Drawing is important and valuable, I’m not going to argue that in this blog. On the on thehand there’s great masterpieces (let’s call this art) that require skill and on the other there’s functional drawing that is way easier to get to (let’s call this sketching).

For this last one I realized I’m often pulling from the same set of visuals to save meetings or to help out in design-related discussions. So (with a healthy dose of sarcasm of course): my 7 visuals to rescue your next meeting gone wrong.

1: Piramid

There’s a piramid for everything: Maslow (although some people think that should be a circle), latent knowledge, UX and many more. Sketching things out in a pyramid helps you explain hierarchies, strategy or just the number of ocurrences of something.

Pyramids are great for hierarchies and priorities.

2: Venn diagram

Who doesn’t love the good old Venn diagram? This one definitely works for explaining synergies between topics that you’re exploring, or in defining customer segments in more detail.

And if you’re growing tired of the good old design version with desirability, feasibility, viability just throw something else in the mix! Is 3 circles not enough? Add a 4th one!

Looking for synergies? The Venn diagram has you covered!

3: Four-quadrant diagram

Sometimes you’re facing a problem where you’re dealing with a tradeoff between two things: impact vs effort, urgency vs importance, digital saviness and motivation, or something else. The internet is a little split on how to call this one though. But it will help youl look smart instantly, and this will help you in visualizing your options in a second.

Left-right, up-down: setting priorities is great using this visual.

4: Iceberg

The Titanic was brought down by an iceberg, but it turns out they’re great tools for visualizing hidden information. It turns out we’re hiding a lot: underlying assumptions, cultural aspects, knowledge and other unknown factors. Sketching an iceberg on the back of a napkin helps you to get the conversation going on what you might not be seeing below the surface.

We’re good at hiding a lot of things. Use an iceberg visual to pull them out.

5: (3) circles

Made famous by the world’s most-viewed flipchart, but much more versatile than that. A set of circles can be many things: a golden circle, a stakeholder map, the target for your project or a way of defining what is in- or outside the scope of your project.

Focus, hierarchy or relationships? These concentric circles got you covered.

6: The ‘design scribble’

There’s hate and love for the classic double diamond everywhere, so I’m not going to add to that here. But sometimes a double diamond is just too much. Time to embrace the mess of a design process and screw the double diamond. Design is inherenty messy, so show it.

When you’re asked to draw your design process just draw this!

Screw the double diamond, time for the design scribble!

7: Starman

There’s no human-centered design without humans, so draw them! Starman (no, not that one) is a great way to quickly draw humans. It is just realistic enough, without getting into too much detail.