How To Pitch A Design Change

Today I’ll show how to pitch a new design idea to your stakeholders.

This works well when the team is bought into an existing idea but you see a better way.

Maybe the team made a decision in a meeting but you found problems with it when you did the detailed design work.

Or maybe something’s been bugging you with the current design and you think the time is right to propose a change.

Or, there could have been a very specific request but you think there’s a better way to solve the underlying problem.

“There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.”

—Zig Ziglar, legendary salesman 

Showing your new idea the right way will: 

• Build your credibility. You’ll be seen as a credible partner that goes above and beyond to improve the product.
  
  
• Establish trust. Stakeholders trust you more when they see that you’ve analyzed options and thought through weaknesses.
  
  
• Encourage collaboration. This approach brings stakeholders into the design process and encourages them to share their insights.
  
  
• Improve products. Showing your team how to make things better for the business and its customers while accelerating your career growth? That’s like a win win…win. Right? At any rate, it’s a good thing.

Unfortunately, a lot of designers don’t know how to present their new ideas to stakeholders convincingly—which means they never make their way into a users hands.

Lack of confidence is the main reason designers fail to pitch new ideas

Designers might be afraid to share their ideas because they fear criticism or failure. I’ve been there. 

These reminders help me:

• Growth is on the other side of discomfort.
  
  
• Everyone experiences fear and self doubt.
  
  
• Hard things become easy things with practice.
  
  
• My worst fears about presenting design have never come true.
  
  

Share your ideas :)

Illustration by Janiz Ozolins

They could also have difficulty handling objections, questions, or feedback from stakeholders. 

Or, a designer may not have the storytelling and presentation skills necessary to make a persuasive case for their idea.

Don’t worry! We got this.

Let’s walk through exactly how you can share a new idea with your stakeholders—and convince them you’re right.

Step 1: Set the context

Identifying opportunities or problems and showing how to address them is a game changer for your design career. 

It gets you out of the mode of being the person who makes mockups and shows that you’re a capable operator that thinks strategically and improves products.

To get started, your audience needs to have some context so they can understand what you’re about to show and have enough information to make decisions.

There’s no need to beat around the bush.

Assuming everyone is on the same page with the overall project story, you can say something like this:

“In our last review we talked about using a grid view to display search results. Made sense at the time but we ran into a few issues that I want to show you.

I also have an alternate approach that we’ll look at. Let’s dive in.”

Step 2: Show abstract versions of the competing ideas next to each other and name them

So many designers get this part wrong.

They show only 1 option—the one they want or recommend.

They leave out the version everyone is expecting to see!

This makes it more difficult for the audience to get on board with a new idea.

Your recommendation is more effective when you show your audience why the original idea won’t work—help them see it with their own eyes.

Otherwise they tend to feel like earlier decisions and feedback were ignored. Or that the designer isn’t open to the ideas of others. It doesn’t build trust or set the new idea up for success.

Showing an overview of the options:

• Gives stakeholders an idea of what you’re about to show them.
  
  
• Makes it easy for them to understand the differences between the design options you explored.
  
  
• Builds up the right expectation—that you’ve identified a problem, are going to tell them about it, and you have a solution.

Here’s an example. It doesn’t have to be 3 ideas. This works well if you’re showing two different options, too:

Here’s another example that’s useful for calling out differences between designs. Use color or another visual indicator to draw attention where you want it:

Step 3: Present the different options in detail

Present each option. These are your detailed wireframes, hi-fi mockups, flows or prototypes, etc.

Remember to focus on the why. Tell the story behind your design.

Point out strengths and weaknesses along the way. Tie the design back to: 

• Business goals
  
  
• User problems and pains
  
  
• Technology considerations

Here’s an example from a recent client project that’s pointing out weaknesses in the current design: 

Step 4: Show the abstract wireframes side by side again with pros and cons 

Return to your overview of the options and add your analysis.

A brief list of pros and cons under each option works well. You did a good job presenting each option and telling the story in step 3—so this is really more of a summary.

Showing things side by side like this makes it effortless for your audience to compare the options and weigh the benefits of each one.

Femke van Shoohoven has a nice example of this in action. Two designs are shown next to each other with easy to read pros and cons:

Start at 7:40 of Femke’s video

Step 5: Make your recommendation

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

All the previous steps are leading up to this—your recommendation. This is a great way for the audience to really understand your rationale and get on the same page about why you’re proposing a change.

Add a clear visual indicator that calls out your recommendation and explain why.

Remember to tie your recommendation back to business goals, user problems, and technology considerations.

That’s it! 

I hope this helps you structure your design presentations. And have more confidence the next time you think about pitching a new idea to stakeholders. 

Helpful Links

1. Portfolio spotlight: I love the way Andrea Kang starts this case study. At a glance and above the fold (on desktop) we already know: The project overview, the team, Andrea’s role + deliverables, what the final product looked like, and that it was a Webby honoree. This approach gives a great first impression and makes it easy for hiring managers to review work.
   
   

2. Fabayo Samuel has a nice Figma template for case study presentations. It outlines an effective story that focuses on why, starts at the end, prioritizes insights over process, and ends with a pitch. Thanks to Irem Ozekes for sharing this in a recent post.
   
   

3. Mia Blume gives a great example of speaking the language of business stakeholders: Mia’s words: “It means that instead of saying: “increase the quality of user onboarding,” we say: “clarify and test value proposition to drive conversion.”