4 principles of effective negotiations for product designers

Communicating the value of design is one of the most essential skills that I learned through my work at early-stage startups. In places, where design is on the way to becoming a leading voice of a product and design system is yet to be established, it’s a responsibility for any designer (even an intern) to help others understand the design process and its impact on business strategy.

Why negotiations?

While taking a joint negotiations class at Haas Business School and Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, I realized some of the key concepts formalized the way I was communicating and justifying my design choices to co-founders while working at Fireflies.ai and Hallo. Even now at the New York Times, oftentimes I have to negotiate my design work with product managers and editors to get it done in an efficient & timely manner.

After talking to several people, I am also envisioning this article to be particularly helpful for designers at design agencies. Oftentimes when cooperating with clients, the righteous side favors clients rather than the agency itself. Therefore, negotiations can also help persuade the other side to say yes to something that both sides can live with and agree upon.