Want to be a great designer? Excel at communication
If you’re lucky enough to travel abroad in a country where you don’t speak the language, you may have met this situation before: you go to a local restaurant, there’s no menu, no pictures, no wifi.
You ask the waiter what they have, but struggle to understand the waiter as he starts enumerating the food in his own language. You start frowning as he tries now to describe the menu with his hands. It’s now your turn to ask for food in English, but it’s all Greek to him. Out of despair, you think you recognize the sound of the word rice because you heard it somewhere and order.
Eventually, the waiter comes back with your food: it’s a potato soup. You’re frustrated. You had expectations far from reality. Luckily, it’s all part of the charm of traveling.
When this happens at work, it’s a whole different matter because you waste time.
Why good design pairs with good communication
It’s not me that’s saying it, it’s the 2019 Invision report ranking communication as the 2nd most desirable soft skill behind collaboration/teamwork. And, I believe you cannot excel at teamwork if you’re a bad communicator.
How can your project work, if people don’t understand your choices and where you want to go? Your role as a designer is to bring everyone to identify the right problems and find the right solutions. Good collaboration is not possible without good communication.
A designer is a team player and can’t make magic on their own. If you’re not able to articulate your thoughts, you’ll hit a wall. Stating challenges, objectives, how you came to some specific solutions and what you learned is what makes a great designer. Everything starts with a shared understanding and matching goals. That’s why it is the most important skill.
Clear communication also cultivates trust with stakeholders. They’ll understand your choice, increase engagement, and that, as a consequence, will improve your work and decision making. Eventually, communication drives results.
The best part? It’ll give you the ability to influence the strategy. You want a seat at the table? Be a good communicator, don’t shy away and you’ll get one.
What to do to improve your communication on a daily basis
It’s all about knowing people…
Firstly, know who you’re talking to. Understand your stakeholders by engaging in discussions. My first step in a new company is to schedule coffee meetings with all my potential stakeholders. One-on-one allows meaningful interactions, and it works both for extrovert and introvert people. Know their challenges, their aspirations, what their daily work is like.
Listen carefully and ask questions. are You should care, because you’ll be working together. If you don’t… start questioning your career choice. Communication is about understanding, listening, and trust.
If people trust you, they are more likely to help and back you up if you face friction. They’ll be able to diffuse your knowledge to others and be a proxy for your choices. Be it in meetings or in other settings.
Speaking of trust, give a voice to those who usually can’t, if you’re in position to. If you want people to trust you, trust them first, plain and simple. It is misplaced to speak for someone else when you’re holding all the privileges. So please, listen to them and help them express what they feel.
and setting a common ground
One reason why communication fails is people hear what they want to hear. Always be explicit. Never assume that your choices are obvious, they rarely are.
At the beginning of each project/meeting, set clear expectations. Confusion often arises because not everybody has all the information. Knowledge is wealth and has to be spread. Explain why they’re needed. Tell them what are the objectives and outcomes and give them a context to frame the project. Your stakeholders will understand the “why” behind your decisions and challenge them in a positive way. Think of them as you think about your users. It’ll improve the decision process.
Alignment is not something you learn at school. It requires work and preparation, like your emails and meetings. That’s why you really need to think of them thoroughly, try to keep a note of everything and go through them regularly. I block time every week and read my notes to keep all essential information fresh for any situation.
The same goes for meetings. Seriously, do not organize a meeting if it’s not prepared. Your time is precious, as is your colleague’s. Pro tip: consider whether you need a meeting at all. An email or a quick coffee chat can be enough.
Be candid. But don’t forget, language and attitude matter
I find that a certain level of disagreement within a team is proof of a good work relationship. It means that people are confident enough to express themselves in a safe environment. It is important to enable people to tell their true opinions to move the project forward.
Still, it is not because you can say anything you want that you can tell everything. You should use language to empower people so that they help you in your project. Language matters. Never say “no” right away. Be genuine and avoid jargon.
A few examples: say thank you whenever you can. Use “and” instead of “but”. Do not say “I don’t like it” but rather question “why did you make that choice” or “have you thought about this option”. All those tiny things can go a long way.
Finally, remember to always be kind and humble. Be mindful of your own bias, embrace doubt and question your beliefs. It is important to acknowledge the privileges you have and critique them.
Better than communication: overcommunication
Improving your communication skills is not something that’ll happen overnight. More than motivation, it’s about being rigorous and intense.
Simply communicating once is not enough. People forget, or understand differently. Like teaching, communicating is the art of repetition. You’ll have to hammer your knowledge home to others. It can take different forms depending on the recipient, so choose the right mediums.
Tools are here to help you. You can set a weekly reminder on Slack to send a short recap to your stakeholders. Not everybody will read those, but you can point them out if the same questions keep coming up. Educate them so it becomes a habit. What you want is to lower the number of avoidable questions you might have (which will always happen to some degree).
Good communication is hard. It requires rigor. Eventually, you’ll find your own pace, and methods. As you work on it, you’ll find the right balance with your stakeholders.
Remember, if you work in a silo and don’t communicate well enough, you won’t be able to influence the product strategy. Work on that.
PS: here’s a great list of books to improve how you communicate
PS2: I wrote this article before the outbreak but took some time to publish it. I guess it became even more relevant to work on better communication now.
