At Riot Games one of the designers reporting to me asked me a perfect question.

“You’re the newest designer on the team… How do you keep getting new features on the roadmap?”

I was surprised. I figured the other designers just liked the status quo.

Nope, apparently they’d been trying to pitch a lot of the same stuff for months – sometimes years. They had great ideas, they just didn’t know how to get buy-in from the people that policed the schedule.

Here’s what I told him:

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗮𝘆 “𝗬𝗲𝘀” 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗮𝘆 “𝗡𝗼”.

Here’s the kind of pitch that doesn’t work:

“𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘗𝘷𝘌 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯’𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘴. 𝘞𝘦’𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘴 [𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘴].”

This kind of pitch might make a producer love your idea, but probably won’t get it on the schedule. The response is, “Great idea, but we can’t do every great idea. We’re already stretched thin.”

Here’s how I pitched the same thing:

“𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 3 𝘗𝘷𝘗 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 – 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘳 2 𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 3 𝘗𝘷𝘌 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 (𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘷𝘌 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘗𝘷𝘗).

𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 “𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨” 𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘷𝘗 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 2 𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴, 𝘸𝘦’𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴 – 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘷𝘌 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰.”

I brought a complete solution.

If you’re moving something onto a roadmap, you have to move something else off.

If the designer doesn’t figure out what to cut and why it’s a net win, the lead has to do it for them.

That’s extra work. It’s easier to say “not now” which usually turns into “never”.

But wait, there’s more!

Determining the true scope cost and tradeoffs yourself helps you identify flawed ideas before costing your boss psychic energy. It gets you thinking like a lead.

Here’s the three takeaways:

1. I pitched complete solutions, fully scoped, considering what we’d cut in order to spend the resources on this instead.

2. I focused on the upsides for our key studio initiatives and metrics, how these fun ideas for players would also help our business problems that the leads were worried about.

3. Because I was doing both, I avoided putting effort behind ideas that were off target or not feasible in the first place. I didn’t dig long at dry wells.

That’s how you make it easier to say “yes” than to say “no”.