You’re presenting your designs wrong. Do this instead:
A few years ago, I was presenting the new onboarding flow I had spent months designing to the Head of Product for sign-off.
I started walking through each screen:
“Here’s the introduction carousel… then the user swipes through to the first slide… then they click through and land here… and then here…”
By step three, he started glancing at his phone, and looked like he was thinking, “when is she going to stop talking”. 😂
That’s when it clicked, of course he didn’t care about every tiny step of the flow.
He wasn’t there to check design details.
He wanted to know what this flow would change (the impact):
Would it speed up sign-ups, or fix the confusion users kept reporting?
And why was this approach better than other ideas?
The problem was, I’d used the exact same slide deck and talking points I’d used with my design manager the week before.
For her, every screen mattered, we were refining flows and micro-interactions.
For the Head of Product, it was just noise.
That’s when I realised:
👉 Each design presentation has a different goal
👉 And not everyone in the room cares about the same things.
Designers often treat every review the same, same deck, same structure, same story, but every meeting has a different purpose and a different audience.
This was the moment I learned: if you don’t align your story to the right purpose and audience you’ll lose people, regardless of how great your design is.
I now make sure I do this before every presentation using a quick routine I call: The Prep Pair.
The Prep Pair: My Go-To 2 Steps Before Presenting
Every time you present your work, you need to start by asking yourself two questions.
The goal: Why am I presenting this?
The audience: Who am I talking to?
Most of us skip that step.
We reuse the same slides and talk the same way to everyone.
And then are confused on why we struggle to influence and get stakeholders on board.
The answer to these two questions shapes how we tell our story in the most compelling way.
Step 1:
Before you start on your slides or talking points, ask yourself:
Why am I presenting this?
Once your clear on this, you can shape your story around this.
Here’s some questions to get you thinking about your why:
1. Are you updating the team?
Goal: People need to be informed.
If so, then keep your presentation concise and clear. Focus on what has been done, what is next and key takeaways.
2. Are you requesting feedback?
Goal: To gather input to shape the work
Show options and ask for the specific input you need, layout, flow or strategy, so people don’t comment on the wrong things.
3.Are you getting alignment?
Goal: You’re asking people to agree or commit, not just absorb information.
Lead with the problem and project goal, then show the options explored and why this direction makes sense.
Step 2: Know who’s in the room
Before you present, pause to think about who’s listening and what matters most to them.
You don’t need to change your design, just change how you explain it.
PMs
What they want to know: How your design drives outcomes, impacts goals, and fits timelines.
What they want to see: Trade-offs, key metrics, and how soon it can ship.
Engineers
What they want to know: How your design works within technical and system constraints.
What they want to see: Edge cases, logic flow, and potential implementation challenges.
Designers
What they want to know: Why design decisions were made and how they improve clarity or experience.
What they want to see: Your process, sketches, iterations, and reasoning behind choices.
Leaders
What they want to know: The business impact, risks, and high-level results.
What they want to see: Outcomes, confidence in the approach, and how it moves the business forward.
Tip: Lead with what matters most to your audience. When people hear what they care about first, they’ll stay engaged for the rest of your presentation.
Here’s some conversation scripts you can use for your next presentation or catch up about your design ideas. I hope it helps!
P.S.
💡
Feel free to reply to this email if you have specific scenarios or presentations where you’ve felt stuck with presenting your ideas and I’ll help!
Conversation Scripts:
🧭 1. Product Managers
Goal: Show you’re thinking in outcomes, not just UI.
Example Script (Communicating Progress):
“Today I want to walk you through where we’ve landed on the new onboarding flow.
My goal is to show how this specific design supports the activation metric we discussed last sprint, specifically reducing drop-off between steps two and three.
I’ll highlight two areas where I made trade-offs between usability and time-to-build, so we can confirm we’re aligned before moving forward.”
Example Script (Getting Feedback):
“I’ve explored three directions for how we might simplify onboarding.
What I’d love from you is a sense of which approach best fits our current product priorities and timeline. I can then take that back and refine.”
How PMs think:
Keep it tied to metrics, goals, and prioritization. They want to know how your design drives outcomes and how soon it can ship.
⚙️ 2. Engineers / Developers
Goal: Build trust by showing awareness of constraints.
Example Script (Communicating):
“I’ll walk you through how the updated flow works from a technical perspective.
I’ve noted where we’re reusing components versus introducing new ones, and one spot where we might need to check complexity.
I’d love your thoughts on feasibility and any dependencies I might have missed.”
Example Script (Getting Feedback):
“This prototype focuses on simplifying the logic for conditional states.
Could you help me understand if there are any edge cases this design might break or make harder to maintain?”
How Engineers think:
Show that you respect system constraints, consistency, and logic. They’ll engage more if you speak their language, “flows,” “components,” “dependencies.”
🎨 3. Designers / Design Peers
Goal: Improve quality through critique and collaboration.
Example Script (Getting Feedback):
“I’m exploring how to make this interaction more intuitive without overloading the interface.
What I’d love from you today is feedback on whether the visual hierarchy supports the task flow, and any suggestions for simplifying this layout.”
Example Script (Communicating):
“I’ll show how this direction evolved based on last week’s critique.
The main changes are around hierarchy and contrast, aimed at improving scanability.
I’d love to hear if it feels clearer before I hand off.”
How Designers think:
They care about clarity, reasoning, and craft, they want to see your process and logic. Don’t just show what you did; explain why.
🧑💼 4. Leaders / Executives
Goal: Communicate business impact and strategic alignment.
Example Script (Informing / Aligning):
“In this update, I’ll show how the redesigned onboarding experience connects to our Q1 goal of improving activation by 15%.
We tested three variations, this version performed best with users, reducing confusion by 40%.
My goal today is to confirm you’re comfortable with this direction before we move to build.”
Example Script (Getting Buy-In):
“We’ve identified an opportunity to improve self-serve adoption, which could save around 300 support hours per quarter.
I’ll show the proposed flow and how it ladders up to our broader efficiency objective.
I’d like to confirm if this aligns with your priorities before we allocate build time.”
How Leaders think:
Keep it high-level, outcome-oriented, and confident. They don’t care how the dropdown works, they care how it moves the business.
Lead with impact → insight → next step.
✨ Bonus: The “Pre-Alignment” Conversation Script
Goal: Build support before the actual meeting.
“Hey [Stakeholder], I’m walking through the new flow in tomorrow’s review and wanted to get your quick thoughts first.
I know you care most about [their focus, e.g., load time, conversion, complexity], so I’d love to make sure this direction covers that.
It’ll help me make the review more productive and make sure everyone’s on the same page.”
