The Recipe For Impressing Clients With Design
How we get clients and stakeholders to understand and support design decisions from the first plans to the final implementation.
As product designers, we design for the needs of product consumers. That’s pretty self-explanatory. But as agency-based product designers, we also need to make sure our clients are on board. They need to understand our perspective and trust that we are bringing them the expertise they hired us to provide. These are some of the steps we take to navigate this client-user-agency relationship in a way that ensures our clients not only approve our designs, but that they do so with zest.
Step 1 — Prep: Gain their trust with thoughtfulness and confidence
There isn’t anything ornate about laying the groundwork, but it’s crucial to set us up for success later on. When it comes to impressing clients, we start gaining their trust by showing them that we are thoughtful and thorough. Every design decision we put in front of clients is framed with context and backed up with research and reasoning. We conduct comparative audits, refer to learnings from past experiences, consult market research, and gather information from user testing. All of this is done to avoid any decision making turning into a matter of personal preference or opinion.
Another way we attempt to avoid having decisions that default to arbitrary preferences is to present one design solution at a time. We often have a backup ready in case we’ve missed the mark — which does happen. Presenting one design solution shows that we’re confident in our expertise, and that confidence helps guide the clients through the approval process. That’s why even when it comes to something completely visual like a colour palette, we present only one — with context gathered from either a workshop or research.
The way I approach it is to view all design decisions as a thesis statement in a term paper: form your opinion, support it with reasons, and ask yourself “so what?” to make sure all decisions are made with purpose.
Step 2 — Assembly: Work closely with the team — both yours and theirs
A close working relationship with the whole project team is essential to the success of a project. And it’s often helpful to work with clients as though we’re part of the same team. After all, we are trying to achieve the same project goals. As a project goes on, aspects of the product will often evolve. This means the goals set at the beginning of each project may also change. That’s why it’s important to maintain a close working relationship and have regular check-ins with clients to keep everyone on the same page.
Every so often, we need to pivot from earlier decisions based on new circumstances and learnings. When this happens, I’ve found that the internal team can be a great asset when it comes to presenting new ideas and convincing clients. As a designer, I aim to get my designs in front of a developer at an early stage to make sure they are feasible to implement. I also work closely with our project managers to coordinate the delivery of project work. Staying aligned with the internal team means that they understand your decision-making process and can back you up or provide input on anything you may have missed when it comes to communicating with clients.
Step 3 — Presentation: Make it real and tangible
Ok, now that the client is aligned with your vision, idea, decision … How do you present those ideas to get the stamp of approval? And, more importantly, how do you make sure the approval sticks to the end? Decisions made earlier on about things like user experience, product or user flows, and information architecture are usually conceptual ideas that are hard for clients to visualize in relation to the end product. To combat that, we pull in visual references at conceptual stages to stimulate discussion and feedback.
For example, if we’re working on a product that needs a complex filtering and sorting feature. I would pull in comparable experiences from different platforms to share with our clients and gauge their preferences and get feedback on any missing interactions they’d expect. A lot of times, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel or create a whole new experience that may need rounds of testing and validation. Other times, something new is needed. That’s why sharing comparable visual examples is a great way to communicate ideas and concepts so that you get the feedback you need to start designing.
Once you have your designs nailed down. It’s time to present it to clients. Different projects and designs warrant different methods of presentation. The most common way we present designs is through screensharing in a video call. There are a few drawbacks to this. Interactions may be choppy due to lag, the screen sizes and proportions may look off, and mobile interactions are hard to convey on desktop.
To address this, one method we use is creating a sharable prototype link for clients, so they can interact with the designs on their own screen. For mobile prototypes, we use tools like this one to create a sharable full-screen experience for clients. Getting clients to interact on their own devices makes a huge difference — it turns a passive observation experience into an active engagement with the design that much more fully reflects how end users will ultimately experience the product. Having a sharable prototype also makes it easier for clients who may want to share the prototype with other stakeholders in the company or even potential investors.
Step 4 — Garnish: Pay attention to the little sparkles
You know how to be thoughtful and get your designs approved by clients. Great. But to stand out and impress clients, you need to do a little more than what’s expected. Think of the sprinkles on top of a cupcake or the swirl of cream in a pumpkin soup. The little extra effort you put in at the end can elevate the client’s perception of your work tenfold. The last bit of garnish may look different for different projects, but my way of elevating designs is almost always some form of interaction. Whether it’s a micro-interaction like a surprising hover state or beautiful transition between pages or sections, a little goes a long way.
To stay inspired and keep impressing clients, I document interesting interactions I come across and take notes on how I might make use of or improve on them. For more on this type of approach, check out this blog post about why our managing director at Invoke frequently downloads new apps to stay exposed to evolving products and design experiences.
What techniques and tools do you use to communicate designs to clients?
Designers, what are some ways you communicate your work with clients?
