Hero to Zero: A Step-By-Step Guide To Losing Your Authority As A Designer

Innocent until proven guilty

When we go to work, power is inherently given to us as designers — although we often don’t realise it.

But as we work through the process and engage the client at different stages — that power can be built upon, or stripped away bit by bit, depending on how we show up.

So, keen to erode your credibility? Great! Here are 12 things I’ve seen in my career that do the trick every time!

Design by committee | Photo by Moose Photos from Pexels

1 | Let clients lead you by the nose

When you’re on a project, it’s your job to own the design and figure out the solutions. Others can contribute — but if you want to remain in control of the project (leading the design) that’s what you have to do. Mike Monteiro says it well in his book “Design Is A Job” — At all costs, avoid letting ‘Designing by committee’ or ‘Backseat driving’ happen… rather find a polite way to pause the conversation. Then go away to find a solution which you can present back later, or you’ll end a pixel pushing pawn for the rest of the project.

2 | Make a noise about ‘user data’ — but the wrong kind

Designing with data is a beautiful thing, but use relevant data that paints a complete picture. Choose to harp on about just one metric like Bounce rate — without Total traffic or Page value, and it’ll be hard to persuade anyone. Some more unconvincing data points are:

• Heatmaps — they can help build a case, but heatmaps alone seldom win pitches
• Customer interviews — really compelling IF done right. Asking leading questions or targeting only one type of user will lead to unreliable feedback, and your credibility will erode faster than a pee-hole in the snow!

3 | Say this: “we can just A/B test it”

Why is this unrealistic? Because A/B tests are great for some things — but there is a limit. You simply can’t A/B test your way to success; sometimes you have to use your judgement and park the designs that don’t make complete sense. Any seasoned pro on a product team will know that running lots of A/B test is mostly impractical…