A team spends weeks understanding the users, testing, and finding a solution that works. Then the result is presented to the leadership group. And suddenly the conversation is about what each person likes.
Responsibility without a mandate
The project team is responsible for making the solution work. If it has no authority to decide what is good enough, the decision sits with others. With people who see the work for the first time when it is finished.
That is the root cause. Responsibility and mandate sit with different people.
The leadership group is doing its job. They need to make sure the solution fits the organisation. But without a shared basis, the feedback becomes personal. One thinks the colour is wrong. Another misses their department on the front page. Nobody has anything to measure against.
What it can cost
Rework. Lost time. A team that loses direction.
And a design that ends up as a compromise nobody actually chose.
When decisions based on insight and testing are overruled by opinions, it also affects the next round.
Who approves the design must be decided before the design exists.
My own share of the responsibility
I have shown a finished product myself. The leadership group got something to react to, not something to decide. That is when the opinions come.
The goal is not for the leadership group to say yes to everything. The goal is for the conversation to be about the right thing.
Who presents is part of that responsibility.
Let the designer present
Who presents affects what the conversation is about.
When the designer presents, they can start with what the design is meant to solve. Which users, which tasks, what the tests showed. Then comes the design, as an answer to a problem and not as a showing.
Attention then moves from fonts and colours to what decides whether the solution works. The details can still be discussed. They just get their proper place.
The designer can also answer why. Why the button is there. Why the menu is simple. That is hard for anyone but the person who drew it to explain.
It asks something of us. The project manager frames the meeting and says which decision the leadership group is to make. The designer gets time to prepare. And the meeting is a decision meeting, not a viewing.
Clarify the mandate before you design
Four things help:
- Who approves the design, and who can stop it? Names, not roles.
- Against which criteria? Goals, user needs and test results. Preferences come on top.
- When does the leadership group come in? Early on goals and criteria. Along the way on direction. The final result is too late to steer.
- Who presents, and what does the presentation open with? Goals and user needs, not screenshots.
Write the decisions down. One page is enough.
Questions I ask at kick-off
Who approves this? What happens if the leadership group disagrees with what the user tests show? Who decides then?
The answers say a lot about where the project stands, long before the first sketch.
If you want to get mandate and decision paths in place before your next project starts, I'm happy to have a chat.
Transparency note: This article is based on the author's own analysis and experience. AI has been used as an editorial aid for language and structure.
