Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Kartikey Tewari

The four things every designer can do to recover from discouraging meetings.

Illustration credit: Malika Favre http://ift.tt/2sgC5Pv

Most of us UX designers have had those meetings where we have come out feeling defeated. Usually its because the outcome is not the one you wanted. It could be because there was no time, no resources, MVP stage, too many stakeholders, difference of opinions and a million other things. If its part of our jobs to bring UX to these meetings, we should make sure they don’t discourage us.

Here are four basics I try to keep in mind when I have one of these meetings:

Listen actively. Ilse Crawford said “You have two eyes, two ears and one mouth. Use your senses in that proportion.” Listen to what people have to say before you answer. Take your time to answer after you have heard people out.
Be nice and stay patient. As designers its our job to advocate for our UX. It makes a big difference if we don’t advocate in the voice of a jerk. Being nice makes discussions less taxing on your wellbeing after the meeting. As the designer you could be impatient now because you have marinated in your ideas for a long time but people at the other end just walked in. So be nice and stay patient, your UX will need you.
The UX needs more work. Accept that. And move on. Decide some next steps you will take to think it through and put in some time for the next meeting, no harm done. There is always a chance that the solution needs more work. We should recognise when this happens and handle those heaty moments right. I try and use “Thats true, I had not thought of it like that, thank you.” John Maeda mentioned this in one of his wonderful books and I feel we undervalue how magical this sentence is.
Intuition counts. This is by far the most consoling thing I can tell myself after a tough meeting. Stand by what you believe, your intuition counts. Your suggested solution might not be built, it might not even be considered but you will always benefit from it. You will benefit from your learning along the way as you were ideating and creating it. You will have sharpened your intuition along the way, now you just need to find better ways of articulating it in future meetings.

In my experience these work fairly well overtime. It takes time to sink into these and you should do what works for you. Please do share all the other ways out there.

What to do when UX meetings don’t go your way. was originally published in Prototyping: From UX to Front End on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What to do when UX meetings don’t go your way.

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