How to make your design stories focused on your user's perspective

Design storytelling should be from the user's perspective, not yours

Photo by Greta Hoffman: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-woman-being-interviewed-by-a-reporter-7859553/

"I don't work for [this company]. I work for the users." This quote, by a Lead Product Designer to the CEO, helped illustrate a subtle shift we always need to keep in mind when communicating about our users.

Design storytelling is one of the most potent design communication tools to persuade our team to make hard but valuable decisions for our users. However, we often make a critical mistake when learning to tell stories: we tell our story from the wrong point of view.

I've made this mistake before: I've jumped straight into insights from user testing, making it about all the work I did without ever really adequately introducing who our user is. You might have, as well.

You are not the main character in your design stories; your users are. Shifting how you present your work to this perspective will lead to more success in persuading your team.

Here's why that matters more in design storytelling than you might think.

Make sure your main character, the user, isn't a faceless entity