How to sell design

As designers, we may shy away from the idea of “selling,” but it’s necessary. The best way to sell design? Storytelling.

Think about Apple keynotes, where fantastic design is presented through captivating stories. But concept designs can be particularly challenging to sell because they’re often vague and open-ended. Here’s how I’ve learned to use writing and storytelling to bridge that gap.

Start by understanding what you don’t know

When working with concept designs, I find it valuable to differentiate between what I know and what I don’t know. My first step is writing out what I actually understand about the problem.

This might be a bulleted list, a user story, or something close to a blog post—the format doesn’t matter as long as it clearly lays out my knowledge. Once I’ve detailed the obvious facts, I start listing what I assume. These are close to facts, but technically things I don’t know for certain.

For example, when working with eobuwie (a shoe retailer), I knew they had more than 10,000 pairs of shoes available. That’s a lot. From my own shopping habits, I could assume it would be tricky for users to find exactly what they want—I couldn’t even be sure they had what I was looking for. Now I’d identified one thing I knew and one thing I didn’t.

I continue this flow as long as possible without editing, without solutionizing, and without getting stuck. Just keep the words flowing.

As Paul Graham puts it:

“A good writer doesn’t just think, and then write down what he thought, as a sort of transcript. A good writer will almost always discover new things in the process of writing.”

Once I’m satisfied with my list, I look for common topics and patterns. This is how you start defining a good story.

Why storytelling works

Storytelling is something we’re exposed to daily through books, movies, and shows. But there’s a difference between good storytelling and great storytelling. Great stories share four characteristics:

1. Universal appeal. They’re relatable across cultures and backgrounds. As Pixar director Pete Docter says: “What you’re trying to do when you tell a story is to get the audience to have that same feeling” you had when experiencing something meaningful.

2. Clear structure and purpose. Most stories follow a familiar pattern. For design presentations, I adapt this structure: “We’re all familiar with [blank]. Every day, we use [blank] to [blank]. But what if we could [blank] to [blank]?” This structure helps define purpose—why must you tell this story?

3. Surprise and delight. Predictable stories are boring. Give just enough information to intrigue your audience, but inspire them to think about it days or weeks afterward.

4. Simple and focused. It’s easy to add too many variables, thinking the story needs more flavor. Like great design, the key is removing as much as possible while keeping the core intact.

Concept designs vs. final designs

When presenting different types of designs, it’s part of the process—using different stages to further define the design:

• Page briefs help focus on the right sections, actions, and goals
• Wireframes establish hierarchy and visual relationships between sections
• Visual designs show how wireframes come to life with appropriate balance and engagement
• Concept designs are an MVP blend of the above—perhaps visual design of a single page to showcase style direction, or wireframes to demonstrate navigation within a framework

While the goal of page briefs, wireframes, or visual designs is often sign-off, concept designs serve a different purpose. They invite collaboration by welcoming stakeholders into your process. The only thing better than a dream is a shared dream.

Great stories are like great design

If you look closely, great stories and great design follow similar principles:

• Universal: Most UX patterns work worldwide
• Clear structure and purpose: Good design has obvious hierarchy and intent
• Delightful: Great design offers pleasant surprises
• Simple and focused: The best designs do one thing exceptionally well

Making it work

As designers, selling design through storytelling allows us to sell the dream while keeping it grounded in reality. With concept designs especially, storytelling helps communicate what we know versus what we’re still exploring.

The key is finding that balance—showing enough to inspire confidence but not so much that you paint yourself into a corner. When done well, storytelling transforms design presentations from approval-seeking exercises into collaborative explorations of what’s possible.

Writing about your design process isn’t just documentation—it’s discovery. There’s something magical that happens when you shift from visual to verbal communication. It inspires new thoughts and takes you down paths you wouldn’t have explored otherwise.