Articulating Design Decisions, 2nd Edition

Chapter 5. Get in the Right Mindset

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Get in the Right Mindset

You’ve poured your soul into these designs. You’ve taken all this time to think about your stakeholders’ perspective. Plus, you just spent the better part of your mental capacity listening to them talk about why your designs don’t work as well as you think they do. It would be tempting (even logical) to think that you’re cleared now to launch into an epic speech about usability and wax eloquent on design patterns and data, but you’re not. Before you go to the point of no return, you should get in the right mindset. You need to put on an attitude that will help you be articulate. It requires you to understand your role, check your ego at the door, and always lead with a “yes.” In addition, you need to develop a positive persona that opens people up to trusting you with the solution. Once you have the right mindset, you can set up your response by following a pattern called “Thank, Repeat, Prepare.” The purpose of this chapter is to help you be mentally prepared to take on the responsibility of articulating design decisions. Crafting an effective response like this requires a bit of mental exercise to do well.

Understand Your Role

Getting in the right mindset starts with understanding our role in the conversation. I believe there is a common misunderstanding about the role of a designer in these meetings. We usually ...