The Irreplaceable Designer: Build influence, confidence & credibility

Feel like your ideas are not getting the attention they deserve? Have the solution but struggle to get others aligned? Then this is for you!
About this Event

Great designers don’t just create great work. They make people believe in it.

You will learn how to:

• Communicate your ideas with confidence and clarity
• Influence stakeholders and drive better decisions
• Connect design thinking to business outcomes
• Become a trusted partner leaders rely on

What We’ll Cover

Block 1: Know Your Room

• Learn what stakeholders care about (business outcomes, user outcomes, technical constraints).
• Adjust your language for different audiences.
• Map out a key stakeholder for a real project.
• Takeaway: 1-Page Stakeholder Map Template

Block 2: Storytelling That Gets You Buy-In

• Build a pitch that lands with non-designers, grounded in business impact.
• Connect design directly to product metrics using the UX KPI Tree and UX Decision Framework.
• Takeaway: UX KPI Tree & UX Decision Framework Cheat Sheets

Block 3: Presenting with Confidence

• Focus on eye contact, posture, pacing, and slowing down.
• Learn to handle difficult questions on the spot and buy yourself time to think.
• Takeaway: Live presentation practice with direct feedback

Block 4: Handling Pushback & Difficult Conversations

• Practice defending your work calmly without getting defensive.
• Roleplay real scenarios: stakeholders overruling design based on personal preference, scope creep, or requests that don't work for the user.
• Takeaway: 1-Page Pushback Playbook

Block 5: Your Personal Action Plan & Wrap-Up

• Fill out a 1-page action plan with concrete steps: communication habits to drop, changes for your next presentation, stakeholder relationships to reset and tools to use next week.

Pricing

The normal price of this workshop is €450. We are delighted to offer the below special offers:

• Non-members: €300.00 (save €150!)
• Price for Members: €225.00 (save €225!)
• Lunch is included with both member and non-member tickets
• Member tickets are available to current members of IDI, ICAD, IAPI, 100 Archive, RIAI and Interiors Association (IA). Contact Lisa at [email protected] to find out more about IDI membership.

Duration

Start Time: 9am

End Time: 4pm

About Your Instructor

Valentina Antunovic — Founder & CEO at UX Tree | Design Manager at Vhi Healthcare

Valentina brings over 15 years of industry experience across UX research, product design management and cross-functional leadership. She holds an MSc in UX Design from IADT and has spent over a decade guiding designers through complex career growth and high-stakes stakeholder environments.

As a Design Manager, Valentina specialises in the exact communication frameworks taught in this workshop: mapping complex stakeholder landscapes, linking UX metrics directly to business outcomes, presenting to executive leadership and navigating difficult pushbacks. Having mentored dozens of designers, she built The Irreplaceable Designer to bridge the gap between technical execution and strategic influence in the modern AI landscape.