When I look back on all the business lessons I’ve learned in design, the biggest one comes back to assumptions.

Years ago the company I worked for took on a project for a high profile marketing agency that I respected and admired (and at that point, hoped to work for some day). I really wanted us to do a stellar job— on time and on budget. It was an important project… for me.

But for my coworkers, it was not. It just wasn’t. It was a small project for not a lot of money. Not a priority project when dozens of other clients were clamoring for attention; and rightly so.

Don’t assume that what is a big priority for you is a big priority for others— unless you let them know and they have acknowledged (in some real form) and choose to own that priority (by changing their course). Otherwise, you’re going to be where I was: in a state of dread.