Learning to invite feedback

Having been an engineer for the best part of 15 years, I’m used to my work being held up against quite hard criteria. Does it work? Does it meet specification? Can we approve it? QA testing and technical scrutiny are familiar activities.

Moving into a design role means that the criteria are often ‘softer’ for want of a better word. Decisions are made to meet the needs and wants of actual people, who are often less easy to interpret than a technical spec. Design also operates in a space where technical knowledge is less of a barrier to involvement, meaning a wider array of interested stakeholders, eager to participate.

This can be tempting to resist – ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth’ can be the feeling, but this can only brew up trouble in the long run.

In starting to build a design team, I knew I was going to have to embrace this input, but mistakes are the best motivator sometimes, and after hearing a few grumbles from project stakeholders about feeling a bit shut out of the the process, I had to get stuck in and try some new ideas.

Design Critique (or Crit) was an idea I had read a lot about and knew it needed to be an integral part of any design practice, so rather than putting it off, I decided to jump in an have a go.

The idea is simple enough. Gather your interested stakeholders, tell the story of the design so far, and then create space for everyone to have their say. Having run a couple of structured sessions so far, this is what’s I have learned.

People like being invited in

Feedback so far has been great. People like to be be asked to to be involved, and to share thoughts and ideas. Even at a 6 week interval, it can be enough to keep a sense of being connected to the process.

Storytelling is important

Being able to set the scene and describe the journey so far it a great way of heading off a lot of more obvious questions that might otherwise take up valuable discussion time. It also helps to show your working, and that what is being presented has been through a deliberate thought process. It also makes the ideas more accessible to those who aren’t involved day-to-day on the project.

Facilitating feedback helps create actionable work

By setting the expectation of how feedback will be collected and allowing each person to speak in turn, it makes it more likely that the feedback can lead to action, and that everyone’s voice gets heard. It’s also a good opportunity to ask for positive feedback too, as this often gets lost when diving straight into problems and things to improve.

My own experience with critique has only just started, but I hope to stay accountable and do better work by regularly holding up work for feedback.