Effectively presenting work is one of the most important skills a designer can have.

Why it matters: Presenting isn’t about showing what you’ve done—it’s more about listening, communicating, and inviting other people into the design process. The reason we share our work is to get broader input.

#Before you dive into your design presentation

  • Explain the feedback process. Take a moment to explain how the feedback process will work.
  • Explain the presentation process.*
  • Set the context. Let people know what is in and out of scope—what you’ll be discussing, what you won’t be discussing, and why that is. Let people know where you are in the project timeline—are you 30 percent done or 90 percent done?

#Describe the problem you are trying to solve

Before you dive into your design presentation, describe the problem you are trying to solve. This reinforces the scope and context for the design work, and helps the audience focus on what the problem is. Describe it both from a business problem and a user problem. If your client is normally talking about the business problem, start with that, but make sure to cover both sides of the problem.

#You want your audience to contribute their expertise, not their opinion

Every presentation has an audience. And you have more control over how they react than you may think. But you need to be deliberate about it. Think about the people you already know and have had meetings with before. Think about their role, what their skills are, and what they are interested in. Consider what they care most about. Give people a job. Don’t give people free rein to offer feedback on anything they like—regardless of whether or not they know anything about the subject.

When you ask for feedback, people will give feedback. The feedback may not be related to any expertise they have—it could be an opinion, or just a random thought. Prime your audience for the presentation by giving everyone something specific to think about and emphasize that you want their expertise. Remember that people will feel they need to contribute—to show that they’re of value.

#Prime your audience for the presentation

Since you want your audience to contribute their expertise, not their opinion, prime them by asking questions for people to focus on:

  • “Will this design work for the core user group and core tasks?”
  • “Will the design work for the content?”
  • “Is there terminology that users won’t understand?”
  • “Are there user tasks / edge cases the design won’t work for?”
  • “Is there anything technically difficult we haven’t considered?”
  • “Is there overlap with work being done by another team?”
  • “Does the design adhere to brand guidelines or the style guide?”

You can use a slide before you start your presentation that contains your questions. This you can refer back to.

#Show only what you want feedback on

Present in the lowest fidelity that achieves the presentations’s goals. If you want feedback on flow and content, show the design without imagery and color. A rough sketch or a black-and-white wireframe would be perfect in that case. If you want feedback on layout, use some version of fake content, so people don’t get caught up in the details of what the in-progress copy says. You can use text from classic fiction, like Alice in Wonderland. Remember to always show what you want feedback on, and remove the unnecessary focus from the things you’re not ready to take feedback on.

#Don’t show your process, show the end result

When you present your design, the most important thing to show is the result you came up with. Don’t explain the process. Nobody cares about your previous versions. You don’t have to go through every rabbit hole you’ve explored since the last catch-up. Get to the point. Remember that the end result is your value. It really doesn’t matter whether the design you have created took a day or two weeks—if the solution is good, you are providing value. Demonstrate the design as a person doing a thing. From the user’s point of view.

#You have to tell a story, not talk about features

Work through an end-to-end user story, starting with the user’s goal and ending with them completing the task (or getting as far as they can with what you’ve designed). Describe it from the perspective of an actual person. Present the scenario in one go without interruption. If you stop and point things out along the way, people will start to focus on features instead of the story. Never, ever do a real-estate tour—a screen-by-screen walk-through of a page while pointing out its features.

Use two core tasks, which are quite similar, and walk through both in your design presentation. The first time will be too quick for people to take in. The second time allows them to for things they are wondering about. Remind people that users are not one-size-fits-all. Demonstrate how the experience will be on mobile, or to someone using a screen reader, or to someone who uses high-contrast mode. People love listening to stories, and stories stick in their mind. That’s why forming a narrative around your design presentation is so powerful.

#Use a clear feedback process

The primary reason for presenting design work is to get input from other people, so you can make the product or service even better. Once you’ve presented the design, you’ll transition to the “time for questions” that you had promised would come at the end.

Guide the feedback process by:

  1. Reminding your audience what the scope is (and isn’t).
  2. Reminding them of the jobs you gave them and what they should focus on.
  3. Add some general questions. “What are you most looking forward to?”, “Is there anything that could become a problem?“, “Was there anything that you expected to see today that I didn‘t cover?“
  4. Ask people to provide examples to support their comments.

Never ask “What do you think?” or “Do you like it?” because you will never get concrete, useful feedback with these questions.

#Good feedback isn’t the same thing as praise

Good feedback is feedback you can use to move the product or service forward. Good feedback isn’t the same thing as praise.

Good feedback is:

  • concrete
  • actionable
  • specific
  • detailed
  • based on the person’s expertise

#Communicate decisions back to the client

If you make clear decisions about the feedback and communicate those decisions back to the client, they’ll trust that you are listening to them. Don’t address feedback and present new information in the same meeting. Discussing feedback can be difficult. Keep feedback and new work separate.