Reading time: 3 minutes.

Today we’re talking about the importance of process when putting “the story” together.

Using the right process can be the difference between a story being effective or not.

Want your presentation to persuade stakeholders to follow your design recommendations? I’m thinking yes.

Want your case study to land you client leads or interview invitations? Probably!

Want your portfolio slide deck to land you job offers? Ok, come on now.

Using the right process for your design presentations, case studies, or portfolio presentations can have a massive effect on the results they get for you.

Unfortunately, so many designers haven’t learned a crucial lesson about storytelling:

Diving into design too early results in low quality stories and wasted time

Here's how I started design presentations early in my career:

I’d crack open PowerPoint or Keynote and start designing slides—before I had any idea of what the actual story was going to be.

I mean…the thing I need is a slide deck.

So I better put some slides together, right?

Wrong.

A condensed version of the final presentation slides for my course: UX Storytelling Toolkit.

I’d struggle to create the presentation. I’d spend time designing a slide or a whole section of slides. Only to realize they didn’t make any sense or were out of order.

That wasted a lot of time!

Or worse yet, I’d leave bad slides in my presentation and have:
 

• Bad reviews
• Bad feedback about my performance
• Bad design decisions that lowered product quality
  
  

I needed a different approach so I could move faster and get better results from my design presentations.

Luckily I found a better system.

Here it is, step by step:

Step 1: Define the audience and goals for the story

Help my client understand what issues they should fix immediately in their current software—and how they can actually fix them (design presentation).

Help a hiring manager understand the project, designer’s role, and impact of the work in less than 10 seconds (online case study template).

Persuade a hiring team to write me an offer to lead the redesign of an eCommerce app (portfolio presentation).

These are all examples of how I started the storytelling process for various projects in my career.

I write down simple notes that remind me:
 

1. Who the intended audience is
2. What my goals are
   
   

This puts me in a mindset that helps me put together stories that get results.

I’m not thinking about:

Navigation models
Slide transitions
Visual assets
Web layouts
Typography
Colors

I am thinking about:

What are my goals?
Who is in the audience?
What’s important to them?
What kind of story will work?
What do I want them to know?
What information should I focus on?

Starting here has changed everything about the kind of storyteller I am today.

I went from having bad experiences and lacking confidence to getting great feedback, job offers, and clients that sign contract extensions and refer me to their friends.

Step 2: Crack open your favorite writing tool and start outlining

Use whatever works for you.

It could be:

Back of a napkin
Google Docs
Sticky notes
Whiteboard
Mindmaps
Notion

…whatever. Start writing down an outline or rough structure for the story.


The first 3 versions of the course outline. I started with stickies on a wall (photo top left) and then moved into Figma.

Spend time getting this right.

Remember: If it doesn’t make sense in writing, it’s not going to make sense in the final presentation either.

Step 3: Add notes for supporting visuals

Now add notes for the visuals you’ll need to support the story.

These could be screencaps, sketches, photography, mockups, prototypes, charts, videos, GIFs, etc.

Whatever you think supports your goals and story—and will make a positive impact on your audience.


Eventually I moved the outline into Notion and added more detail. Notes for the visuals are highlighted in yellow. This was a huge project—this much outlining isn’t always necessary!

For example, let's say your outline includes a section on redesigning the price area of an eCommerce detail page.

Your note for the supporting visual might be “mockup of product detail page zoomed in to the price area”.

Feel free to mashup steps 2 and 3 depending on what works for you.

But definitely don’t move onto step 4 until the story is making sense.

Step 4: Start designing

Now you’re ready to create the visuals you need to make the story come alive.

This could mean Figma frames, a website, or presentation slides.

Hop into your design tool of choice and have fun with it!

When your visuals start coming together and you see everything taking shape, you may want to make tweaks to the story.

That’s normal. Storytelling is just like design—it’s not always linear and it can get messy.

The important part is to stay focused on your audience and your goals. You want to make sure:
 

1. The story is working
2. The design supports the story (it doesn’t distract from it)
   
   

That’s all for this week. I hope this helps you put effective stories together faster.