I tell stories through products, from early concepts to high-fidelity designs, by working collaboratively with my wonderful product, engineering, and design peers.

I often see designers dig deep for the earliest sign or clear indication that, in hindsight, must have been a clear predictor of their eventual career path. I don’t know if it honestly works like that…but if I had to pick, I’ve decided mine were the countless PowerPoint "films" I crafted for an engaged audience of two, my parents. Because at the end of the day, my journey with product design is, and always has been, about stories.

I will never forget the day I interviewed Anthony, a Product Manager and previous colleague I had the privilege of working on Mode’s Python and R Notebooks with. One of the questions I always asked during our 2-on-1s was for candidates to describe what they believed a designer’s role ought to be in the product process, and what their ideal working relationship with design looked like. His answer was an abbreviated version of this story.

In 1975, George Lucas had just completed his second draft of a rather out there science fiction film that he referred to…as Star Wars. Despite his prior success in the industry, studio executives really struggled to understand what it was exactly that he was trying to do. To put it bluntly, they didn’t get it. They didn’t see the vision. And as a result, they didn’t feel particularly confident moving forward with the film.

Enter Ralph McQuarrie. Ralph was a talented concept artist George had met a few years prior. George convinced him to design a few key screens from the script, and these illustrations resulted in two critical outcomes:

1. they helped others understand George’s vision and ultimately get the film made

2. they fundamentally shaped the look and feel of the entire Star Wars Universe

I resonated so completely with this analogy, and agree that great designers are also excellent storytellers. The skill of crafting and delivering stories is valuable not only in helping to develop and sell design solutions, it’s also particularly good at building culture and team morale.

One of my go-to mediums for storytelling, besides mockups of course, is video. Given that I’m not proficient at coding, I’ve found it to be an incredibly effective way to quickly test a proof of concept, or to rally a team or even entire company behind an idea. What began as a very novice habit, and a result of dog-fooding Camtasia for years when designing at TechSmith, has since evolved into a passion I can’t picture my life without.

Whether it’s an external hype video to make analysts feel like rock stars, an internal teaser for an upcoming feature, or a Mode Hack day entry to pitch a crazy-but-intriguing idea, I can’t seem to stop. The ones that stay within company walls are typically set to tracks from Queen or The Beatles, though I once used The Real Slim Shady to help convey the value of verified Reports (ask me about that later). But for now, here are a few I can legally share. 🙃

The way I see it, product designers are storytellers. They help make things tangible and play a critical role, Anthony said.