The Art of the Buy-In: Why Narrative is a Technical Skill

In the early years of a design career, the focus is almost entirely on execution.

I’ve been in the industry long enough to remember designing entire interfaces in Photoshop—obsessing over folder structures, layer masks, and praying the file didn't crash. Today, we obsess over auto-layout constraints and component properties in Figma.

The tools change, but the assumption remains the same: we believe that if the execution is flawless, the work will sell itself.

But in the boardroom, design never speaks for itself.

I have seen brilliant UI die on the vine because the designer couldn't articulate the "Why." I have also seen average work get shipped because the narrative around it was airtight.

As I moved from Senior to Principal, I realized that my most important tool wasn't Figma, or Principle, or Adobe Suite.

It was the Story.

The Presentation is the Product

We often treat the "reveal"—the design review—as a formality. We paste screenshots into a deck and hope the stakeholders see what we see.

But stakeholders aren't looking at pixels. They are looking at risk, ROI, and feasibility.

A Principal Designer treats the presentation deck with the same rigor as the interface itself. The stakeholder is the user. The meeting is the user journey.

• What is their pain point? (e.g., Low conversion, confusing navigation).

• What is the friction? (e.g., Engineering constraints, brand legacy).

• What is the solution? (The design).

If you skip the first two and jump straight to the solution, you aren't designing; you're just decorating.

Narrative as an API

I view storytelling as the API between the Design Team and the Business. Engineers speak code. PMs speak metrics. Designers speak emotion. Narrative is the translator.

When I present a design system update, I don't talk about "consistency." I talk about "velocity." When I present a brand refresh, I don't talk about "vibes." I talk about "trust."

The Principal's Job

The junior designer thinks the job is to move pixels. The Principal designer knows the job is to move people.

To build great products, we have to bridge the gap between the "Solvers" (Business) and the "Makers" (Design). And the only bridge strong enough to hold that weight is a compelling story.

Photo by Mike Hindle on Unsplash