I’ve been trying a new simple way to prepare for meetings that improves the outcome. This proactive preparation ensures I have ideas, opinions, topics and more to contribute.
I got the idea while I was sitting in another unproductive meeting. I was judging the meeting, but then I remembered a tweet from Julie Zhuo on ownership. She writes that taking ownership means taking active participation in reaching a desired outcome.
And taking ownership is a crucial part of being a leader. As Zhuo writes in an article:
Leadership means owning a problem—as in, you’ll do whatever it takes to get to a solution or favorable outcome.
And being a leader is required to become a Design Lead (it’s kind of in the name). This is for example what it says in the Klarna career framework about Design Leads:
[You] establish yourself as a strategic leader, managing stakeholders, and maintaining a holistic view of the ecosystem.
If I want to become Design Lead, I should really stop complaining, and start taking ownership.
During this time, I was reading Articulating Design Decisions (go read it if you haven’t already) where he shares his meeting templates. I saw an opportunity to remix.
My Meeting “Hack”
Each workday, I review my scheduled meetings and create a note for each one of them. Using Notion (or your preferred tool), I write down my answers to these questions.
What is the purpose of the project the meeting is about?
What is the purpose of the meeting?
What can I do to help with the purpose of the project or the meeting
These questions help me frame each meeting within the broader context, focus on immediate goals, and most importantly, identify my role in driving progress.
Putting the Hack into Practice
Below is an example of how I answered these questions in preparation for a recent meeting:
What is the purpose of the project the meeting is about?
Redesign in-app browser shopping assistant without impacting the payment feature negatively
What is the purpose of the meeting
Decide what design for the payment feature will suit both the in-app browser shopping assistant and the desktop extension
What can I do to help with the purpose of the project or the meeting
Decide priority of content for the in-app browser shopping assistant
Ideate options for the payment feature
Form an opinion
Then I spent 30-45 minute to do the above preparations. Then when it was time for the meeting, I had options, my recommendation, and reasoning behind it.
Although it took me extra time, I saved everyone time because we could get to a group decision faster.
You don’t know what you got ‘til you’re missing it a lot
Recently, I skipped the preparation because I didn’t have time. There was nobody to drive the meeting in a productive direction. We just kept busy talking about various topics. It was like trying to bake a cake without a plan — messy and a waste of six people’s time.
This is why people hate meetings!
Conclusion
This hack will make you look like you’re on top of things — because you are. You will start driving progress in meetings and get things done.
It’s easy to go with the flow and not prepare for meetings. Don’t follow into that trap. Take ownership — become a leader.
It’s a great advice, thanks for sharing. This makes a huge difference in how people will think about you. Designers have the “competitive advantage” of being able to show things instead of just talking and this can really position you as a owner in the discussions