#170 AI Influence Without Authority: 3 Meetings Every Designer Has Sat In, with Brittni Bowering

Future of UX | Your Design, Tech and User Experience Podcast | AI Design

The episode explores how designers can maintain influence and drive decisions in meetings as AI accelerates the 'making' phase of design work. Host Patricia Reines interviews facilitator

Key takeaways

• Brittni Bowering recommends entering any unled meeting prepared with one strategic question, one interesting piece of research, and one clear suggestion to immediately establish credibility.
• In AI-driven kickoff meetings, designers should pressure-test the process by asking how conclusions were reached rather than challenging the person who generated them.

Main topics

• AI influence in design meetings
• Facilitation strategies for non-leaders

Notable quotes

"What we talk about a lot less is what leaves us with. And I think what it leaves us is the room."

Conclusion

The episode delivers practical, immediately applicable communication frameworks

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:01) Welcome back to the future of UX. My name is Patricia Reines, I'm your host and today we are diving into AI influence. So picture this. We have a kickoff meeting on a Monday morning. It's a new project, the one you've been waiting for all quarter. And the PM shares the screen and there's a finished spec on it with a problem statement, personas, a full user flow. He made it on Sunday evening with chat GPT. And then he says, the thinking is done. We just need someone to design it now. And everyone nods. You are not leading this meeting and you're not the most senior person in the room. And the next three months of your work are getting decided right now while everybody agrees with each other. So what do you actually say? I keep coming back to this question this year. AI is taking over more and more of the making. All the part of our job that used to take three days and now take an afternoon maybe and a couple of hours. I think most of us have kind of accepted that right now. Speaker 2 (1:07) What we talk about a lot less is what leaves us with. And I think what it leaves us is the room. How you make a case, how you get six people who all want something different to land on one direction and whether you have any say at all when you're not the one running the meeting. Because when everybody can build something that works in 40 minutes or four minutes, the conversation around it decides. Which version ships? And most of us got a lot faster at making things over the last two years. I don't think we got any better at the 20 minutes where it all gets decided. So that's what this episode is about. And it's a bit different than usual. So we skip the long intro route and the career story and go straight into... Three meetings that I think every one of us has sat in. Probably in the last two weeks, probably. First is a kickoff meeting where the decision already happened before you walked in. Then the design review where three people vibe coded a prototype over the weekend and then everyone is arguing about which one looks better. And then the research weed out where the quotes from the synthetic users are beautiful. A little bit too beautiful. So for each... One, you get the actual words. The first sentence you say, the questions what slows the room down and what to do when it goes sideways. You also get the three things that Brittany brings into every single meeting and a little psychology trick that has to do with IKEA furniture. And I really love that one. So for this episode, I brought someone special who does communication facilitation for a living. My guest today is Brittany Bowring. Brittany is a workshop designer. She's a facilitator and event host. And she designs and runs the sessions where big groups of people are supposed to leave with an actual decision. She's done this with teams at Google, Procter & Gamble, Lufthansa. And yeah, she once ran a workshop summit at P &G with one more than 100 people in the room. She's Canadian, she's based in Berlin, this is also how I met her because we were almost neighbor when I lived in Berlin a couple of years ago. And she also does stand-up comedy on the side, which I think is the best training for like reading a room. I invited her to the podcast because I think communication, facilitation is the skill we don't talk enough about right now. AI Speaker 1 (3:49) is Speaker 2 (3:49) taking over Speaker 1 (3:50) so much of the making. Speaker 2 (3:51) And what's left for us is the meeting where it all gets decided. Brittany has spent years thinking about exactly this part. And I really wanted her tips on the show for you. And I'm so glad I invited her. By the way, she's also joining the AF4Designers Bootcamp as a guest speaker this October, which I'm so grateful and excited about. She will run a full live session on this with the cohort. So if you like this conversation, that's where it goes Speaker 1 (4:19) much, much deeper. I Speaker 2 (4:21) would say let's Speaker 1 (4:22) dive Speaker 2 (4:23) right in. Ni, welcome to the future of UX. I'm super, super happy that you're here. Thank you so much for having me. Of course. So this podcast episode is a little bit different than usual. We are skipping the introduction this time and the career story. And we are going straight into three very concrete scenarios. Three meetings that I think everyone listening has sat in, probably even in the last two weeks. And for each one, we will look at how you exactly handle it as a designer. So you will give tips and tricks and basically coach us a little bit. So what you should say, when you should say it, and also what you do, then it goes sideways. I Speaker 1 (5:11) think this is going to be really fun. And I think it's, yeah, I'm like all about value and packing you guys with as much like really helpful things you can literally use in five minutes from now in your next meeting. So I'm ready, Patricia, put me on coach or whatever they say. Speaker 2 (5:27) Okay, so before we go into the first room, one small question to get started. So imagine, Brittany, you walk into a room that you are not leading. What is the first thing that you do before you say anything at all? What would be the first thing? Speaker 1 (5:45) Yes, okay. So this is actually something that I learned how to do really well back when I did stand-up comedy. And the thing that... you need to do in your career in general, this is just such an important skill to have, is to be able to read the energy of the room, right? What's the vibe? Do people seem like on edge? Is everybody a little bit like jolly and happy to be there? Or like, is there something else going on? So if you can take a preliminary scan and kind of try to judge the situation as best you can, and to be honest, as designers, You all are very good at this skill. Usually you're really good at watching and listening and sort of taking things in. So use that skill in a meeting when you walk in, because that is going to affect drastically how you approach the situation. Speaker 2 (6:38) Good tip. Thank you so much. I think this is such a good tip because most of the times, at least from my experience, when meetings went into a really bad direction, you could already smell it. Oh my gosh, totally. Speaker 1 (6:53) Yeah, 100%. Yeah, you can tell. You can tell from a mile away. And I think just... being able, like when I did stand-up comedy, it was like you get on stage and you can see in the room, do these people have like a lot of energy and need me to kind of like tone it down? Or do these people, are they falling asleep because maybe the last comedian bombed? Are they feeling like a little uneasy because whatever the last joke was like really kind of risque, you know? So you need to be able to sort of look around, see where people are at and then what they need in that moment and kind of... again, adjust your approach. Speaker 2 (7:32) I think this is such a fun way actually to use or get inspiration from other field of life. It's all communication. Stand-up comedy is something that we can draw a lot of inspiration from. Drawing people in and getting their attention and presenting themselves in a way, right? Like stand-up comedy, your goal is to make people laugh in Speaker 1 (7:54) the best case. Yeah. And Speaker 2 (7:55) in Speaker 1 (7:55) the Speaker 2 (7:55) meeting. convince people of your idea, have good discussion, also present yourself in a very strategic way. So what would you say, before we jump into the first scenario, if I get the feeling that the room is maybe a little bit tense, or I get the feeling everyone's super happy, is there something that you do in those first 30 seconds maybe that changes how people treat you, especially for the rest of the meeting? This is always like our goal, right? To present ourselves. Speaker 1 (8:26) So I think that one of the best things you can do when you're coming into a meeting scenario is you can bring three things, right? So the first one is you should obviously know what your meeting is about and you should bring one smart, thoughtful question, right? That you've prepared beforehand. You might have more questions after you're in the meeting, but bring one with you. Because if you, a really great question, again, designers are usually very good at this. So bring one top-notch question with you. It honestly can make you look so tuned in, right? And like, really like you care and that you're smart and that you're thinking, right? So one question. We are also going to bring one really interesting piece of information. So... Some research that you just fell upon. Something that could sort of like perk some ears in the room. And you're not even going to present this information necessarily right at the top of the meeting. You are going to hold on to it. And if it becomes, you know, if there's a moment where you're like, ooh, this would be good to throw in there, you're just going to drop it in. And it's as if you have all of these cool facts in your mind all the time, right? But you actually just had that one and it was a great opportunity for it. And then the third thing you're going to bring with you is a suggestion. right? Or an opinion, right? Something where this is what you think we should be doing next. And you can prepare that before the meeting. Usually, hopefully, your meetings aren't where like a, you know, crazy amount of information is being shared, but where you're coming together to make a decision, to decide on priorities, to, you know, decide what is next. So those three things, I think if you come in with that and you lead maybe with a question. right, lead with that really interesting question about the topic at hand, all of a sudden, everybody's like, turns to you and they're like, that's an interesting question. You know, and it all of a sudden, people are going to think a little bit differently about you there. And they're going to think we need to kind of listen to this person because they're obviously thinking about this on a bit of a deeper level. Speaker 2 (10:39) I think those are such great tips because from my experience, most people don't prepare anything. They just go into a meeting and the rest or many other people come up with random ideas during the meetings. They're throwing them at you. But coming up with really good ideas in the meeting itself is sometimes a bit tricky. I felt the same. So Speaker 1 (10:59) I think bringing Speaker 2 (11:00) your little... Speaker 1 (11:03) luggage Speaker 2 (11:03) knowledge. Speaker 1 (11:04) Exactly. It's Speaker 2 (11:06) such a cool thing. Speaker 1 (11:06) Okay. And the thing is, like, we're not, you know, not everyone is really great just put on the spot, you know, myself included. I wouldn't count myself as an extrovert. However, I'm not someone who doesn't, who doesn't, who, I'm someone who needs to be prepared. And feel like I know what I'm coming here for. I know what I want to say. And then you can say it so much more confidently and directly without sort of like waffling around, which is something that, you know, I used to do a lot. So, yeah. Me too. Just wanted to throw that in. Speaker 2 (11:40) Okay, perfect. I think we warmed up. And now let's get into our first scenario. So everyone, imagine we are in a kickoff meeting for a new project. Our project manager has the specs already written out with Claude or with ChatGPT over the weekend. Speaker 2 (12:04) Personas are already prepared, flows are already prepared, everything. And then he comes to you and he says, thinking is already done. Now you are the designer. We need this designed. Everyone in the room is nodding like, yeah, yeah, looks good. You are not running this meeting. You are also not the most senior designer in this room. Give me the first sentence, Brittany. Literally, what comes out of my mouth now when I'm sitting there as a designer? Because it's a very tricky situation. Speaker 1 (12:37) Absolutely. Okay, so one of my favorite tools to use when you're not running a meeting, but you want to have an impact in the result of it is to, and I've, you know, I've already said this, but to use questions very... very strategically. Okay. So the question in this specific scenario that I would probably ask, I have a couple of options, but the first one is like, you know, before we jump into this, can I just ask one question just to be sure that I know what problem we're solving? Right. Oh, super smart question. It's also like you're just checking in. It's Speaker 2 (13:19) a Speaker 1 (13:19) very like jump in and ask this question. Another one that maybe this feels a little bit better for you, but like something like, can I just pressure test something before we move on? Right. And then bring in whatever it is that your concern is. So having a really strategic way. to ask really good questions is like, I would say that's the facilitator power move where you can really have influence, even if you didn't call this meeting or if you're not the most senior person in the room. So that would be my trick there. And I mean, it just moves the conversation from like, is this AI output any good to what do we actually know? Because I think that's what, like you said. With having AI now, like everything's coming at us so fast and AI has this like wonderful way of making everything sound so final and so sure that it's our job actually as designers and as facilitators to make sure, like check on those things, right? So the questions are becoming even more important. Speaker 2 (14:30) I think that you are, I really like that you said like facilitators and designers, because I think when you, when you, when you hear the word facilitator, I always think of you, you know, like someone who's running workshop or who's like facilitating. Yeah. But the truth is. If you're part of a meeting and you want to get your thoughts across, your opinions, your idea, you need to facilitate. Even like, you know, the small parts of facilitation, like asking small questions. And I think in this example, what is especially tricky, or also from my experience, is that the project manager who prepared all of that will look stupid.