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Get UX Design Buy-In: Persuasive Cliffhanger Storytelling (Udemy.com)

The one secret to seize attention and build intrigue when pitching UX ideas, or getting User Experience design buy-in

Created by: Liz Brown

Last updated January 2026

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What you will learn

  • A key tactic to help you get buy-in for UX or your UX idea
  • The formula to use this tactic in your own conversations, meetings, presentations, or pitches
  • How to hook and hold attention when you're a "nobody" talking to "big wigs"
  • When to recapture or redirect attention back to your "ask" (your request for UX buy-in)
  • How to gracefully segue into using this tactic
  • What to say immediately afterward to seal the deal
  • What to say to solidify your authority to advocate for UX

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Overall Score : 80 / 100

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Course Description

How To Use Persuasive Cliffhanger Storytelling in Product Design to Pitch UX

Have you ever struggled to get buy-in for User Experience (UX) design? Or a specific UX idea?

Struggled to convince decision-makers to allow you to do UX for a project, and give you the support, time, and money to actually get the job done well?

Whether you’re casually talking to someone (a developer, junior designer, project lead) about the value UX brings to a project, or you’re presenting a UX proposal to a potential client, or you’re nervously pitching UX or a UX idea to leadership, in any of those cases you can significantly increase the likelihood that these people will pay attention to you by doing one thing.

This tactic works by setting up the conditions for your audience to lean-in and give you all-ears — well before you share, or ask for, anything.

This tactic is about creating a bit of mystery by sharing something at the beginning or during your conversation that encourages people to stay with you until you decide your audience is ready for the reveal.

If you're still reading, perhaps you're proof that this tactic works!

This course teaches you about this tactic and how to use it yourself to help you get buy-in for UX!

In this course you'll learn:

  1. What this tactic is, and why it matters.

  2. How to hook and hold attention when getting buy-in for UX, with several real-world examples.

  3. The formula to use this tactic in your own conversations, meetings, presentations, or pitches. And we will look at each piece of the formula side-by-side with an example so you can see the real-world application.

  4. How to build out your own version of this solution, and answers to the common questions I get.

  5. Lastly, we will end with an action summary. So you have a nice concise list of action items and takeaways from this course.

There will be activities, downloadable PDFs, and you will have me to answer any questions!


One of the big problems we have is not knowing what to say when either:

(1) the conversation goes off on a tangent (like someone starts listing all the reasons why UX wouldn't be feasible), or

(2) when our audience’s attention starts to drift.


The solution taught in this course allows you to recapture and redirect attention. This tactic WORKS and is PROVEN.

It’s based on neuroscience and research about how the human brain receives and processes messages and ideas, like those about UX.


Once you’ve mastered this tactic, you will be able to... confidently pitch UX knowing that at any point, if someone starts to derail you or say that UX is not actually needed, you can gracefully redirect the conversation without them even realizing what you did. Or if your audience starts to space out, this tactic also works for recapturing their attention, snapping their brains back to your main point about UX.


There is a lot to know to become an expert at pitching UX, but this course teaches you that first skill! Allowing you to control attention! It’s not too much to overwhelm you. Just one core tactic to get you started and on the track to success :)


I designed this course for people who... have ever found themselves needing to advocate for UX to leaders, clients, or decision-makers. People who need support for UX so they can create USER-friendly experiences, but struggle to get decision-makers to take them or UX seriously.


This course comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you are unsatisfied for any reason, you can get your money back, no questions asked.


I invite you to watch some of the free preview videos, where I also reveal what this tactic is.

If you're ready, I'm going to teach you the first skill to help you get buy-in for UX! I can't wait to see you in the course.

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Instructor Details

Liz Brown

Technology can’t be better if we don’t make it better. Major kudos to you for taking the steps to become the person who can make that change happen.

As part of the team of Udemy instructors, I work on courses to help you level-up as a professional User Experience (UX) designer.

I’m on a mission to create...

- entertaining learning that you sail through,

- courses that deliver rock-solid strategies and top-tier techniques, and

- how-tos that are specific, actionable, and brimming with real-world examples.

But ultimately… I’m on a mission to turn YOU into an epic UX Designer.


From the trenches:

I work to improve the usability, accessibility, and overall glamour of websites, apps, and software. And I do this for a living. My job is to make outdated, ugly, usability messes into seamlessly flowing, delightful, user-friendly beauties. This has been my UX journey.

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Reviews

4.0

226 ratings on Udemy

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By Chhavi on 10/5/2025

I think, the course name needs to be changed. It's all about describing the Cliffhanger word in context of presentation and then UX was just added in the discussion. It's pretty slow and dragging. Not a lot of engagement. Tho, I liked a few lessons of this course like, "Ways to end a Cliffhanger". And, how to make "Dull story exciting". I really was expecting something that would have been much more practical and UX focused.

By Gonzalo Ortiz Derpich on 12/19/2023

I'm more that happy to have taken this course. The clarity and simplicity of the contents presented by Liz are very high. Learning how to redirect a conversation in a captivating way is a very useful tool, even beyond the professional environment.

By Alea Oakman on 11/6/2023

I thought this course was going to be about using persuasive storytelling as part of my pitch, not as a last resort to redirect the stakeholder away from hard conversations. I think the storytelling tips are helpful, but I feel like they would be better used in creating a story that is related to the topic at hand. I would love to see more content like this about engineering your presentations and stories within the presentation to make your listener feel these kinds of emotions about user stories and UX metrics without disregarding real questions they may have. Questions about the cost of a project should be answered, but in a way that helps the stakeholder understand the worth of those expenses.

By Doug H on 11/3/2023

Title is misleading. Should be called "how to tell cliffhanger stories to win business from clients who don't appreciate UX". I was expecting a wider variety of story telling presentation techniques (not literal stories) for getting stakeholder buy-in on design concepts within your organization. Course information is minimal, drawn-out, and exhausting to listen to. This could be a free 10 minute YouTube video. 2x playback essential.

By Linda Chusuei on 9/27/2023

I think while facets of this type of storytelling work for all, most of the techniques here rely heavily on personality and the ability for someone to be outgoing enough to interject this method. For me, as both a presenter and audience member, I actually found most of these examples quite irritating and have walked out of presentations that use this method.

By Aghniya Diyanita Suprayitno on 9/20/2023

Interesting lesson, I think it shows a lot of use case and example used for a UX vendor trying to pitch a project, however, I'll be delighted to know if the methods also works for minor design decisions or matter to pitch to stakeholders

By Stan Muller on 9/17/2020

I love Liz for doing this topic. It really hit home for me hearing her stories and the way she delivers is so much fun. It’s extremely valuable for me improving my communication with stakeholders, so I just couldn’t wait to start the course.

By Mariah on 6/28/2020

So much great information! I particularly loved all of the stories she shared as examples! It really makes the things she is teaching easy to understand, and easy to see how it would all play out in real conversations or presentations.

By Marissa Brown on 1/30/2020

This was a great course! I really liked her personable teaching style, and all the tips to get stick-in-the-mud stakeholders to pay attention and take you/UX seriously! Hook em with a gripping story, position you and UX as the real prize, tell em about the deadline, and finally slap em with the morally right choice to make! Bam! Also, I especially loved all the stories she shared about specific UX pitches throughout the course!

By Terry Iliff on 1/24/2020

I found many great applications for the info Liz shared in this course. Even for those who are not UX designers, this course helps you become a more engaging speaker, compelling storyteller, and effective writer. And how to keep your topic front and center. Can't wait to see more of her courses!

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