How to present to clients in short notice
Last Friday and yesterday, I had to present my designs, critiques and recommendations in a meeting filled with a team that I didn’t know. I was nervous. I’ve presented to clients plenty of times but it was my first time presenting to people I had never been in a meeting with about that specific project. I had less than 24 hours to pull it together and less than 48 hours to have the designs completed. Is that insane? Yes. Is it best practice? No, not at all. Can you pull it together and present to your client in a professional manner with less than a day’s notice? Absolutely.
Here’s how I did it:
Create a cover page and table of contents. Organize all of your recommendations, wireframes with annotations and if possible show the screenshots of the various pages currently on the live site for before and after comparison.
Make sure you have the project name and date on the cover page. Title the file to match the cover page. Export everything into a consolidated PDF. This will be so your client will not have to pull up the site during the meeting and can focus on what you are saying. You will be walking them through your decision making process and the reasons for your design decisions.
Introduce yourself to the team, explain the purpose of the meeting, and what you’ll be showcasing.
After you present, ask if anyone has any questions or comments. If they do, answer them to the best of your ability. If they do not, politely thank them for their time, state that if there is anyone who would like to have a copy of the PDF that you will send it to them and turn the meeting back over to the “host”.
See, it’s more simple than it seems. Presenting to clients successfully is mostly a combination of being organized, informed, approachable and confident.
Hope this helps.
Until next time, happy wireframing.
-Nita