1. Effective communication is a core skill for designers as they need to justify their design decisions to stakeholders. 2. The document outlines seven things to focus on when communicating design: understand the business goals; set the stage properly for meetings; be confident as the expert; be engaging with stakeholders; don't take questions as change requests but as understanding; guide the feedback loop to get useful input; and don't get defensive when receiving feedback. 3. By focusing on business goals, preparing thoroughly for meetings, and handling feedback professionally, designers can communicate their work successfully to gain approval.

1. COMMUNICATING DESIGN
Farah Nuraini
Februari 2016Adopted from Matthew Green and Mike Montierro’s works

2. Being awesome at design is not enough.

3. Communication is a core skill
for designers
If you cannot justify your decision and communicate
that to the people who will approve your work,
you might as well have not done your work

4. Communication is a skill we can all improve

5. 7 THINGS IN COMMUNICATING DESIGN

6. 1. UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS

7. 1. UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS
• You are not there to make stakeholder
happy
• Your job is to solve a business problem
• Happiness is a side effect of meeting those
goals

8. 1. UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS
• Understand the business goals (interview)
• Understand how the thing you’re building
support those goals
• Define the metrics for success

9. 2. SET THE STAGE PROPERLY

10. 2. SET THE STAGE PROPERLY
Prepare:
• Why are we here?
• Where are we in the process?
• What are the goals for the meeting today?
• Restate the approved: brief, problem, and
goals

11. 2. SET THE STAGE PROPERLY
• Make sure you’re ready (better to cancel
a meeting than waste people’s time)
• Prepare all the materials you need in
case there is no internet

12. 3. BE CONFIDENT
You’re the expert. Make them trust you. Don’t apologize.

13. 4. BE ENGAGING

14. • What is the interesting angle?
• Watch for sign of engagement vs boredom
• Ask questions to make sure they are
following
4. BE ENGAGING

15. 5. DON’T CONSIDER QUESTIONS
AS CHANGE REQUEST

16. “Why is this green?”
“I can change it?”
5. DON’T CONSIDER QUESTIONS
AS CHANGE REQUEST

17. 5. DON’T CONSIDER QUESTIONS
AS CHANGE REQUEST
• Sometimes a question is just a person
trying to understand
• If something is designed for a reason,
respectfully assert why the decision was
made.

18. 6. GUIDE THE FEEDBACK LOOP

19. 6. GUIDE THE FEEDBACK LOOP
• Feedback loop is a term
commonly used in economics to
refer to a situation where part of the
output of a situation is used for
new input

20. 6. GUIDE THE FEEDBACK LOOP
Don’t ask ambiguous questions
e.g “What do you think?”, “Do you like
it?”

21. 6. GUIDE THE FEEDBACK LOOP
• What is the feedback or action you
need in order to do your job?
• Make sure the stakeholders are
clear about what they are seeing
• Know the stakeholder’s pet peeves
and what drives them crazy

22. 6. GUIDE THE FEEDBACK LOOP
Example:
We are showing you a payment flow.
Please ignore errors and typos,
as today our goal is to focus on
flow and to make sure that there is
no missing scenario in the process.

23. 7. DON’T GET DEFENSIVE

24. 7. DON’T GET DEFENSIVE
• When we get defensive, we make it harder
to really listen to what they have to say.
• We make it that much harder for our
conversational counterparts to listen to what
we’re saying

25. 7. DON’T GET DEFENSIVE
• Listen to the stakeholder and try to
understand what they mean. Stay quiet!
• Never get mad and yell, but also don’t sit
there and take it. Present your arguments
respectfully.
• Restate and reframe the problem according
to their needs

26. 7 THINGS IN COMMUNICATING DESIGN
1. Understand the business
2. Set the stage properly
3. Be confident
4. Be engaging
5. Don’t consider questions as change requests
6. Guide the feedback loop
7. Don’t get defensive

27. My work is not me.

28. Your work exists to
achieve a business goal.

29. Don’t get butthurt.

30. Many times you will be wrong.

31. THANK YOU!