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The most important soft skill for designers: Communication
Why strong communication skills are so significant to a designer’s success.
Whether it’s pitching a new concept to a client or just giving clear and constructive feedback to a teammate, communication is the cornerstone of a designer’s work. Strong communication skills are arguably the best skillset a designer can have in their toolbox of abilities. The actual craft of design will only get you so far. Whereas being able to effectively communicate your thoughts and ideas that allow you and others to speak the same language will take you all the way. If you can’t successfully talk about your work or the design decisions that led you to your solution, how good of a designer are you?
As a young designer just starting, I became passionate about improving my design abilities as quickly as possible. In an attempt to do so I began to analyze what skills or attributes individuals possessed with titles like Senior Designer, Design Manager, or even a Head of Design. I began to focus on a simple question. What makes a good designer? In finding an answer to this question I started to identify the following:
Good designers are good problem solvers, they can breakdown complex problems into simple solutions.
Good designers are also good listeners. They hear the needs of their clients or customers and ask the right questions to get to the root of the problem.
Good designers are good storytellers, they can craft compelling narratives the captivate their audience.
Good designers are sometimes even good writers, they are able to clearly articulate their thoughts and ideas into words.
Above all else, the key realization I came to was that good designers are just good communicators. Designers can clearly receive information and successfully construct this into an output that we effectively communicate back to our stakeholders. Communication is the basis of what we do as designers everyday.
