Yes, if

I am big believer in saying “no”. I told Design teams for years to say no and negotiate more effectively. It is really hard to say no, especially inside organizations that value collaboration and require large amounts of cross team and cross discipline collaboration to build products. People worry their relationships and ultimately their success will suffer if they say no too much or even at all.

If saying “no” is too difficult try saying “yes, if”. Being able to clearly communicate the trade off required to do the thing being asked can help facilitate a conversation between the designer and the leader, manager, PM, Eng etc making requests from you.

“Hey can you finish those designs for the new feature by Mon?”

“Yes if we add another designer to help” or “Yes, if I can pause working on this other feature that I am being asked to finish on Mon as well.”

Setting up asks as a prioritization exercise can help make a potentially difficult negotiation less confrontational.