How to work with people who do not understand design (Part 2)

In the first part of this series, I explored how to handle repeated requests for visual modifications without a clear user-centred rationale. If you wish to read the first part before continuing, you can find it here: How to work with people who do not understand design (Part 1)

In this blog, I want to share my experience navigating unrealistic deadlines, something I encountered frequently while working at a small startup. At the time, I was the only person in the organisation with a formal design background. My team had little to no prior exposure to design, whether through working as a designer, collaborating with designers, or understanding design processes.

Part 2- Navigating unrealistic deadlines

Unrealistic deadlines are a challenge across almost every profession. Engineers, consultants, and countless others have experienced this at some point. But for designers, especially those working in teams without much design experience, the challenge often looks a little different.

I realised this with countless conversations with my friends in other professions. If you’ve ever struggled to explain why a design task takes longer than expected or felt pressured to sacrifice the design process for speed, I hope this article helps you navigate this challenge a little more confidently.

Visual of a character in an office thinking about unrealistic deadlines. Generated using Google Gemini.

Constant Self-Doubt

One of the hardest parts of working with unrealistic deadlines was the constant self-doubt.

In my team, design was viewed through its output, a sequence of screens. The work that happened between those screens- research, exploration, iteration, validating decisions, considering edge cases, and refining interactions- was largely invisible.

When people only see the final deliverable, it’s easy for them to underestimate the effort behind it. Over time, I found myself questioning whether I was actually taking too long, even when I knew I was following a thoughtful design process. Some of what I’m about to describe may sound like a rant, but I’ve learned that good design starts with understanding the problem before jumping to solutions.

I was often expected to design around 30 screens for a complex enterprise workflow in half a day. Yes. You heard it right. Being early in my career, I didn’t immediately question the estimate. I questioned myself: Was I too slow? Was I simply not good enough?

It’s easy to assume that if someone with years of experience sets a deadline, they must know what they’re doing. What I didn’t realise was that setting unrealistic deadlines is a form of pressure in some cases. When the design process isn’t fully understood, it’s easy to reduce the work to “just making screens." The expectation then becomes to produce as many screens as possible, rather than to solve user problems thoughtfully.

If you’re asked to design 30 complex desktop screens in a day, you probably won’t deliver 30. You’ll likely push yourself to work longer hours, hoping that if you can’t meet the expectation, you can at least get as close to it as possible.

But as designers, we do not do work screen by screen. We think beyond every screen and everything in between. We think about the primary action and the secondary actions. How easy is it to find the core action? Who is the user? Are they tech-savvy? If not, will they still be able to use it? How easily can they understand the purpose of every task within the tool? Can they predict the outcome of their actions before they perform them? Will this new feature reduce their time and effort?

This way of thinking is a skill in itself. Designing with this mindset naturally takes time, and that’s okay.

When you find yourself constantly questioning your abilities, pause for a moment and ask yourself:

• Am I putting in genuine effort?
• Am I going above and beyond?
• Looking back at everything I’ve worked on over the past month, what have I actually accomplished?
• Am I actually taking longer than I should, or have the expectations changed?

This exercise might give you a sense of relief and help you realise that you’ve been working harder than you thought and have accomplished far more than you gave yourself credit for. Sometimes, simply recognising that the expectations placed on you were unrealistic can take a surprising amount of pressure off your shoulders.

Talk to other designers

If you don’t have designers around you, seek them out. There are plenty of experienced designers who are happy to share their knowledge and perspective. One resource I found incredibly helpful is ADPList: https://adplist.org/

The mentors on ADPList volunteer their time because they genuinely enjoy helping others grow. Speaking to designers outside your organisation can help you understand industry practices, validate your thinking, and give you a clearer sense of where you stand.

Communicate

Keep a simple record of the work you do each day. I found it helpful to maintain a personal log on Slack, noting what I worked on every hour.

• 9:00–10:00 — Scrum meeting and reading the PRD
• 10:00–11:00 — Clarifying PRD questions and creating initial wireframes
• …
• 4:00–5:00 — Designed Features A, B, and C

Keep this list handy.

If someone questions where your time went or why a task took longer than expected, you won’t have to rely on memory. Instead, you’ll have a clear record of the work that went into the design process, making the invisible work visible. Ironically, this was a technique suggested to me by a friend who wasn’t a designer, and it turned out to be one of the most practical ways to make my work visible.

Provide a realistic estimate

Calculate a realistic estimate and include a small buffer. Do not underestimate the time it will take. It can be tempting to give a shorter estimate to appear faster, avoid disappointing your team, or because you’re feeling pressured. However, consistently underestimating your work only leads to rushed decisions and ultimately compromises the quality of the product. A one- or two-day buffer can make a huge difference. If everything goes according to plan, you can always deliver earlier. But if unexpected design decisions, revisions, or edge cases arise, as they often do, you’ll have the time to address them without compromising the experience. It also allows you to review your work with a fresh perspective before handing it over.

Documentation makes invisible work visible

• Brainstorming ideas on a whiteboard? Take a picture and add it to your design file
• Creating user flows? Share the Whimsical file or a screenshot with your manager.
• Reading the PRD? Highlight your key takeaways and document any assumptions or questions you have.

Documentation doesn’t just help others understand your process; it also makes the invisible work behind good design visible.

If you’re unsure whether to share your process, share it anyway. The more visible your thinking becomes, the easier it is for others to understand where your time is actually going.

The people you work with won’t always get everything right, and neither will you. We’re all human, after all.

Doing your best doesn’t always mean committing to unrealistic deadlines. Sometimes, doing your best means giving yourself the time you need, having your own back, and making the best of the situation you’re in. This mindset may help you think more clearly and ultimately do justice to both your product and your users.

Non-designers may not always understand creative burnout. Ideally, people in creative professions should have a balance of high- and low-stakes projects. Alternating between the two provides an opportunity to recharge, keeping creative muscles active before taking on the next demanding project.

Pressure may increase output in the short term, but it rarely leads to better work. This is especially true in design, where thoughtful decisions require time, focus, and creativity.