February 2025
Service Design
In Progress! Check back soon!
View Post
“I’ve found that the majority of issues or concerns that stakeholders bring to our attention are often just a matter of misunderstanding or miscommunication”
“Design is volatile and changing, but being a better communicator is something that we can always have”
I first read this book while working for an organization that lacked UX presence altogether, let alone UX maturity. I was having a hard time finding the right words to justify what I was aiming to do within the organization - not just to make things look visually refreshed. It was difficult to get buy-in for conducting research when stakeholders primarily wanted visual design. It was frustrating to say the least. I did some thorough online searching and found Tom Greever’s book was already on my ‘list of books to read’ from my UX certification program @ Georgia Tech. I gave it a read and........wow. It was exactly what I needed when I needed it.
I was just one (and also by far the youngest) of many people at the table when it came to decisions about implementing a better ‘customer experience’ into the business. I was having a hard time making my voice heard and needed to re-think how I communicated when it came to something that can be as subjective as design.
A weakness of UX boot camps and certification programs are the lack of “real world” scenarios; in fact, it’s even hard to imagine real world scenarios because people (myself included) just don’t know how different organizations are run.
A strength of Tom Greever’s book is explaining that there really is no ‘standard’ model for design within an organization; yes, some organizations are more mature than others (ie FAANG, etc.) but there is potential to mature any organization if you articulate design decisions effectively! Good UX is just good business.
This exact principle was my main takeaway from the book. However there were definitely a lot of others:
Tom Greever’s macro-level analysis of design problems centers around three main questions. Each questions addresses a different aspect of the important of design (business needs, user needs and the competition/value proposition). They are:
1. What problem does the design solve?
2. How does the design affect the user?
3. Why is the design better than alternatives?
This is a great place to start with anything but the most important part is communicating very clearly and answering all three questions so that everyone is on the same page. This alone is a task, especially in organizations with little UX presence - which is why it’s all the more important to speak in a common language.
This is pretty standard in the design world already and is no different when talking to non-designers. Tom Greever gives the all too relatable example of stakeholders finding placeholder copy/images distracting; the solution is to not use placeholders - instead, use actual images from an open source library and generate some quick copy.
It’s important to note that this will likely happen most in terms of visual design so keep in mind:
“Visual design matters less to the utility of an application, but it conjures a lot of opinions about what looks good and what doesn’t”
This is why explaining rationale behind design decisions is so important.
Nobody wants to spend a timed meeting going over anything that isn’t essential. Bring ‘the hits’ of the data gathered and present in an exigent way: show the highlights and their relevance. Tom says something very akin to Steve Krug which is: if you have video clips from testing, bring those.
“The long-term goal of building trust with stakeholders is to come to a place where their default response is to assume that our choices are right rather than questioning our decisions from the beginning”
If you’ve built enough trust so that you are viewed as the expert, this won’t be as important. However, people will question things from time to time. It’s important to bring evidence (if needed) as to why certain design decisions were made; a great way of doing this is brining alternative designs to show why yours is better than the others. It forces us to be able to explain our decisions.
“Bringing alternatives (especially those that aren’t the right solution) complicates the conversation because it forces us to have a well-articulated explanation for our choices.”
This was my favorite section.
“Listening is an important skill for every relationship, and it’s no different when discussing design decisions.”
Listening is a skill and a very valuable one for designers. Tom Greever says it best: listen carefully and pay attention to what ISN’T being said. Beyond this, there are a few other best practices for listening in a design-related setting:
1. Pause. Let people’s words linger for a moment - it gives the impression that you care about what they’re saying enough to sit with it.
2. Repeat and rephrase. Make sure you understood what someone said - say it back to them for clarification.
3. Take good notes. Things can ‘fall through the cracks’ from time to time and it can damage working relationships. A great way to prevent this is to take notes and follow up with people if needed; the co-benefit of this is showing people that you’ve listened to them.
Another thing is this: pay attention to solutions being talked about too soon; the point of designers is to investigate problems and come up with solutions - not to build solutions that have been dictated without informed research/data.
“People naturally think in terms of solutions rather than first identifying the problem.”
Tom Greever presents a framework that has proven successful when needing to articulate design decisions. First, there is a basic statement that ties everything together:
“[design] will affect [goal] because [reason].”
Second, there are two frameworks that can be merged into one cohesive way of navigating talking about design decisions:
The “thank, repeat, prepare” framework and the “IDEAL” response.
Follow up afterward! Ensure things are progressively moving forward - this depends on making sure everyone understood communication clearly.
There are a ton of lessons that could be taken from this book. There are three in particular that I will carry with me going forward immediately:
1. Admit when you’re wrong: this helps to build trust and honest rapport
2. Leave your ego at the door: you aren’t always right and that’s okay
3. Always lead with a “Yes”: people are motivated, empowered, and passionate when their ideas/presence are/is given the permission to succeed
On a higher level, I think this book hits on a common problem seen throughout the workplace, not just in design spaces:
“One of the biggest barriers to effective communication is when people see each other as being on opposite teams.”
This specific book does an incredible job at giving a holistic view as to why it’s so important for design though. Design has earned its place at the table but is still largely seen as frivolous. After reading this book, I feel more than equipped to be able to justify the important of design wherever I work next, if needed. I like how Tom Greever kept things in a common language and also includes a chapter at the end dedicated to non-designers: I think this book could be just as effective for Product Managers/other stakeholders.
Additionally, I like that Tom Greever also points out that there is the possibility that no matter what you do to justify design decisions/importance/etc., there may very well be the possibility that it just doesn’t work. Organizations with this response most likely have poor leadership and are more likely to fail.
“Companies that struggle to incorporate design thinking into their organization have one problem: they don’t have designers at an executive level. The problem of delivering poorly designed products isn’t one of talent, but of design leadership.”
Overall, I loved this book. It was transformative and I intend to apply the principles to everything including my portfolio, future projects, and communicating with people in general.
12/10!
