10

Meeting Adjourned: The After-Party

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

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

The meeting after the meeting may be more important than the meeting itself. People hang around, casually discussing what just happened. But it is in these informal environments that some people will tell you how they really feel about the project or what they think needs to be done. For whatever reason, people don’t always speak up and say what they’re thinking in front of a group. Usually 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 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 your best chance to wrap up any unfinished business and work with the influencers to get the approval 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 after the meeting, chat with people, thank them for their participation, and see what happens. I promise that just as much will get done in the hallway 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 leg work, 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 believe they’re very busy, 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 for them 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 discussed:

• The carousel on the home page 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 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 key 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.

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. The general idea is that 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 writing your notes or creating the follow-up, use your own discernment to decide if it ever needs to be mentioned again. Some stuff can safely fall off the radar, and no one will ever notice.

Other times, you may have a colleague or stakeholder who is saying or suggesting things that are totally off the wall. Related to the idea that people like to hear themselves talk, some people will just riff on an idea. They might call it brainstorming, but it’s clear to everyone in the room that this person is going off on a tangent. It’s okay, though. Allow them to speak and make them feel valued. The important thing is that you recognize these situations and account for them in your follow-up by discreetly excluding their suggestions.

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 or forward thinking, 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 virtual reality map with which the user could walk down store aisles and, using augmented reality, see all the details of each product on shelves with popovers 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.

There are a few flags to watch out for. You need to quickly assess several things about the person:

• 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.

• What is everyone’s opinion of the person? Sometimes, you can tell that everyone else on the team doesn’t take this person seriously. You can tell by the way they react, either with rolling eyes, groans, or polite compliance. Understanding relationships and influence is important to applying these filters.

• 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 ignore that idea. Read the room and make a judgement call.

• Is this person influential enough to matter? It might seem trite, but some people simply are not influential enough for their opinion to matter to us. 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 communicate later. You actually don’t want it to come up again, so be sure to address the idea before that happens.

The point here is that it might be possible to just ignore the suggestions offered by some people and not allow them to cloud your judgement on the project. I don’t mean to suggest that we should disregard certain people as irrelevant; rather, we must learn to understand when their comments don’t align with the objectives of the project. If they aren’t influential, no one agrees with them, and they aren’t likely to bring it up again, it’s a safe bet you can just move on and never mention it again.

NEVER MENTION IT AGAIN

I was in a meeting with five or six people, and there was one woman who was particularly charismatic and full of energy. She wasn’t from the same team, but she was an influential person and asked to be included. Overall, I’d say that although everyone enjoyed working with her (she was a fun person to be around), she had a reputation for being, well, sort of crazy.

During the course of the meeting, another person was commenting on an interaction and making suggestions when she jumped in with an idea. Her 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 must-have item. Her feature request was outside the scope of the project, although “revolutionary” 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 her, a bulleted list of what we had talked about, but her idea was purposefully missing. After that, I never heard another thing about it. No one else on the team mentioned it, and she never brought it up to me.

In this particular case, I had to use a keen sense of understanding 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 her feel good about it in the moment: I asked questions and I wrote things down. She had no idea what I was writing down; it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that I respected her enough to listen and take notes. I made her feel valued. Even if she had noticed that I left her idea off the follow-up, she knew that I had at least considered it. I don’t know for sure, but my guess is that she either didn’t read the email at all or never even noticed that her 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 with whom you’ll want to talk. You might offer to follow them back to their desk, walk them to their next meeting, or invite them to continue the conversation later over coffee. 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, and 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 defense and expresses agreement with 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 and have the opportunity to help influence your work.

This is not a formal mentor relationship as much as it is an opportunity for you to involve people from other areas who you know are smart and can help champion your cause. It’s one thing for your boss to hear you defend your designs, but it’s quite another thing for him to hear other people outside your team agree with you. That sort of contribution is extremely valuable in design.

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 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 McDonalds 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 McDonalds—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 [sic] 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 the designer restyle it appropriately. Often, the best way to get people’s attention is to make a bad decision.

The same thing happens with design decisions and business. 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 just need to learn how to recover from disaster.