Table of Contents
- Design is just decision-making in disguise
- 3 things to consider before any design decision
- 1. What type of decision is this?
- 2. What's the decision-making model here?
- 3. What's the context around this decision?
- 2 mistakes that tank your credibility
- Mistake 1: Confusing participation with consensus
- Mistake 2: Treating every decision like it's life or death
- The go-to framework for making better design decisions
- Step 1: Clarify the decision
- Step 2: Name who decides and how
- Step 3: Categorize the decision
- Step 4: Be intentional about participation
- Step 5: Make it safe to try
- Step 6: Close the loop
- Handling the swoop-and-poop stakeholder
- 1. Create boxed-in feedback moments
- 2. Build a paper trail
- 3. Don't be afraid to be annoying
- 4. Understand the psychology
- 5. Know when to say no
- The real work of being a UX designer
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Design is just decision-making in disguise
If you’re a UX designer, your job isn’t just designing interfaces, it’s making design decisions every single day.
What to cut. What to prioritize. What trade-offs matter.
I know most UX teams don’t have a clear design decision-making framework. So decisions feel slow, political, and emotionally exhausting, even when the design itself is solid.
Chris just spent an hour with Linn Vizard - service designer, consultant, and founder of Made Manifest, to talk about how experienced UX designers make better calls.
After five years running a boutique consultancy — from Toronto Public Library policy changes to nonprofit grant systems — Linn has developed a practical framework for design decision-making that scales from pixel-level UX to organizational strategy.
Let’s dig in!
👉 The insight in this blog traces back to a thoughtful conversation with Linn — here’s the full discussion:
3 things to consider before any design decision
1. What type of decision is this?
Not every decision deserves the same energy.
Start with reversibility: can you undo it later without pain? If yes, move fast. If it’s hard to reverse (or expensive to fix), slow down.
Then check the stakes: does this decision actually matter? Will it meaningfully change the product or the business, or is it just a preference dressed up as urgency?
Linn references the story about Barack Obama only wearing blue or black suits. Why? Because decision-making capacity is finite. He needed to save his brain power for stuff that actually mattered.
Your job is the same. Spend your decision-making budget on things that are truly irreversible and high stakes. Everything else? Make a call and move on.
2. What's the decision-making model here?
Who actually gets to decide? Is it you? Your PM? Your boss? The CEO who shows up once a quarter to have “thoughts”?
Linn calls out the most common models:
- Autocratic: One person decides. Fast. Clear. Sometimes frustrating if you're not that person.
- Consultative: Someone decides, but they ask for input first. Think: design sprints with a dedicated “decider.”
- Consensus: Everyone has to agree. Slow. Painful. Often leads to design by committee and watered-down solutions.
- Avoidant: Nobody decides. Everyone just… waits. Kicks the can down the road. Calls another meeting.
If you don't clarify who decides and how, you'll waste weeks trying to make everyone happy, which, spoiler alert, never works.
3. What's the context around this decision?
You can have the best idea in the world. Backed by research. Beautiful execution. Users love it. And it still won't ship.
You can't just say “this is the right thing to do” and expect it to happen. You need to understand:
- What's the budget and timeline?
- Who has power (formal and informal)?
- What are stakeholders optimizing for?
- What are the company's priorities right now?
Linn's advice for understanding organizational context:
- Public companies. Listen to earnings calls. Read shareholder letters. What projects get highlighted? What language does leadership use?
- Private companies. Look for patterns. How far out is the roadmap? How often do priorities change? Is this a top-down or consensus-driven culture?
The more you tune into these clues, the better you'll navigate the system.
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2 mistakes that tank your credibility
Mistake 1: Confusing participation with consensus
Linn's confession:
“For so long in my career, I have been confusing participatory design with consensus-based decision-making.” — Linn confessed.
She'd run co-design workshops. Bring in users. Bring in cross-functional team members. Get tons of input. And then she thought everyone had to agree.
Wrong.
Participatory design is about gathering input. Consensus-based decision-making is about getting everyone to agree on the outcome. Those are not the same thing.
Trying to get consensus on every design decision is a recipe for:
- Slow progress
- Design by committee
- Watered-down solutions
- Frustrated stakeholders who thought they had a say
Worse, it sets a dangerous expectation. People think their input equals decision rights. When you go a different direction, they feel blindsided.
The fix: Be clear upfront about how decisions will be made.
“Hey, we're gathering input today. Ultimately, [PM/design lead/whoever] will decide based on [criteria]. But we want to hear your perspectives.”
Mistake 2: Treating every decision like it's life or death
Design perfectionism is real.
You obsess. You iterate. You second-guess. You ask for feedback from 12 people. You revise again. And you burn out.
“Stop treating every decision like it's irreversible and high stakes.” — Linn advised.
Try the “safe to try” framework. Instead of asking “is this perfect?” ask “is this safe to try?”
This shifts the psychology from “we have to get it right" to "let's try this and see what happens.” Way less stressful. Way more productive.
Set boundaries. Protect your process. Don't be a doormat.
The go-to framework for making better design decisions
Step 1: Clarify the decision
- What are the options?
- What's actually on the table?
- What are we trying to solve?
Sounds obvious, but half the time, teams skip this step. Everyone walks into a meeting with different assumptions about what's being decided.
Get crystal clear first.
Step 2: Name who decides and how
- What input is needed?
- Who has decision rights?
- What decision-making model are we using? (Autocratic, consultative, consensus, etc.)
Set expectations upfront so nobody's confused later.
Step 3: Categorize the decision
- Reversible or irreversible?
- High stakes or low stakes?
This tells you whether to move fast or slow down.
Step 4: Be intentional about participation
- What type of input do you need?
- Who actually needs to be involved?
- Do you need a series of big workshops? Or can you just do a one-hour crit with your PM?
Don't default to "more collaboration is always better." Sometimes it's just slow and unnecessary.
Step 5: Make it safe to try
How can you frame this as an experiment instead of a permanent decision?
Define what success looks like. Set a date to check back in and see how it went. This reduces anxiety and makes it easier to move forward.
Step 6: Close the loop
This is the step most teams skip.
- How did the decision turn out?
- Did we get the outcome we wanted?
- What would we do differently next time?
Closing the loop is how you get better at decision-making.
Handling the swoop-and-poop stakeholder
You know the type.
Micromanages everything. Never available when you need them. Then swoops in last minute with a laundry list of feedback that completely derails your work.
How do you deal with this without losing your mind?
1. Create boxed-in feedback moments
Set up regular critique sessions. Every Friday at 10am, we review work and stakeholders can give feedback.
Then hold the line.
If they miss the crit and show up two days before launch with “thoughts,” you can say:
“Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, we're past the point where we can incorporate this. You're welcome to join next Friday's crit for the next sprint.”
Sounds harsh. But it works.
You're not being difficult. You're protecting the process.
2. Build a paper trail
Email. Slack. Whatever.
When you ask for feedback or decisions and get crickets, document it.
“Hey, I need your input on [decision] by [date]. If I don't hear from you, I'll move forward with [option].”
If they come back later with complaints, you have receipts.
3. Don't be afraid to be annoying
“Don't be afraid to be annoying and proactive.” — Linn said.
If someone's blocking your work and they're not available, keep reaching out.
Most reasonable people will give you five minutes if you make it clear you're stuck without their input.
4. Understand the psychology
Sometimes senior stakeholders swoop in because they feel guilty they haven't been involved. Or they miss being in the weeds. Or they just had five minutes and wanted to be helpful.
Linn admits to doing this herself:
“I know sometimes when I'm giving feedback on stuff for the team and it's getting close to a deadline or a deliverable. I have to really filter myself and say: don't just dump all your thoughts and ideas. Pick the things that are really important.”
Sometimes the best response to last-minute feedback is: “That's an interesting idea.” [silence]
Or: “Thanks, I'll consider it.”
Not everything deserves action. And not every idea from a senior stakeholder is gospel.
5. Know when to say no
Yes, you can say no. If someone shows up with feedback that's too late to incorporate, say so.
“Sorry, the print deadline has passed. We can't make that change.”
“We've already committed to this approach with engineering. Changing it now would push the launch by two weeks.”
7 strategies to push back on stakeholders:
The real work of being a UX designer
It’s making design decisions, no matter your title — that’s the work.
Both Linn and I have been doing this for years. We've both made every mistake in this article (multiple times).
The difference between designers who burn out and designers who thrive?
The ones who thrive get good at this decision-making stuff. They understand how decisions get made. They clarify who decides upfront. They stop treating every choice like it's irreversible. And they ship work that matters.
So go ahead. Take that one decision you're stuck on. Run it through the framework. Make a call. Move forward.
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