Have you ever had a team member reach out to you after a team meeting to compliment you on the way you answered a question?
Well, Reader, that happened to me last week!
We were in an all-team meeting discussing some changes we're making to the team, including new roles we're hiring for. One team member asked why we were hiring a motion designer full-time onto the Brand Studio team rather than using a contractor.
I answered the question, and after the meeting something interesting happened—I started getting messages in Slack from fellow managers about my response. One said:
"The authority and conviction with which you spoke was inspiring and left me with no doubt that it was the right decision for your team."
🥹 what a compliment
Others echoed similar feedback about how clear and confident the answer was.
This got me curious. What exactly did I say that resonated so strongly?
I wanted to analyze why it worked so well, so I pulled up the transcript and put it into Claude to break down what made this response effective.
Here's what I said in the meeting (only lightly edited):
"A motion designer is really skilled at telling the story of a brand or product via a story that gets unfolded through motion, rather than just a single screen where someone has to read it.
As we launch new features and evolve our positioning and messaging, we need someone who can own the process end to end—taking positioning from a product marketer and messaging from the team and expressing it through assets that put our product in front of creators in a compelling way so they understand what features we're offering and what benefits they'll have.
We haven't done a lot of motion so far because we haven't had this role on the team. And every time we have used motion, we see it perform. We see it driving more click-throughs in ads. We see people understanding things better when they see something played out via motion graphics rather than just static graphics.
That's why we're adding this role to the team. It's going to be a huge unlock in our ability to communicate the value of Kit, which is something we know we've been struggling to do effectively.
When someone is in-house on the team, they have an understanding of our audience and product that they build up over time, which makes the work faster to produce. If we had to document everything we know internally about our product and audience every time to hand it off to someone, it slows things down too much, and you don't get as good results because someone isn't able to use their own critical thinking and decision-making skills. So that's why this is a full-time role."
Here's why Claude thinks this landed
I was curious what made this response so effective, so I asked my AI bff. Here's what Claude thinks worked:
I led with the "why" before the "what." I explained the specific problem that motion design solves and connected it to where we are as a company.
I used concrete evidence. "Every time we have used motion, we see it perform" with specific examples like increased click-throughs. Data beats opinion every time.
I showed strategic thinking. I positioned this as part of our broader challenge with communicating Kit's value, showing how this role connects to bigger business goals rather than existing in isolation.
I acknowledged our current limitations. "We know we've been struggling to communicate the value of Kit" shows I'm realistic about our challenges, which makes the solution feel more credible.
I connected the role to measurable business impact. Rather than talking about motion design in abstract terms, I tied it directly to performance metrics (click-throughs, comprehension) and business outcomes.
I spoke with ownership and decisiveness. Phrases like "we really need someone who can own the process end to end" and "it's going to be a huge unlock" show clear conviction rather than hedging or uncertainty.
So, the feedback I got probably came from how I demonstrated clear reasoning and business thinking while communicating the decision with conviction and confidence.
Reading back over my answer now there's definitely things I see that I could improve, but for an off-the-cuff response? I agree with my teammates; it's a pretty good one!
Over the last few years in a leadership role I've been working on my ability to react and respond effectively to questions in the moment, rather than having to go away and think about them in order to come up with a good answer. That is, of course, an acceptable approach (and in some situations it's the best approach). But I want to be able to think on my feet faster and communicate clearly in reactive settings like team meetings. So I'm extra proud to have gotten this feedback. 🙌
I hope it was useful for you to see this breakdown. I'm curious if there's anything you spot in my answer that Claude didn't call out? Reply and let me know what you took away from it!
Talk soon,
PS: Yes, I'm hiring a motion designer! If you or someone you know has worked in-house in a motion design role at a tech company, check out the job description here.
