Designers often focus on selling their craft to design managers, but the final hiring decision frequently lies with product leaders. To succeed, designers must frame their value as a business investment, emphasizing the ROI and metric impact that resonates with the ultimate approver.

Executives don't care about tactical benefits like 'five fewer clicks'. A crucial skill for modern sellers is to extrapolate that tactical user-level gain into a strategic business outcome. You must translate efficiency into revenue, connecting the dots from a daily task to the company's bottom line.

Many skilled professionals are overlooked for promotions or new roles not because their work is subpar, but because they fail to articulate a compelling narrative around their accomplishments. How you frame your impact in interviews and promotion documents is as crucial as the impact itself.

The term 'soft skills' diminishes crucial competencies like communication, collaboration, and adaptability. Calling them 'impact skills' correctly positions them as the abilities that truly move the needle and drive tangible business results, removing any connotation of being secondary to 'hard' skills.

Stakeholders respond to the language of business impact. Instead of pitching an initiative to "improve the onboarding experience," frame it as a way to "grow our business customers in this sector." This small change in communication connects your work directly to the goals stakeholders care about.

C-level executives focus on strategic outcomes like managing costs, increasing sales, and gaining a competitive advantage. To capture their interest, frame your message around these high-level concerns. Avoid getting bogged down in "in the trenches" operational details that are better suited for their direct reports.

Technical executives often fail in interviews with PE firms because they can't articulate the business value of their work. Candidates must prepare to speak like they're in a board meeting, clearly connecting their initiatives to measurable outcomes like cost savings, revenue lift, or efficiency gains.

To get a senior leader's attention, shift your outreach from asking for something (a meeting) to giving something (a valuable insight). Most prospects are inundated with requests. By proactively offering help or a unique perspective relevant to their problems, you reframe the interaction from a sales pitch to a valuable consultation, making them want to engage.

To make your work visible to leadership, shift your communication from discussing activities to highlighting outcomes. Instead of listing tasks, explain the tangible business result your work generated and how it aligns with broader company goals. This frames your contribution strategically.