Designer & Designer
Presenting Design
Episode Summary
How we present, how do we present ourselves? How do we talk about our work? How do we sell our work? Joe and Brian dive into design's greatest paradox: we're obsessed with pixel-perfect Figma files but stumble when explaining why anyone should care. They get real about swagger, theater, and occasional BS of design presentations—from heard it all execs to exhausting "performance personas" to the weird psychology of why negging works.
Episode Notes
Mentioned
Topics Discussed
- Why don't designers learn how to present design?
- Do's and Don't for design presentations
- To Neg or Not to Neg? That is the question.
- The exhausting reality of "performing"
Pull Quotes
- "Amateur hour is when someone spends all their bullets in the first minute... You got to keep some in reserve." –Joe
- "If you act like you've done this so many times that you know what the problem is and you are bored by the details, you have convinced someone already that you can solve it." –Joe
- "People gather artifacts and data when they don't trust themselves to actually have the answer." –Joe
- "I continue to believe that we have the hardest job out of anyone in technology because we have to balance so many different things." –Brian
- "It's the job." –Brian
Connect with Joe & Brian
Outro music: How To Get Your Ass Kicked by Sparks