of their time. Next, it shows that you’re listening. You’re not just going to throw away all of their feedback: you wrote it down, are taking it seriously, and are concretely communicating it to the entire team. And lastly, it gets everyone on the same page about what was decided so there is no confusion going forward. You’re creating a record for everyone to see and giving them the opportunity to reply if they have any additional insights.

This written record has proven to be invaluable to me months later, when new people on the project want to know who or when we made decisions. A quick search reveals my notes or communications, and I’m able to avoid a rediscussion. I’ve also had managers hang on to these communications and use them in other meetings to update different stakeholders. Some might even copy and paste it into a different communication to their own boss. The use and reuse of the follow-up cannot be understated.

The follow-up should include a few things:

• First, thank the meeting attendees for their time and participation. People have other things going on, and we need to appreciate that they’re taking the time for us.
• Second, recap everything that was discussed. This can just be a simple bulleted list with the decision noted. Having a simple list makes it easy to share with other people.
• Last, focus on actions, next steps, or expectations. You want to always (as much as possible) communicate what’s going to happen next. This helps people see that the meeting was a good use of their time because it’s moving things forward. It also offloads the burden from you and allows the entire team to participate in the next steps.

Don’t be afraid to assign tasks to other people, even those outside your immediate influence. It’s common in meetings for one person to volunteer to investigate something, seek information from another person, or agree to take the conversation elsewhere. The follow-up is the perfect place to remind everyone who is doing what. Be as specific as possible. Note the item in question, mention to the person who will be responsible for it, and provide dates or a general timeframe for when we will know more. Ask direct questions, too, so that there’s no ambiguity about what items are still open. List important decisions and make it clear why the decision is being made.

Here’s an example of what a follow-up might look like:

Thanks, everyone, for your time today! It was a very productive meeting, and I appreciate you all being available. Here is what we decided:

• The transition on the homepage moves too fast. Jon is going to change it to 100 ms.
• The price for items in Best Sellers seems too small. I will check to make sure it’s consistent with the others and adjust as necessary.
• The category tree appears to be using the wrong data. We have an email out to Abdul to address this.
• Stan is concerned the CTA for membership is too large and uses the wrong copy. Jennifer is checking with content for the correct copy. I will forward the usability study that informed this.
• The release date has been approved, pending QA. Jon is going to email us tomorrow with a status update.

The important thing here is to keep your update as short and specific as possible without leaving out any important information. Your stakeholders should be able to quickly skim without becoming bogged down in the details. If they need more information, they should be able to link to your full notes and documentation too.

Apply Filters

Another post-meeting strategy is to use your best judgment to filter out all the unnecessary information that isn’t worth repeating to the entire team. This can be difficult to assess, but it’s necessary if we expect to communicate without too much clutter. There are plenty of things that are said in a meeting that do not need to be reconsidered, rediscussed, or rehashed again. Much of it will be obvious, but some of it is more difficult to discern.

For example, when most of the people in the room nod their heads at the right solution, but one or two people still have questions, allow them to speak their minds. Let them talk, listen to them, apply all the same skills you have learned so far. But, when it comes time to write your notes or create the follow-up, use your own discernment to decide if it needs to be documented. Some stuff can safely fall off the radar, and that’s okay.

Other times, you may have a colleague or stakeholder who is saying or suggesting things that aren’t totally relevant. Related to the idea that people like to hear themselves talk, some people will just riff on an idea. That’s fine. It happens a lot. Some might call it brainstorming, but it’s often clear that this person is going off on a tangent. It’s okay, though. Allow them to speak. Value their input in the process. The important thing is that you recognize these situations and account for them in your follow-up by discreetly excluding any information that’s just going to add clutter to the conversation.

Ignoring “Innovation”

Once I was in a meeting with a client, discussing the idea of an interactive map of the client’s retail stores. The existing map was nothing more than a static image with labels that the user could pinch and zoom. While reviewing some of the map designs, the project manager went off on a tangent about how these maps weren’t innovative enough, that he would have expected more from us, and wanted to know where our “out of the box” ideas were. He then began pontificating on a 3D map in which the user could walk down store aisles and, using augmented reality, see all the details of each product on shelves with pop-overs and animations. Although he meant well, I knew better than to spend time on this idea, and I was able to remove that part of the meeting from my follow-up notes.

To help you understand what information you can safely filter, you need to quickly assess several things about the person providing the feedback:

What are this person’s intentions?

Some people are just throwing out ideas casually and don’t actually have any intention of them going anywhere. They’re comfortable with the idea that it never progresses beyond the initial suggestion.

Do other people agree or disagree?

It’s often clear that no one else agrees with this person, and even if there isn’t a decision, you can safely move on without adding their idea to your documented notes. Read the room and make a judgment call.

Is this person influential or not?

Some people are more influential and important to our decision making. Figure out who’s who and then use that to inform your decisions for following up.

Is this person likely to bring it up again in the next meeting?

If so, you’ll need a way to politely defer the decision and follow up later. If you actually don’t want it to come up again, be sure to address the idea before that happens.

The point here is that it might be possible to pass over some of the information in the meeting and not allow it to cloud your documentation or the project. We need to learn to understand when people’s comments don’t align with the objectives of the project. If they aren’t an influential part of the decision, no one else agrees with them, and they aren’t likely to bring it up again, it’s a safe bet you can filter it out.

Never Mention It Again

I was in a meeting with five or six people, and there was one person who was particularly charismatic. He wasn’t from the same team, but he was an influential person in the company and asked to be included in our conversation. Overall, I’d say that although everyone enjoyed working with him (he was a fun person to be around), he also had a reputation for having too many wild ideas.

During the course of the meeting, another person was commenting on an interaction when he jumped in with an idea. His idea took shape as something completely off the wall, virtually impossible to pull off or at least incredibly unrealistic, and the entire conversation shifted briefly to this wild brainstorm. I didn’t participate; I just took notes and asked questions. Others chimed in, but it seemed clear to me that no one else really thought this was a priority. His idea was outside the scope of the project, although quite creative and definitely forward-thinking.

After the meeting, when I was writing my follow-up, I came to the section of my notes with this idea. Rather than have it live to see the next meeting agenda, I chose to simply leave it off the follow-up entirely. I emailed everyone in the room, including him, a bulleted list of what we had talked about, but that idea was intentionally missing. After that, I never heard another thing about it. No one else on the team mentioned it, and he never brought it up to me either.

In this particular case, I had to understand the dynamics of the relationships at play in the room; otherwise, I might have stumbled into a request that had the potential to completely distract us. Yet, it’s important to point out that I did two things to make him feel good about it in the moment: I asked questions and I wrote things down. He had no idea what I was writing down; it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that I respected him enough to listen and take notes. I made him feel valued. Even if he had noticed that I left the idea off the follow-up, he knew that I had at least considered it. I don’t know for sure, but my guess is that he either didn’t read the email at all or never even noticed that the idea was missing.

Overall, you must learn to filter out all the cruft that can cloud your decision making. It’s too easy to think that everyone’s opinions and ideas need to be incorporated into our designs, but that’s not true. It’s actually a dangerous path. Use your skills in listening and relational discernment to remove the stuff you don’t need, keep the most important things, and follow up quickly with what’s being done.

Seek Out Individuals

Just like the meeting after the meeting, there might be some people you’ll want to talk with afterward. You could offer to follow them back to their desk, invite them to continue the conversation later over coffee, or direct message them to debrief afterward. It’s important that you ask right after the meeting, while everyone still has their brains in gear and is thinking about your project. When they get back to their desks, it will be a lot more difficult for them to make time for you.

The purpose of these one-on-ones is to give people an opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions outside the constraints of a meeting where other people are listening. You can use these interpersonal relationships to collect more information about the project, gain insights about team or company dynamics that you might not otherwise know about, and build new relationships that can help you get what you need in the future. These people are the influencers on your project, and they can become part of your coalition for influencing the next meeting and the next round of design revisions.

Meetings are usually a good time to see people who you don’t normally interact with regularly. They might be from another department or team, so they don’t get to see everything you’re doing. I find that I’m always pleasantly surprised when someone I don’t know well comes to my aid and expresses support for my proposal. You want to always be intentional about seeking these people out and finding ways to connect with them more regularly to keep them in the loop so they have the opportunity to help influence your work.

Do Something, Even If It’s Wrong

When I was a kid, my dad and I built a treehouse together. I remember one time while he was holding up a board, he dropped his tools. He was standing on a ladder, holding this heavy piece of wood in place, and unable to do anything himself. I didn’t know what to do and just stood there looking at him in indecision. Should I try to help him hold the board? Should I jump down and get the tools? What should I do? After a few seconds of agony, he yelled to me, “Well, do something! Even if it’s wrong!” This was actually a common phrase of my dad’s. The sentiment is that sometimes it’s not clear what we should do, but it’s almost always better to do something rather than nothing.

I wouldn’t suggest applying this logic to too many of life’s important decisions, but it’s often the case that meetings end without any clear resolution to some of the most important questions for our designs. Sometimes, even when we press hard to get people to make decisions, we still can’t get agreement or move forward. Perhaps no one is willing to speak up in front of other stakeholders. Maybe no one really cares about one particular element. What’s common is for no obvious solution to appear to be the right course of action. No one is really sure what to do, and so no one does anything at all.

In these cases, I recommend simply making a decision yourself and communicating it to the rest of the team in your follow-up. It’s better to do something (even if it’s wrong) and give your team the opportunity to speak out for or against your choice rather than deal with stale decisions and a stagnant design process. Sometimes, you just need to decide and tell everyone else what you’re going to do to get them to speak up.

There’s a similar idea called the McDonald’s theory, proposed by Jon Bell. If you’ve ever had the experience of standing around with friends trying to decide where to go eat, then you know this feeling. Everyone is trying to be polite, and no one seems to really care which restaurant you go to. As a result, you all continue to stand around and not go anywhere. According to Jon’s theory, you should suggest eating at McDonald’s—make the decision for the group—and suddenly everyone will have an opinion about where to go. Jon Bell says, “Anne Lamott advocates ‘shitty first drafts,’ Nike tells us to ‘Just Do It,’ and I recommend McDonald’s just to get people so grossed out they come up with a better idea.”1

A developer friend of mine, Mark, does the same thing with styling CSS in his projects. Because he’s not a designer (and not very good at CSS), he wants to be sure the designers will make it better. However, he’s had too many experiences when his CSS was seen as “good enough” and never polished to the degree he knows it should be. Rather than have to explain to everyone what needs to be done, he simply applies appalling colors to every element: bright red, hot pink, or putrid brown to be sure that anyone who sees it will insist that it be restyled appropriately. Often, the best way to get people’s attention is to make an obviously bad decision.

The same thing happens with design decisions. No one is quite sure what the right solution is, and everyone wants to be polite. These are your designs, after all, and they may not want to hurt your feelings. If you’re faced with indecision or ambiguity, take the lead and make the decision for everyone. Find the choice that you believe is best and then communicate that to the team. Be specific, provide examples, and give them a deadline. Say something like, “If I don’t hear back from anyone by the end of the day, I’m going to move forward with this design.” You may not hear from anyone, but sometimes people will suddenly have stronger opinions and allow you to discuss the right solution. It’s not a perfect science, but it’s a great way to keep your designs moving forward. Remember: do something, even if it’s wrong.

It’s important to keep in mind that even when the meeting is over, your work is not done. Often, the most productive parts of the meeting happen after everyone has left the conference room. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to finalize decisions and get buy-in from people after the fact. Keep these tips in mind for when the meeting is adjourned:

• The time immediately after the meeting is a great opportunity to hear what people really think.
• The faster you follow up, the more you communicate urgency, value, and decisiveness. Do it now.
• Filter out any clutter or unnecessary recommendations from your notes that you know do not need further action.
• Stick around to chat, follow people back to their desks, and get the last-minute buy-in you need to move forward.
• If there’s ambiguity, make a decision and communicate it to everyone else. That might be the only way to move things forward.

The thing with meetings and design decisions is that they don’t always go the way we want. Even with the most eloquent response and the best follow-up, we might still need to make changes to our designs that we disagree with. But if you walk away from a meeting feeling like all is lost, don’t worry. It’s still possible to save the day and rework your designs to meet everyone’s needs without totally losing it. You need to learn how to deal with changes.