As a recent newcomer to field of product design, I’ve been feeling an absence of confidence amongst my peers.

Much of the content is the same, but the activities and level of interaction is limited by the online format. When we bring alternatives to the table, it shows that we have considered several options and gives us the space to explain why the design we are pitching is the best. Often, they don't come from a design background, and using jargon and technical terms may confuse them. Something else that I’ve come to learn from interviews and usability tests is to repeat the statements people are saying right back to them in the form of “What I hear you saying…” and rephrasing it in a way that moves the conversation forward.

This means that you may have an incredibly innovative and problem-solving design, but you may not get the support you want or need because you can’t speak about the design or the reasoning behind it in an effective way. As such we understand the challenges in getting everyone on the same page and the need for articulating design decisions well.

Well-documented design decisions act as a record of information that the design team can leverage for similar projects in the future. And, in many cases, how you communicate with other designers, stakeholders, clients, or executives is more critical than the designs themselves. ll learn how to get support from people who have influence over the project with the goal of creating the best user experience.Developing stakeholder empathy will enable us to approach them with the right mindset and articulate our design decisions in a way that appeals to their needs.

By contextualizing your design choices in this way, you can demonstrate the rationale behind your decisions. For example “Yes I understand what you’re saying”, “Yes there are definitely ways we could improve this” or “Yes I agree we need to solve this problem”. I know I will reference the learnings time and time again, so what better to do than put them in a place we both can reference? Tom packed a lot into an hour, somehow balanced speaking with questions and exercises, and we all took away some great exercise templates.I loved the examples he gives and the frameworks for better breaking down all the steps to having these complex conversations time and time again. With good communication and evidence to support our decisions, we turn challenging situations into opportune scenarios for emphasizing our expertise and building strong relationships with clients. When presenting design decisions, it's important to use real-world examples and to show how your design choices will improve the user's experience. To effectively articulate design decisions, it's important to be able to explain how your design choices align with the overall goals and strategy of the organization.

Greever also goes over ways in which to optimize your meeting for retention including primacy and recency (people remember the first and last thing you say to them), surprise, and plain old repetition. I’ve always been good at taking notes and my team mates often rely on me to take notes or collect feedback from a session. By articulating the design decisions emphasizing its purpose, we showcase our intent to resonate with clients and users alike.My eyes and ears are wide open, scouting for opportunities to improve the process or communicate better with my team. It’s our responsibilities as designers to recognise these insights and encourage forward trajectory — not get hung up on a particular idea or goal that’s since been abandoned. The phenomenon that a non-expert can have an opinion about your design work is something that is almost entirely unique to design within today’s organizations. I hope this little blurb helps you in whatever conversation you are prepping for or encourages you to get a hold of the book itself. Our goal with design meetings should be create a focused environment where our stakeholders are more likely to support our decisions.