Tips for Successful Design Discussion
Being a designer is kind of like being a magician. Your job is to work the crowd and stay one step ahead of the discovery everyone is experiencing. If you do it right you get to feel like a wizard, when in reality you’re running through a well honed bag of tricks.
Even if everyone loves the idea and is raring to go to work, productive discussions about upcoming designs are necessary. They build consensus on what the product is, what it isn’t, and how people will use it. With such nebulous topics you run the risk of getting no response at all, or a long rambling discussion about nothing in particular. So it’s important to be diligent about keeping your stakeholders prepared, engaged and working together.
Before the Discussion
Set an agenda — Outline what you’re going to be talking about and the order the topics are going to be discussed. Move the most important and controversial issues to the front as they will eat up the most time. If it’s not the first meeting it’s wise to include a recap of topics that have already been discussed and resolved.
Assign homework — If you’re starting fresh or the discussion is going to be particularly intense, assigning homework helps prep your stakeholders and cut down on meeting time. Share a doc to collect their opinions on topics prior to the meeting. This works best if you share the doc publicly and do the tasks yourself.
Crit yourself first — Before you present let your design sit for a few hours and then look at it again. Ask yourself questions about why you did things a certain way. Try to think of questions and critiques your stakeholders might have. Having the answers to questions that haven’t been asked keeps the conversation brisk.
During the Discussion
Accept criticism — Not all the feedback you receive is going to be positive, nor will you have the answer to every question raised. Criticism does not mean you’re a bad designer, it means your stakeholders are engaged and the process is working.
Represent the user — The most important people in a design discussion are not real people. They are the target users and your job to speak from their perspective. Don’t talk about what you want, talk about what they are looking for. Use personas to help communicate these perspectives. Name fictional people, describe their lives and explain how the product benefits them.
Look for conclusions — Especially when you have passionate stakeholders, your discussion can start going in circles, costing you time and engagement. If you notice people repeating the same points, going off topic or getting argumentative, see if you can bring the topic to a close. Point out where agreements have been made and where people differ and suggest next steps to be taken after the meeting. If people do have new information or a new perspective, it will quickly surface. If not, you can move on with a plan.
After Discussion
Send a summary — Summarize the meeting topic and topic and include a list of action items agreed upon by the stakeholders. Coupled with the earlier agenda this helps generate a paper trail that participants can easily follow.
Consider your feedback — Take a look at the feedback you’ve received and think about how you are going to incorporate it into your next presentation. Even if you don’t intend to act on the feedback, you owe your stakeholders an explanation why, or better yet, a more effective solution.
Take your oddballs offline — Most stakeholders are happy receiving notes and going to meetings, especially if the meetings are effective. But design processes often involve a few stakeholders who’ve taken a special interest. They may have a personal stake in the project, thoughts and criticisms about the process, or want to be involved at a deeper level. These people should be approached individually and given a safe space to share their ideas and work out a specialized role in the process. The personal attention given here is worth it. Your oddballs will become disruptive or check out if they feel they haven’t been heard.
