Presenting your design to stakeholders
Hello there, it’s been a while since I’ve wrote something on Medium. For people who don’t know me, I’m a UX/UI Designer based in Transylvania with a broad experience with enterprise projects working for top innovative companies in the field, like: Siemens, Here, Envato and many more. Also I’ve been involved in plenty of startups and along the way I’ve managed to observe a pattern in both cases. Always, no matter how much time and effort I’ve put in my work, I’ve never been able to make the stakeholders appreciate the design of a project as much as I do. In this article I would like to present you some hints / tips & tricks / aspects that you may consider before presenting your masterpiece to your team and stakeholders.
1.Prepare for the meeting
Most of the people overlook the importance of pre meeting preparation and jump straight into the meeting without any strategy. The problem is that you cannot expect something from that meeting if you don’t set up some goals. Without a goal at the end of the meeting you’ll not be able to measure the success of that meeting and you won’t know what went well and what can be improved. Plus, by setting up goals, you’ll be able to stay focused on the subject, highlight the most important parts of that meeting and to make the stakeholders see the design through your eyes.
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” — Tony Robbins
2.The Tone
I’ve been part in plenty of meetings with genius people, very smart in their field, but when the time came to present their ideas they had a big gap. I remember that, long time ago, the lead of our design department had to make a demo of a new shopping cart for an eCommerce app based in the Middle East. His insecure voice and boring tone conducted to a question mark from the stakeholders and therefore a postpone of that project. Studies shows that major part of human communication is nonverbal ( 60% body language, 30% the tone) and only 10% is what you say. That’s why when you present something is very important to be expressive, enthusiastic, confident, bringing energy and trust in that meeting room.
3.Set up stakeholders expectations
Before starting to present your design to stakeholders, is important to mention the stage of the project, because most of the time people tend to compare your design with other mature products which have behind years of research and development. For example, by comparing an MVP with a mature product in the field is very easy to fall in the trap of seeing only the bad part of that product, without taking into consideration that every successful product started likewise. Present them your design process and make them aware that a successful design is made in an iterative way and it doesn’t need to be perfect right from the beginning.
4.Define the problem/challenge
Let the stakeholders know the problem that you’ve solved and the challenges that you’ve encountered along the way. A design is not only about how it looks, but also how it works. It is a lot about how it serves people and what problem it solves. Start with a story, everybody loves stories. So, before getting deep into the design details, the best way to catch people’s attention and to make them easy to follow you is to tell them a story.
“We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.” — Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal
5.Presentation
Make sure that you are moving slowly through the screens and everybody in the meeting is on the same page. It’s important to be aware that people from the meeting see the design for the first time and they need some time to get familiar with it. Create a flow and move gently through the screens. As a designer is very easy to skip the screens because you already have everything on your mind. Also please make sure that you not only present them pixels, but you argue the decision making behind that design. You need to tell them the reason that conducted you to the final result, what inspired you and what did you try to solve or to improve by designing something in a certain way.
6.The results
Well, a design without any feedback from its target users is not really done. Present to stakeholders how users behave with that product, even if we are talking about a startup or about an improvement within an existing product, in the end we want to see a result. If it’s a brand new product, would be great to highlight what users think about it and how they interact with it. If we are talking about an improvement within an existing product would be great to present the progress compared to the old version, in this case an A/B testing report will be cool.
7.Feedback from participants
Time to let them talk. Once you’ve made sure that everything was presented to stakeholders, is time to ask them for feedback and see if they have questions. From my past experience not few times happened to get only positive feedback but also negative one, because for us as social creatures is more easy to find connections and build on each other’s ideas. But don’t worry, sometimes negative feedback can bring us a lot of valuable information that may help us see our work from a different point of view. By listening to people from different areas of expertise than yours, you’ll be surprised how much valuable information you can gain.
8.After meeting
Don’t settle. After the meeting is done, even if it was a successful one or not, will be crucial to sit aside and take some notes. Because the information is still fresh in your head, right after the meeting is the best moment to reflect on what went well and what could be improved.
Conclusion
Stakeholders will not understand your design only by presenting them screens, but the way you present them and the way you argue the decision making behind the screens is the key factor that will make the difference. Is important to be aware that there isn’t a perfect design, nor a perfect meeting, but by learning to listen and taking notes can lead you to a progress and in the end to perfection.
