The best advice I ever got on presenting to executives

If you've ever walked out of a leadership meeting wondering what just happened, you're not alone. Here's 5 tips on how to improve.

Hey, Miranda here 👋

One of the most underrated skills for UX and Product Designers is presenting to executives.

I think many of us gradually discover that presenting to executives is drastically different from presenting to our team.

"Every time I present to leadership, I feel like I lose them halfway through. They either get impatient, jump to conclusions, or cut the meeting short."

Sound familiar? If you've ever walked out of a leadership meeting wondering what just happened, you're not alone.

Here is some of the best advice I’ve received on presenting to executives, along with what I’ve painfully learned over the past decade.

1. Start With the Decision/Input You Need

Executives don’t want to wade through details before understanding why they’re in the room. They need clear decision-making paths, fast.

❌ "We've spent the last few weeks analyzing user behavior, and we’ve uncovered some fascinating insights that might impact our strategy. Let me walk you through our findings."

✅ "We need a decision on whether to allocate time to improving the onboarding flow. Our data shows that users who complete Step 2 are twice as likely to convert, but 40% drop off before reaching it. We recommend streamlining Step 1 to reduce friction. Here’s the data to support this approach."

This instantly tells them why they’re in the room, what’s expected of them, and what’s at stake. Then, you provide only the most relevant information.

2. Provide the Right Amount of Context—Never Assume They Remember

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is assuming executives remember prior conversations or have deep context on your work. They are constantly shifting focus between multiple topics.

Before diving into recommendations, set the stage:

• Briefly recap relevant background. Example: "Last quarter, we saw a 10% drop in conversion rates after launching X feature. Today, we're presenting a solution to address that."

• Keep it concise but complete. Too much detail overwhelms, but too little leaves them confused.

• Make it easy for them to engage. Example: "You may recall we discussed this last month, but as a quick refresher, here’s what we found."

3. Time Efficiency Needs to Be Next-Level

You’re often one of many meetings on their calendar that day. If you waste their time, they’ll check out.

A few ways to keep it tight:

• Limit yourself to three key points. If you can’t summarize it that succinctly, refine your message.

• Anticipate questions and answer them proactively. You don’t want to get derailed five minutes in.

What evidence do we have backing this direction? How will this impact our key metrics? What are the next steps?

• If you’re showing a deck, cap it at five slides. (And the first slide should already have your main ask.)

4. Operate Like a Business Partner, Not Just a Designer

Your effectiveness depends on your ability to communicate in business terms. That means shifting away from advocating for UX in isolation and instead tying it to company goals, strategy, and metrics that executives care about.

A few ways to approach this:

• Lead with business outcomes. Instead of "Users find this confusing," say "We're seeing a 20% drop-off here."

• Quantify risk and reward. Show the potential upside and downside of different options.

• Don’t just ask for approval—present strategic options. Execs value partners who bring solutions, not just problems.

5. Frame Design as a Strategic Lever

Executives think in terms of levers—how to pull the right ones to drive the business forward. If you frame design as a tactical function, you get tactical input. But if you frame design as a key driver of business outcomes, you earn a seat at the table.

❌ "We need to improve this checkout flow because it has usability issues."

✅ "Right now, checkout friction is contributing to a 10% cart abandonment rate. If we reduce friction, we could increase check-out completion (conversion). Here’s our recommended approach."

This shifts design from a "nice-to-have" to a business-critical function.

Real-World Scenarios:

Scenario 1: The Feature That Almost Launched… Unchecked

A few years ago, I sat in a product review where the team was excited to greenlight a major feature.

No research had been done, and the assumptions were shaky. Instead of launching into a long explanation about research methods, I took a different approach:

"If we launch this as-is, there’s a 50% chance it won’t resonate with users. That means wasted engineering time and lower adoption rates. Instead, we can run a 1-week usability test to validate before we commit engineering resources. If the test proves this won’t work, we avoid a very costly mistake. If it succeeds, we move forward with confidence. Do we want to validate before investing?"

Making the risk, cost, and opportunity trade-offs clear, helped the execs make a clear decision to test. With some small iterations, we then implemented.

Scenario 2: The Endless Stakeholder Debate

I once worked with a leadership team that debated the direction of a redesign for weeks with no clear decision. Meetings were filled with personal opinions and gut feelings rather than concrete direction.

Instead of adding to the debate, I reframed the conversation:

"We have two conflicting perspectives, and the data doesn’t yet tell us which approach is stronger. Rather than debate in circles, we can A/B test both in a small market for two weeks and get a clear answer. It will cost extra development time but could save us months of internal back-and-forth. Should we move forward with testing before committing to a single solution?"

Instead of more debate, we went ahead with A/B testing.

What tactics have you found to work best with execs? Comment and let me know!

The Bottom Line

If you want leadership to take action on your insights:

• Start with what decision you need from them

• Ensure your time efficiency is next-level

• Provide the right amount of context—never assume prior knowledge.

• Speak in terms of business impact, not UX jargon.

• Frame design as a strategic lever, not a service.

• Anticipate their questions before they ask

• Provide clear options, not just problems.

I challenge you, next time you present to an exec:

1. Refine your message as if you only had 60 seconds. What’s the core takeaway they need to hear?

2. Spend 30 minutes writing down all the questions you anticipate getting and work the answers into your presentation.

3. Include a slide with the key business metrics you aim to impact

👉 Grab my Design Review Context Template to help you frame your next Senior Stakeholder review.

P.S. A few more ways I can help you

1. I’ve created quite a few resources for UXers, take a look.

2. Bring your burning product & UX design questions over to one of my regular Live AMAs and get my professional advice on the spot.

3. Follow me on Tiktok or Instagram for critiques, advice, & how-to's focused on helping you grow in your career and land a job in this difficult market.

4. Join me over on LinkedIn for personal experience stories and targeted tips for experienced designers