As we grow in our Design careers — from Entry-level (junior) to Mid-Level to Senior, we are expected to generate new innovative ideas and have self-driven projects that would add more value to business/company. This requires stakeholders' buy-in or higher management approval. Because, well, the Sketch/Figma/XD file is not what our users will see or interact with. It has to be implemented and released out in the wild — by our developer friends. And development is expensive!
To get approval from stakeholders I usually create concepts, wireframes, sketches, etc. to put forth my ideas. But, if I don’t want to spend a lot of “time” on an idea that has the possibility of being rejected, I use a more iterative and more time-effective approach. This is where Product (Design) Proposals come in handy.
What are Product (Design) Proposals?
Simply put it is a short summary of what the final product will be and how it would help our users. I often send these out with a few wireframes attached in an email to all higher managers to capture their interests and have the idea floating out there.
