Make the Case: How to Show Your Design Work Matters

4.6 (19)

Kai Wong

Medium's Top Design Writer. Educator.

Great design Doesn't Speak for Itself. Learn to Speak for It.

Most designers do great work. But when they present it, they say "reduced cognitive load" and executives hear "nice to have."
They say "user friction" and leadership hears "fix it later."

They leave the room. Nothing changes.

This isn't a design problem. It's a translation problem. It's why strong designers get ignored, passed over for promotion, and waiting for buy-in. Or stuck in a job search where the portfolio doesn't land.

"Selling and advocating for design is 50 to 60% of a designer's job." — Director of UX, Ford

"You have to translate usability findings into how it's driving your business KPIs." — Design Leader, Mastercard

Make the Case gives you the frameworks to translate design decisions into the business outcomes leadership needs. It also comes with AI workflows to help apply them without your evenings disappearing.

Built from 13 years presenting design in low-UX-maturity environments, pressure-tested with 30 leaders at Target, Ford, Mastercard, Meta, and Amazon.

8 sessions over 4 weeks. 60 minutes each, Mondays and Wednesdays. You'll learn pressure-tested frameworks and how to implement them in the same week.

By the end, you'll make the case. And it will land.

What you’ll learn

Go from a designer who presents work to a strategic partner who influences what gets built.

Translate "better UX" and "less friction" into the metrics leadership tracks
Find the business outcome behind any design decision in five "so what?" steps
Use HEART to measure the user behavior that your design is supposed to drive

Define what success looks like with Goals-Signals-Metrics, before you design
Map which design screens actually affect the metric you're trying to move
Turn a gut feeling about your design into a testable prediction

Move up the Data Pyramid: from "3/5 users did X" to "users are doing Y, which is hurting metric Z"
Shape your finding to match what the PM, executive, or engineer actually needs from you
Answer "so what?" before anyone has to ask it

Generate multiple solution angles before committing to one
Estimate impact using benchmarks from comparable projects
Rank your hypotheses with ICE to pick Quick Wins over Strategic Bets

Make the business goal the main character, not yourself or the user
Build a throughline so every claim in your presentation follows from the last
Find the weak spots in your argument before stakeholders do

Tune your case for the audience you're presenting to: executives, PMs, engineers, or recruiters
Use Problem-Agitate-Solution to make your argument feel urgent, not just informative
Combine 2-3 methods (poor metrics, competitive gap, consequence of inaction) to land the urgency

Learn directly from Kai

Kai Wong

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Medium's Top Design Writer. 13 Years Defending Design Where UX Wasn't Valued.

See all products from Kai Wong

Who this course is for

Designers who want to use data to bypass office politics to start having a bigger impact
Designers ready to operate at the strategic level, using evidence to shape what gets built, not just how it looks
Designers in low-UX maturity environments who've outgrown relationship-building as their only tool

What's included

Live sessions

Learn directly from Kai Wong in a real-time, interactive format.

Lifetime access

Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.

Community of peers

Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.

Certificate of completion

Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.

Maven Guarantee

Your purchase is backed by the Maven Guarantee.

Course syllabus

12 live sessions • 36 lessons • 4 projects

Week 1

Jun 15—Jun 21

Jun

Workshop 1: Connect Design to Business Outcomes

Mon 6/154:00 PM—5:00 PM (UTC)

Workshop 1 Lessons: Align with Product Goals

4 items

Jun

Workshop 2: Define Success Before You Design

Wed 6/174:00 PM—5:00 PM (UTC)

Workshop 2 Lessons: Track Design impact on Business outcomes

5 items

Jun

Office Hours

Fri 6/193:30 PM—4:00 PM (UTC)

Optional

Week 2

Jun 22—Jun 28

Jun

Workshop 3: Answer 'So What?' Before Anyone Asks

Mon 6/224:00 PM—5:00 PM (UTC)

Workshop 3 Lessons: Identifying the core problem that matters to your audience

4 items

Jun

Workshop 4: Make the Problem Undeniable

Wed 6/244:00 PM—5:00 PM (UTC)

Workshop 4 Lessons: Turn your Core Challenge into Data Visualizations

6 items

Jun

Office Hours

Fri 6/263:30 PM—4:00 PM (UTC)

Optional

Schedule

Live sessions

2 hrs / week

Mon, Jun 15
4:00 PM—5:00 PM (UTC)
Wed, Jun 17
4:00 PM—5:00 PM (UTC)
Fri, Jun 19
3:30 PM—4:00 PM (UTC)

Projects

1 hr / week

The exercises help create a final project, which is an effective Data Story draft presentation

Async content

1 hr / week

Follow along with not only pre-recorded videos, but concept cards and templates as well

Testimonials

"Kai brought structure and clarity to our transformation stories — distilling complex, multi-layered design challenges into simple, human narratives that reveal how design drives real organisational change."

Jean-Baptiste Kaloya
VP, Product Design at BPIFrance