A designer’s blueprint for presenting work better
A simple system for communicating design with purpose
Every designer knows the feeling. You’ve done great work, but when it’s time to present, something gets lost in translation. The story feels scattered. The message doesn’t land the way you hoped.
Early in my career, I had to present a redesign in a (virtual) room full of hundreds of people. I was way out of my comfort zone. Leadership was there to decide if we could move forward. The design held up, but the story didn’t. That’s when I learned presenting is part of the craft, not separate from it. It pushed me to rethink how I shared work and rebuild my approach.
What came out of that was a personal blueprint for how I present. It helped me prepare, structure, and deliver work with focus. Presenting started to feel less like a performance and more like part of the process. Over time, it helped me move faster, stay composed, and communicate with more confidence.
You don’t need to be a natural presenter. You just need a system you can trust and refine over time, like any other part of your craft.
Here’s what we’ll walk through together, just like a good design process:
Define: Set your direction and goals.
Discover: Gather examples and tools that fit your style.
Design: Build a flexible structure you can reuse while shaping your voice.
Test and iterate: Practice regularly and make small improvements each time.
By the end, you’ll have a system you can trust every time you share your work.
1. Define your direction
Before you build slides, start with direction. Know what you want to say and how you want to show up. You’re not chasing a perfect deck. You’re building a steady way to lead with clarity and confidence.
Reflect: Try the Presentation Self-Assessment I made. It’s a short, honest check-in that only takes a few minutes. It helps you see how you show up right now, what comes naturally, what slips under pressure, and what deserves more focus time.
Define: Write one line that captures how you want your system to work for you and how you want to show up through it.
Use these as a starting point:
“I want my decks to connect every design choice back to a clear goal so the story holds up under pressure.”
“I want my system to strip away clutter and help people see what matters most.”
“I want my slides to build a story that sticks, not just show what changed on the screen.”
“I want a structure that helps me stay composed and lead the conversation with confidence.”
That single line becomes your compass. It keeps discovery, design, and testing aligned with your bigger goal. Once you know what kind of system you’re building, everything starts to click.
2. Discover your style and tools
Once you’ve set your direction, the next step is discovery. This is where you get curious and start connecting ideas that’ll shape how you present. It’s about studying what works, collecting what inspires you, and building the early structure for your own system.
Audit: Start with what you already have. Go back through old decks or recordings and study them closely. When did people lean in? When did they tune out? Those moments show where your instincts are strong and where you can tighten things up next time.
Benchmark: Watch how others do it. Think of it like a competitive analysis for presentation style. Study peers, team leads, or even communicators outside of design. Notice what keeps your attention and what makes you zone out. Treat it like pattern-spotting.
Research: Step outside the design bubble. There are whole fields built on teaching and storytelling, and plenty of people showing how to do it well. Watch, read, or take a short course. The more you study how others explain ideas, the easier your own story becomes to tell.
Collect: Save anything that’ll make building easier later. Pull your best decks, templates, and design-system slides. Add examples from Figma Community, Pitch, or Canva so you’ve got references ready when it’s time to build.
This phase should feel energizing, not like homework. The more you put in now, the smoother everything gets later.
3. Design your presentation system
By this point, you’ve gathered ideas, tools, and examples. Now it’s time to build. Design is where you turn those notes into something real.
Framework: This is the backbone of how you tell your design story. It helps people see the work, the reasoning behind it, and where things are headed. Mine follows the design process because that works for me. Yours might look different. The goal is to have a steady, flexible structure that connects every project you share. If you want to see mine in action, read My Go-To Presentation Framework.
Template: Your template gives that framework a home. Start with what already exists, like company slides or shared libraries, and make small tweaks to fit your voice. Once it works, reuse it. You’ll move faster without rushing. Over time, your decks will start to feel consistent across projects.
Voice: This is how you sound when you present. It’s easy to copy big, confident speakers, but the best ones grow from their own style. Find people whose tone feels close to yours and study how they make it work. You’ll pick up techniques that fit naturally instead of forcing a style that doesn’t. The goal isn’t to sound like someone else. It’s to sound like the most confident version of you.
Adopt AI: AI tools are becoming part of every creative process and presenting is no different. Use this step to research what’s available and start experimenting. Try out options like ChatGPT, Tome, Gamma, Canva, and Beautiful.ai to see what fits your workflow. These tools evolve fast, so keep learning. They’re here to support your process, not replace it.
Building your system takes time up front, but it pays you back with every project. When your system comes together, everything clicks. You stop rebuilding from scratch and start refining how you show up.
4. Test and iterate
This is when your system starts earning its keep. You’ve built it. Now you’re using it in real reviews and real stakes. Each round shows you what’s working and what still needs tuning. Treat it like field testing your process and refining it as you go, one presentation at a time.
Practice: Say it out loud, not in your head. You’ll catch awkward phrasing, pacing issues, and spots where your story doesn’t flow. Record a quick run-through and listen back. It’s uncomfortable at first, but it builds real confidence.
Feedback: Share a dry run with a peer, mentor, or manager. Ask focused questions like “Where did I lose you?” or “What would you cut?” Honest feedback early saves hours later.
Repeat: Find every chance to get reps in. Sprint reviews, demos, and team check-ins all count. The more you present, the less it feels like an event. It starts to feel like part of your process.
Iterate: Refine the system, not just the deck. Update your slides, framework, or prep notes after each round. Small improvements compound over time. They make your presentations smoother, faster, and easier to trust.
Testing isn’t about one deck. It’s how you keep your system alive. Each round teaches you something new. That steady rhythm of reflection is what turns presenting into craft.
Closing thoughts ☕️
You’ll always need to share your work. How you do it is what sets you apart.
Presenting well isn’t about being polished. It’s about being clear, thoughtful, and ready to tell the story only you can tell. Each round builds confidence. Each rep builds skill.
AI can help you move faster, but the craft still comes from you — from your taste, your thinking, and how you bring others along for the ride.
Keep shaping your system and story. It’ll change how you work, how you communicate, and how your ideas land.
