Articulating Design Decisions, 3rd Edition

Chapter 3. Skills for Being Articulate

A note for Early Release readers

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This will be the 4th chapter of the final book. The GitHub repo will be made active later on.

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Before we get too far into working with stakeholders, I want to take a step back and review some of the most useful tools for improving our ability to be articulate. Any new skill you develop increases your chances of success and adds value to your contributions.

Being articulate isn’t a single skill. It’s a collection of skills that, together, shape how others experience your communication. The good news is that there’s no single personality type or approach that works best. You don’t need to master everything, but each new skill you develop makes you more effective over time.

It’s true that some people may seem naturally more articulate, but in most cases they’ve simply spent more time developing these individual skills. Like anything else, they can be learned and improved with practice, often through repeated exposure to situations where clear communication is required.

In my experience coaching designers and leading teams, these are the skills that come up most often ...