CF

Make the Case: How to Present Design Ideas That Spark Action

12h 17m 27s
English
Paid
Added to CourseFlix

Make the Case: How to Present Design Ideas That Spark Action is a 41-lesson 12 hours 17 minutes self-paced course by Kai Wong. Make the Case — a practical course on how to convincingly present design ideas, connect UX solutions with business goals, and achieve real actions from leaders, product managers, engineers, and other stakeholders.

Course facts

Lessons
41
Duration
12 hours 17 minutes
Language
English
Added to CourseFlix
November 2026
Instructor
Kai Wong
Price
Premium

Make the Case — a practical course on how to convincingly present design ideas, connect UX solutions with business goals, and achieve real actions from leaders, product managers, engineers, and other stakeholders.

What this course is about

A good design idea rarely leads to changes on its own. You may see a problem in the product before others, understand how to improve user experience, find growth points in the interface or customer journey — but if the proposal sounds simply like "we should fix this," it often goes unnoticed.

The course helps shift from a language of taste and subjective improvements to a language of results: metrics, business impact, risks, priorities, and evidence-based argumentation. You will learn to explain why a design initiative is important right now, what impact it can have on the product, and how to turn an idea into a solution that stakeholders support.

Special attention is given to situations where a company's UX maturity is low, data is incomplete, and designer's initiatives are not always seen as a priority. Instead of pressure, political games, and abstract requests, you will learn to build a clear case that helps people make a decision.

What you will learn

  • Formulate design ideas as business opportunities, not just visual or UX improvements.
  • Link user problems with product metrics, team goals, and business results.
  • Build compelling arguments for leaders, product managers, engineers, and other audiences.
  • Present initiatives that no one asked for and create a sense of priority without pressure.
  • Define success criteria and explain how the effect of the proposed solution will be measured.
  • Work with incomplete data and still construct logical, verifiable, and honest arguments.
  • Identify weak points in your presentation before meeting with stakeholders.
  • Use AI processes to prepare arguments, analyze data, and create presentation materials.

Key frameworks and approaches

The program uses practical tools that help structure thinking, assess the impact of ideas, and translate design solutions into clear business arguments.

HEART

This framework helps analyze user experience through categories such as satisfaction, engagement, adoption, retention, and task success. You will learn how to apply HEART to choose UX metrics and assess product quality.

Goals-Signals-Metrics

This approach helps transition from a general goal to specific user behavior signals and measurable metrics. It is particularly useful when you need to prove that a design change is linked to real results.

ICE

The ICE method is used for prioritizing initiatives based on impact, confidence, and ease of implementation. You will learn to compare ideas and choose those that can have the greatest effect at reasonable costs.

Problem-Agitate-Solution

This approach helps build a compelling story: first, show the problem, then enhance understanding of its consequences, and finally offer a solution. This structure makes the presentation clearer and motivates the audience to act.

Who is this course for

  • UX/UI designers who want to have a stronger influence on product decisions.
  • Product designers who need to argue initiatives through metrics and business value.
  • Designers in companies with low UX maturity who need to demonstrate the importance of user experience.
  • Specialists who want to transition from task execution to more strategic roles.
  • Design leads and senior designers who need to present ideas to management and cross-functional teams.
  • Those who want to work more confidently with stakeholders and promote initiatives without conflicts and pressure.

What problems the course helps solve

The course will be especially useful if you have encountered situations where good UX ideas did not reach implementation because they were perceived as "non-essential," "too costly," or "not now."

  • Your proposals are supported verbally but not included in the roadmap.
  • Management asks to prove the value of UX, but it’s unclear which data to use.
  • Product managers and engineers see design initiatives as additional workload.
  • You understand the user's problem but cannot connect it to business metrics.
  • Design presentations turn into discussions of taste instead of outcome discussions.
  • Ideas go unnoticed because they don’t seem urgent or prioritized.

What is included in the program

The course program is built around the practical task of learning how to turn a design observation or UX problem into a convincing case for decision-making.

Working with the problem

  • How to correctly formulate user and product problems.
  • How to distinguish a symptom from a cause.
  • How to show the consequences of the problem for business, team, and users.

Argumentation through data and metrics

  • How to select relevant metrics for design initiatives.
  • How to work if data is insufficient or incomplete.
  • How to formulate hypotheses and success criteria.

Presenting the idea to stakeholders

  • How to adapt the same argument for different audiences.
  • How to answer the question “Why should we tackle this now?”
  • How to identify objections in advance and strengthen weak points in the presentation.

Prioritization and choice of solutions

  • How to compare design initiatives based on potential impact.
  • How to use ICE and other approaches to choose priorities.
  • How to demonstrate the value of a solution without making inflated promises.

AI in preparing a design case

  • How to use AI to analyze materials and find arguments.
  • How to speed up presentation preparation and idea structuring.
  • How to verify the logic of argumentation using AI tools.

Author's expertise

The program is based on 13 years of the author's experience working in companies with low UX maturity, where designers often have to not only create solutions but also prove their business value.

The course is supplemented with insights from interviews with more than 30 design leaders from companies like Target, Ford, Mastercard, Meta, and Amazon. This helps to consider the problem of convincing stakeholders not only from the position of an individual designer but also from the perspective of design leaders who regularly make strategic decisions.

What result you will get

After completing the course, you will be able to present design ideas more confidently, explain their value, and elevate discussions from subjective opinions to the level of goals, data, and expected impact.

  • You will have a clear process for preparing a design case.
  • You will be able to link UX initiatives with business metrics and product goals.
  • Your presentations will become more structured and convincing.
  • You will learn to speak to stakeholders in the language of priorities, risks, and results.
  • You will be able to promote important initiatives even in an environment where UX is not yet a mature function.
The main idea of the course: A design initiative has a chance for realization when it is presented not as the designer’s personal opinion, but as a clear, measurable, and timely business case.

Who teaches Make the Case: How to Present Design Ideas That Spark Action? Kai Wong

Kai Wong thumbnail

Kai is a leading Medium author in the design category, a UX expert, and consultant with over 13 years of experience working in organizations with low UX maturity. During this time, he has learned not only to create strong design solutions but also to effectively argue their value to executives, developers, and other stakeholders.

On Medium, Kai has published more than 375 articles, read by over 600,000 designers. His materials have also appeared on ADPList, Designlab, and other specialized platforms, and readers have translated his articles into four languages. In addition to Medium, he regularly publishes on Substack and LinkedIn.

Kai is the founder of Words by Design, a personalized portfolio consulting service for Senior and Lead designers. As part of his research, he has conducted interviews with 30 design leaders from Target, Ford, Mastercard, Meta, and Amazon, as well as with more than 225 experienced designers navigating the job market in 2025–2026.

Through educational programs on Maven, Kai has trained more than 100 designers, helping them better present their work, argue design decisions, and advance their careers within product teams.

What lessons are included in Make the Case: How to Present Design Ideas That Spark Action?

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#1: 001 Workshop 1 Connect Design to Business Outcomes
All Course Lessons (41)
#Lesson TitleDurationAccess
1
001 Workshop 1 Connect Design to Business Outcomes Demo
52:23
2
002 What do businesses actually need from designers
07:47
3
003 The 5 step Data Informed Design process
05:05
4
004 The ladder technique How to translate UX, Product, and Business Metrics
06:38
5
005 Goals Signals Metrics How to break down Goals into metrics
08:03
6
006 Workshop 2 Define Success Before You Design
58:54
7
007 Track changes How do we know design is making a difference over time
04:43
8
008 Who is our user Defining a user segment
06:26
9
009 Workflow What design pages affect a specific metric
05:39
10
010 The Initial Hunch Your first guess at tying design to business
05:41
11
011 Office Hours
07:53
12
012 Workshop 3 Answer 'So What' Before Anyone Asks
58:35
13
013 The Core Challenge Why, specifically, does your current design need to change
04:43
14
014 From information to insights Why your findings get ignored
05:50
15
015 Who are you targeting 4 Change Agents
05:00
16
016 The Doubtful stakeholder Exercise So what
07:27
17
017 Workshop 4 Make the Problem Undeniable
01:02:41
18
018 Queries How to ask questions of data to reveal insights
07:34
19
019 Turn your core challenge into a Data Visualization Hook
04:24
20
020 Create your first Data Visualization Draft with Data Wrapper
19:27
21
021 Office Hours
15:51
22
022 Workshop 5 Framing for the room
01:00:22
23
023 Office Hours
46:39
24
024 Turn validated insights into design recommendations
03:45
25
025 One problem, but multiple solutions how to prioritize solutions
04:57
26
026 Prioritizing Hypotheses through RICE
13:25
27
027 How to estimate impact your hypotheses will have
11:45
28
028 Workshop 6 Rehearse the Hard Conversation with AI
56:21
29
029 Second Brains How to practice presenting to decision-makers
07:10
30
030 Step 1 of building a second brain Add Data
08:02
31
031 Context + Persona How to bring your PM Second brain to life
07:36
32
032 What is my prompt A hypothesis
03:40
33
033 Iterating on AI responses 2 methods
05:30
34
034 Workshop 7 Structure the Argument
58:34
35
035 The 5-minute UX Story the universal strategic presentation
05:28
36
036 Adapting your story for different audiences (PM vs executive)
05:50
37
037 How to handle common stakeholder objections with confidence
10:09
38
038 Workshop 8 Adapt for the Room
48:02
39
039 Problem-Agitate-Solution framework for active projects
07:13
40
040 Agitate Where most designers go wrong
07:11
41
041 Why-What-How How to talk about completed projects effectively
05:04
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Frequently asked questions

Do I need to be confident with business metrics before starting?
You don't need to arrive with a finished business case. The course works through connecting UX problems to product and business metrics, breaking goals into measurable signals, and defining success before proposing a change. No formal prerequisites are specified. If metrics are the part of stakeholder conversations where you tend to lose confidence, that's directly relevant here. The emphasis is on using evidence to explain a design decision, rather than arguing that an interface simply feels better.
Is this useful if my company doesn't really prioritize UX?
Yes—that situation is a particular focus. You'll work on explaining why a user problem matters to the business when design initiatives aren't automatically a priority and the available data is incomplete. That includes identifying who you're trying to persuade, making the problem clear, and responding to skepticism. The approach is about helping stakeholders make a decision, not relying on them to already understand or value UX. It doesn't mean every proposal will get approved.
What will I actually practice beyond making presentation slides?
You'll practice the reasoning behind a proposal: identifying the specific problem, connecting it to a measurable outcome, turning findings into recommendations, and choosing between possible solutions. There are also workshops on structuring your argument and adapting it to the room. One practical thread is developing a data visualization that makes the problem easier to grasp. Another is rehearsing difficult stakeholder conversations, so the work goes beyond how a presentation looks.
Which tools will I use, and how does AI fit in?
There's a lesson on creating a draft data visualization with Datawrapper. AI is used for presentation rehearsal: you'll explore adding data and persona context to a 'second brain,' then refining its responses to practice talking with decision-makers. The focus is on preparing your argument and anticipating reactions, rather than generating interface designs. A particular AI platform isn't specified, so you shouldn't assume the exercises require any one named AI service or subscription.
Will this teach me to design better interfaces, or mainly to get ideas supported?
The main focus is getting a design proposal understood, evaluated, and supported—not learning visual design or interface-production techniques. You'll examine why a change is needed, how it connects to business outcomes, and how to prioritize recommendations. That can help you make more deliberate design decisions, but you shouldn't choose it as a substitute for hands-on UI training. It's closer to building and presenting a reasoned case for change than learning to produce the screens themselves.
How much time should I set aside?
The listed runtime is 12 hours and 17 minutes across 41 lessons. That's the viewing time; allow additional time if you want to work through the workshops, draft a visualization, or rehearse a presentation rather than just watch. There's no fixed completion schedule specified. For planning, separate the time you'll spend watching from the time you'll spend applying the exercises, especially if you want to use a real proposal from your own work.
Can I use these skills outside a formal design pitch?
Yes. Connecting a recommendation to a goal, explaining the evidence behind it, and adjusting your argument for different audiences can also help in everyday product discussions. The course addresses both active projects and completed work, so the presentation approach isn't limited to asking for approval on a new idea. You'll also work on prioritizing hypotheses and handling objections—useful when discussing options with a product manager or explaining a decision to an executive.