The hidden designer

I've worked on projects where feedback would arrive weeks in, seemingly out of nowhere. Subjective comments packaged as design notes. Colors. Roundedness. Can we show more of the branding? We had aligned with our contacts multiple times, thought we were moving in the same direction, and yet there it was. Again.

It was frustrating. For a while, I didn't have a name for what was happening.

After one particularly tough project wrapped, I picked up Design Is a Job by Mike Monteiro. He writes about the hidden stakeholder, the person who shows up late and derails everything. I had lived that scenario before reading the book, and I had not handled it nearly as well as I should have. That realization changed how I approach my kickoffs.

What I do differently now

There is usually someone on the client side with skin in the game who isn't in the room. A brand designer. A creative director. A consultant who has been shaping the visual language for months before you arrived. They have opinions, taste, and history with the project that no brief will ever fully capture. When they are not involved, that input doesn't disappear. It just arrives later, sideways, as feedback nobody can quite explain.

So now I ask early: Is there anyone on your team who could help shape the vision with us?

It is a small question that changes everything. It is no longer about ego or territory. It becomes collaboration toward the same goal.

On one project, that question led me to a call with a brand designer on the client's team. We talked about how they described the brand internally, what set them apart, and the things they had tried before that didn't stick. None of that was in the brief. All of it defined the work. They became one of the strongest advocates on the client team supporting what we were building because they helped shape it.

These people know the brand better than anyone you will meet in a kickoff call. Getting them involved early isn't just a courtesy. It is one of the highest-leverage things you can do on a project.

The feedback always arrives. The only question is whether you invited it or it showed up uninvited.