Preface
The Big Meeting
ON A COLD SUNDAY IN JANUARY, I left my home in Illinois to catch a late flight to San Francisco for a client meeting the next morning. But this wasn’t just any meeting. About a dozen people from different areas of the company were all presenting designs to the CEO of a giant retail website. Vice presidents, directors, product owners, and UX designers were all involved in putting together a three-hour event that would lay the groundwork for an entire season’s worth of projects, as long as they could get this one executive’s approval.
The whole thing had begun weeks earlier, when I sat in a different meeting about the meeting. Whereas the rest of the product teams had been planning for a few weeks, our project had been overlooked in the previous review with the CEO. He asked why our project wasn’t represented, and so the rest of the team insisted that I be present at the next meeting. It was extremely inconvenient for me. I had been in San Francisco the week before and was now being asked to come back for a single day the following week. To make matters worse, I needed to create new designs to support a view for every product team that was being represented, so I had a lot of work to do to prepare. However, none of that mattered. It was obvious that everyone was willing to drop what they were doing to make this meeting successful.
After working with several product managers and attending yet another meeting about the meeting, I finally had a list of designs that I needed to provide and began working on them right away. The Friday before, I sat in on a four-hour conference call, during which everyone on the team practiced their presentation to a VP, who provided feedback and suggestions for how to best present their ideas to the CEO.
The whole charade centered around one thing: presenting design ideas to a CEO for the purpose of getting his approval. There were meetings about meetings, discussions about what he might say, late nights getting everything just right, and rearranging schedules to make it happen. I personally would spend 16 hours traveling, 2 nights in a hotel, and a full day in a conference room just for this one meeting. Fortunately, the meeting went well. The CEO was very receptive, provided great feedback, and everyone set to implementing the interfaces they had designed.
But that’s not the important part of this story.
What struck me about this whole thing was the amount of effort that was going into just communicating design ideas to one person. The amount of time the other designers spent actually creating the mockups was nothing compared to the time and energy that went into finding the best way of communicating them. It was clear to everyone: if we don’t get approval for our designs, our projects won’t see the light of day. Communicating about the designs was more important than the designs themselves.
You may not have a large staff like this and you may not be working with a large company for which a meeting with the CEO is such a big deal, but the principle is still the same. The way we talk about design to our stakeholders is critical to the success of our projects.
What This Book Is About
The purpose of this book is to help designers become better communicators—to expertly explain their design decisions to the people who have influence over their project. The entire premise of the book centers around a meeting: a meeting with clients or stakeholders at which we present and talk about our design decisions. Everything is written with this meeting in mind: before, during, and even after this meeting. Everything that we will walk through focuses on this meeting and is meant to help you become better at leading, participating in, and saving the day in these situations.
Some of these meetings will involve a lot of other people, but the majority of them involve just a few. Some might take place in a conference room, whereas others are simple hallway conversations. So, don’t obsess over the details of how this overlays with your own reality; instead, focus on the overarching principles that you can apply in any situation. The goal is to remain flexible and able to adapt quickly in different situations.
I go into great detail about writing down everything, asking questions, honing your listening skills, or making multiple designs. It might seem as if you’d need weeks to prepare to talk to someone about your work. But, in reality, it all happens very quickly. Sometimes you’ll have plenty of time to prepare. Other times, you’ll need to form a response off-the-cuff and make very quick judgment calls. That’s the reason learning these skills and committing them to habit is so important. You want articulating design decisions to be something you can do so effortlessly, that you no longer need to spend conscious effort applying all the advice contained in this book.
Talking to people about design might seem like a basic skill, but it’s actually really difficult to do. In my experience, designers have a difficult time adequately communicating with nondesigners in a way that’s effective. So, keep reading and learn how to better communicate to stakeholders, keep your sanity, and deliver the best user experience.
Who Should Read This Book
This book is written primarily for designers working with other nondesigner stakeholders: graphic, web, UX, interaction, interface, or visual designers. However, because the book is nontechnical and deals with many common problems in design processes, many other roles in the organization will be able to relate to, and benefit from, these tips and best practices.
DESIGNERS
If you’ve ever had the experience of a stakeholder insisting on a change that you were unable to defend, this book is for you. It’s a common situation for designers to feel as if their own expertise and judgment is overruled by stakeholders who know little about design. This book is meant to bridge that gap and help you convince them your decisions are the best choice.
SENIOR DESIGNERS
You might think you’ve been doing this long enough and you’re already sufficiently skilled at articulating design decisions, but I promise that there is plenty in here for you, too. Besides validating what you already know, I provide a lot of actionable tactics that you can use to augment your existing practices. Have you ever painted a duck? You have, but you just don’t know it yet.
DEVELOPERS
If you’ve ever had difficulty working with designers or had a stakeholder ask you to change something that you thought made the interface more confusing, this book will give you a lot of great insights and tips to smooth that process. Although I don’t speak directly to developers, I’ve found that most developers are familiar enough with design to benefit greatly from this content. It will help you learn to talk about design in a way that’s accessible and practical.
MANAGERS, EXECUTIVES, PRODUCT OWNERS, PROJECT MANAGERS, AND MARKETING
Everyone involved in the design and creation of a product or service—especially on the Web—can benefit from this book because it provides a common framework for talking about design in a way that’s effective. In fact, Chapter 12 is written specifically for you! Whether you’re an executive concerned about what the UX team has done or a product owner in the trenches with designers every day, this book will give you practical ways to talk about design to other people.
How This Book Is Organized
Before we begin the journey of meeting with stakeholders, in Chapter 1, I open the book with a quick look at how web, app, and UX design has changed in recent years. Specifically, at how those changes have affected and amplified our need to be better communicators of design. It’s important to look at where we’ve been in order to understand where we are going. Chapter 2 then takes this one step further by demonstrating how and why communication is a critical part of the design process in today’s organizations. Our designs do not speak for themselves, so we must understand how clear communication is the missing component in many design processes.
Chapters 3 through 11 are organized in a linear fashion, centered around the meeting with stakeholders. We walk through the process of meeting about and presenting design. At each step, you’ll see a timeline (such as the one that follows) to indicate where we are in the meeting. Along the way, we’ll cover things such as understanding stakeholder perspectives, empathizing with them, and doing the prep work necessary to meet with them. During the meeting itself, we look at both implicit and explicit listening skills as well as learning to get in the right frame of mind before responding. Next, I propose several simple tactics and formulas to help you get approval for your designs by forming the best response. Yet, even after the meeting has concluded, it’s still necessary to follow up and make adjustments to your work to ensure that you maintain the best user experience. From beginning to end, these chapters cover everything you need to know about meeting with stakeholders to talk about your design decisions.
However, because working with people isn’t always a precise linear process, I offer some tips and best practices that will be relevant in many other areas of your work. For example, taking good notes is discussed at length in both Chapters 4 and 10, but the application for documenting design decisions is relevant in every step of your design process.
Finally, I close the book with two important chapters:
This chapter is written for nondesigner stakeholders and is intended to be a resource for anyone involved in making design decisions. Developers, executives, and product owners will all benefit from learning to work with designers more effectively. Designers are encouraged to share this chapter with their nondesigner colleagues.
This chapter is a departure from the concept of convincing stakeholders that our decisions are sound, and instead focuses more on establishing a pattern for demonstrating value through a design vision that’s greater than the existing scope. In other words, communicating about design extends beyond our meetings; it requires a leadership mentality that recognizes how creating and articulating long-term vision is just as important as shipping the thing you’re working on today.
Why I Wrote This Book
To be honest, I’m surprised by the reception this book and its content has received. Of all the areas of my design practice that I found interesting and useful, this topic was not the first thing to come to mind when I was asked to submit a speaking proposal for a design conference in St. Louis several years ago. In fact, it seemed like the most obvious and boring topic because it was something I did every day, almost without thinking. After hearing from people that it really helped them work with stakeholders, I began to look back over my own career to try and understand how my experience could help others in this area.
That process allowed me to see how my own career was filled with examples where better communication yielded better design. I realized that all my favorite designers were people who could intelligently explain why they did what they did. I noticed that a lot of the feedback I give my own team has more to do with the way they present design than it does with their skill at creating it. It has since become clear to me that the way we talk about design with others has a significant impact on whether we succeed at creating great experiences. This is a skill many designers (even senior designers) lack. The success of our work depends on our ability to get support from everyone on the team. If we can’t do that, our designs will never see the light of day.
Let me be very clear: this is not about an “us versus them” mentality suggesting that designers are always right and opposing stakeholders who would otherwise make bad decisions. Rather, articulating design decisions is about creating an environment in which stakeholders can clearly see the expertise and thought process of the designers so that they want to agree with them. It’s about creating trust, demonstrating effectiveness, and doing so in way that’s compelling and convincing.
I wrote this book because I want to help designers and companies create better experiences, but there is a large gap in communication between designers and stakeholders. To fill that gap, I provide real, practical advice that you can apply to your work right now. I did it to document and clarify my own thinking on how design is influenced by communication, but I also did it to help me be intentional about the things I do every day. This book is my own personal checklist for how to talk about design, and I am also excited to share it with you. I hope it will be a useful tool.
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Acknowledgments
Let’s get the most obvious one out of the way. My wife thinks it would be nice if I thanked “my family,” which includes all sorts of characters—including at least five children—who have put up with my shenanigans and sleep-deprived state while I wrote this book. Really, she just wants me to hold the baby while she takes a shower, which I’m happy to do. I’ll be right there. Just let me finish this section.
I do owe a huge thanks to the reviewers: Dennis Kardys, Christy EnnisKloote, Anthony Armendariz, and Heather Wydeven. This book is much more accurate and significantly less offensive because of their help. Also, Nick Lombardi has been my biggest ally at O’Reilly Media. You may not know it, but he’s much more than an editor. He’s like a ninja talent scout, too. The next time you’re at a conference, watch out for Nick.
Last (but most certainly not least) I have to take at least two paragraphs to thank all of my existing and previous clients or stakeholders. Without you, this book would not be possible. No joke. Barb, if you hadn’t gotten ticked off at that email I wrote, how would I know about understanding relationships in Chapter 3? I figured out the importance of reducing cognitive load from Chapter 4 by working with Jenny. The CEO button was inspired by literally every executive I’ve ever worked with! Every. Single. One. Carrie, I appreciate how your over-the-top politeness gave me the opportunity to learn to read between the lines. Josh, you were a weird dude but I’m a better person for having learned to work with you. Really, there are too many people to mention.
Actually, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that every person that has ever worked with me is in some way a part of this book. I became good at talking about design because of you. I had to! You gave me no choice! I learned these skills through years of working with YOU, and now it’s time for me to share it with the world.