Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Tips to Utilize Wireframes to Tell an Effective Product Story

Gold
Tuesday, June 6, 2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Share the love for this talk
Tips to Utilize Wireframes to Tell an Effective Product Story
Speakers: Billy Carlson
Link:

Summary

In this sponsored session, Billy Carlson, a Design Educator from Balsamiq, will walk through how to use low fidelity designs combined with storytelling to convince product leadership to green light your next big product or feature idea.

Key Insights

  • Staying in low-fidelity wireframes during early concept phases enables quicker iteration and focused problem-solving.

  • Collaborative sketching sessions with multiple rounds build trust and generate stronger, shared concepts.

  • Using thick markers for sketching helps keep ideas high-level and prevents premature focus on details.

  • Wireframes should be crafted digitally to look polished and presentable, even if low fidelity.

  • Leveraging existing UI patterns or design system components maintains consistency and speeds up wireframe creation.

  • Presenting wireframes within the full context of the product and user flow aids stakeholder understanding.

  • Leaving ambiguous areas in wireframes as question marks encourages constructive feedback and discussions.

  • Storytelling in presentations, including personas, problem statements, and business impact, improves stakeholder buy-in.

  • Content design should be integrated early during wireframe development, pairing writers with designers.

  • Low-fidelity wireframes can and should be created by non-designers with the right tools and team collaboration.

Notable Quotes

"Staying in low fidelity throughout this early concept development phase allows for really strict focus on the problem slash solution space."

"Wire frames plus a little bit of storytelling is awesome."

"There’s nothing aesthetic to grab onto, so you’re not gonna be focusing on type styles, fonts, colors, photos."

"I want your sketching to be really high level—I want you to explore concepts, not refine content."

"Low fidelity does not mean low quality."

"If you don’t know what should go in a specific area, it is really powerful to leave it as a question mark."

"Tell a story of design: start with the background, introduce the users, demonstrate how it will work."

"Be very clear on exactly what type of feedback you’re looking for because you’re gonna get a lot better feedback."

"I find the existing patterns in my product and use those because it’s easier to bring things back in."

"Non-designers can build wireframes really quickly using easy drag-and-drop components from a design system."

Ask the Rosenbot
Dan Hill
Strategic design, slowdown, and the infrastructures of everyday life
2022 • Enterprise Community
Ignacio Martinez
Fair and Effective Designer Evaluation
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Sara Asche Anderson
Not Your Ordinary Re-Brand: Design's Path to Driving Customer Obsession at Best Buy
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Jackie Velasquez-Ross
Talent Acquisition and Our Responsibility
2020 • DesignOps Community
Peter Van Dijck
Designing AI-first products on top of a rapidly evolving technology
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Carl Turner
You Can Do This: Understand and Solve Organizational Problems to Jumpstart a Dead Project
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Catherine Courage
The Enterprise UX Journey: Lessons From the Voyage & The Opportunity Ahead
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Victor Udoewa
Radical Participatory Research: Decolonizing Participatory Processes
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Tim Frick
The journey of building a sustainable design practice
2025 • Climate UX Interest Group
Megan Nipe
Human-Centered Design for Engagement: Maturing from Newsletterville to Personalized, One-to-One Messaging
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Deanna Smith
Leading Change with Confidence: Strategies for Optimizing Your Process
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Lavrans Løvlie
Ask me anything – Authors of Service Design: From Insight to Implementation
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Randolph Duke II
War Stories LIVE! Randy Duke II
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Michelle Morrison
Practice What You Preach
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Aurobinda Pradhan
Introduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold

More Videos

Victor Udoewa

"Our ways of being are roots that grow into ways of knowing, doing, and methods, all nourished by systems of value."

Victor Udoewa

Beyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion

March 26, 2024

Peter Morville

"Changing culture is hard because we’re willing to change actions but resistant to changing beliefs."

Peter Morville

The Architecture of Understanding

May 13, 2015

Sam Ladner

"When you mix trends together, you will see where change is likely to occur."

Sam Ladner

How Research Can Drive Strategic Foresight

March 9, 2022

Michelle Bejian Lotia

"Rolling out a research repository is complex but crucial to avoid duplicate research and make insights discoverable."

Michelle Bejian Lotia Anne-Marie Morell

Rolling Out a Repository: How Zapier Centralizes Insights from Across their Organization

March 28, 2023

Leisa Reichelt

"Empathy walls emerged at DTA because teams needed a visceral way to bring stories back from the field."

Leisa Reichelt

Opening Keynote: Operating in Context

November 7, 2018

Sarah Gallimore

"What if I said that this was actually the assignment: to write an essay using AI, helping students become familiar with translating their policy intent through AI?"

Sarah Gallimore

Inspire Progress with Artifacts from the Future

November 18, 2022

Joerg Beringer

"Product managers appreciate the jobs to be done desired outcome statements because they are not overly detailed but actionable."

Joerg Beringer Thomas Geis

Scaling User Research with AI: Continuous Discovery of User Needs in Minutes

September 10, 2025

Peter Merholz

"It’s not enough to have great people; you need to create the space that brings out the best in them."

Peter Merholz

Customer-Centered Design Organizations

June 8, 2017

Dalia El-Shimy

"The single most important thing we can do at the table is expanding the boundaries of knowledge for decision makers."

Dalia El-Shimy

So You've Got a Seat at the Table. Now What?

March 31, 2020