The introvert’s guide to design presentations and conversations

Some notes about contributing in design meetings and presentations as an introvert, from an introvert.

How many times have you wanted to say something in a meeting but found yourself being silent? Or wanted to present something you found interesting but thought “oh but no one cares”? I know I felt this way a lot of times, and it frustrated me because I also knew I had something to say that people might actually find useful.

So I wanted to put down some notes on things that have helped me so far when presenting ideas in design meetings, or when discussing certain topics with my colleagues. And hopefully you’ll find these useful as well! 👇

Know the topic

I find it very difficult to present or add comments on topics I don’t know enough about. So whenever I want to present something, I always make sure I read and learn as much as possible about the specific topic. That’s not to say that you have to be an expert in a domain before contributing to a conversation on it. Not at all! But from my personal experience, the more I know about something, the more comfortable I feel about commenting on it.

Don’t think too too much

I am the kind of person who thinks 100 times before saying something. But I found it to be often times destructive, as it brings so much anxiety that it stops me from saying anything.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s good to think before you speak, but don’t wait until the discussion is finished, and you’re left with the frustration that you could have said something useful and interesting (personal experience again).

What’s the worst that could happen?

Now really… what is it? Will you die? No. This is something that I keep in mind whenever I want to say or present something in a meeting. What is the worst thing that could happen to me? If you ask yourself this, you might find out that the answer is often times not as bad as you think.

Now I know, I know it also depends on the environment you’re in. In my case, I am lucky to be working in a team of people who I know won’t judge me for what I am saying, but will give me constructive feedback or we’ll simply start an interesting conversation.

But at the end of the day… we only get one shot at life, so why not build the courage to live and do the things we wanna do? 😇 What’s the worst that could happen? Will your colleagues think you said something weird? I assure you… if they think this, it’ll just be for 30 seconds. People have their thing to do as well, they’re not gonna think about what you said more than a few seconds.

Put down notes before presenting

Let’s say you read an interesting book on design, and you want to share your findings with your colleagues. What I found helps me a lot is to have a presentation prepared, as well as notes. You don’t want to clutter your slides with a ton of text, but you might want to have some guidelines put down to help you talk about a certain topic.

When sketching out the presentation, one thing to keep in mind is to tell a story. Don’t just read things from a slide, but bring real life examples, ask your colleagues to think of example themselves, ask them if they ever experienced anything you might be talking about. Make it a conversation, why not?

Just be you

Now one last thing I try to always keep in mind when presenting, or just having conversations with people, is to just be myself.

I know it might sound like “duuh…” but it’s something that I personally struggled with, as I constantly tried to be more formal or be way too attentive with how I say things to other people. I sometimes found myself so concerned with what I do, what I say, how I say it, that I became sort of robotic, and lost part of how I was. Which I hated.

Evidently, we all have certain “modes” that we enter according to the environment we’re in. We might not want to be as comfortable at the office as we are at home, in an environment we are 100% comfortable in. But we have to realise that being among colleagues (be it in person or remote) is essentially just being around people. People who are also doing their thing, each with their own problems to think about.

Let’s conclude

I know presenting in front of a group of people, or contributing to certain conversations can be extremely hard for some people (myself included). I am well aware of the anxiety that builds up every time you want to unmute yourself in a Teams meeting to add something to a topic. I’ve been there, and I’ve even lost changes of speaking because I didn’t have the courage to press that unmute button.

So all the tips above come from someone who understands the struggle. I am trying to become better both at complex presentations, but also at conversations on anything design related, be it buttons, shadows, or the human psychology.

I really hope these things will help you in your process of presenting design ideas, or discussing topics with your colleagues.

So be bold and say whatever it is you wanna say! Because at the end of the day… what’s the worst that could happen? ☺️