How ‘powerful writing’ can transform your voice as a designer.

As a designer by profession, I used to spend countless hours perfecting meeting presentations... Lost on aesthetics.??

PowerPoint became a default mode of communication for many of us - too many times, out of habit.??

Here is the thing: with all their images and animations, presentations are great for drama, storytelling and capturing attention. But when you need quick team iteration and actual outcomes, I learned (from Amazon) that simple written documents are much more powerful, more inclusive and data rich.??

That’s if used with the right ‘magic’ ingredients.? ?

?? #1 Ingredient: Kick off your meeting with a ‘doc-read’.??

• Pre-reads are tyrannical. Most reviewers don’t have time to study documents ahead. By allowing the reading during the meeting, you create a level playing field where everyone has access to the same information at the same time.??
• Now imagine a room where the focus is solely on a powerful text: camera and audio off, no interruptions and visual distractions, just undivided attention to facts. It's amazing how much quality feedback emerges when visual distractions are removed.??
• Commenting in a doc is way more efficient and 10X more feedback can be captured due to the simultaneous input. It's also far more inclusive - If you miss the meeting, you can study the comments and understand the outcome. Plus, doc-reads put introverts at the same level of influence.??

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?? #2 Ingredient: Use powerful writing.?

• Plain text is key, but it still needs to be effective: define your intentions from start, lead with the conclusion, keep language simple, remove vague words and jargon, vary sentence length for rhythm…These are a few of the things that will help you craft better copy.??
• Keep the documents short, move tables and images to an appendix and use a format with FAQs (a fantastic way to manage commenting feedback without a "franken-doc" result). ?

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Some time ago, I decided to put those and other ingredients together in a ‘Powerful Writing at Philips’ training that we’ve delivered to over 1600 people globally. It's now officially a Philips University class greatly enhanced by the contributions from Nina Warburton , Jasper van Delft and 12 other trainers.?

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Now more than ever, with the dwindling attention spans and more complex challenges we face, effective collaboration is key. These simple yet powerful techniques were transformative to me. I hope they can help you create an impact and drive real outcomes.?