JD Growth| Ep 3: How to give feedback in design review | 5 tips
In your design career, you will be exposed to a lot of design critique and design review sessions. Giving people feedback is one essential part of the journey.
I am thrilled to share with you my self-made recipe and how this is compiled from all of my practical learning experiences. I hope this can help you to build your recipe to give people more great feedback.
Here are all the tips:
Tip 1: Apply FRAMEWORK for giving feedback
Tip 2: Be HUMBLE, be CURIOUS, be SPECIFIC and be PATIENCE
Tip 3: Asking more OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS, not Close-Ended questions
Tip 4: Open up more POSSIBILITIES in your feedback
Tip 5: PRACTISE and ASK feedback for your feedback
Tip 1: Apply FRAMEWORK for giving feedback
You can follow this classic structure to organize should-have information in your talk.
1. 🦻🏻 LISTEN
Pay attention to what your teammate is presenting about the design
2. 💪🏻 STRONG POINTS
Opening your speech by praising what aspects of the design are performing well.
Example:
- Insightful User Interview and Research
- Nice User Interface
- Creative Solution
- Thoughtful Process
- Consistent Design
3. 🌈 RECOMMENDATION/ SUGGESTION to improve
If you think there is any room for improvement in the design or if any clarification is needed, let's share it to make the solution become better.
Tip 2: Be HUMBLE, be CURIOUS, be SPECIFIC and be PATIENCE
Setting the right mindset and attitude is the key to making everyone feel comfortable and eager to get feedback from you next time.
🙂 HUMBLE
- Regardless of how experienced or what level you are, remember that everyone learns from everyone. You are giving feedback rather than teaching them how to do their work.
🥸 CURIOUS
- Staying curious forces you to ask questions to understand intently their thought process and motivations behind the decision. To ensure alignment, attempt to relate your interest to the project objectives.
👀 SPECIFIC
- Ambiguous feedback is hard to figure out what is the problem and how to improve it. By providing additional context, presenters will be able to gather more diverse perspectives and know exactly what aspects are going well and what aspects need more validation.
💆🏻♀️ PATIENCE
- Every design requires a process. Designers have so much of themselves invested, and a lot to say during a review.
- Furthermore, you are not with the designers all of the process, so it may take some time for you to digest a larger amount of information as well. So slowly tackle your concern to understand before jumping immediately to the conclusion the design is good or bad.
Tip 3: Asking more OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS, not Close-Ended questions
- Open-ended questions create more space for freedom and ownership for the designers to decide on the problems you’ve highlighted. You are not here to help them to fix their design but listen to and support them.
- Open questions often start with What, How, and When.
Tip 4: Open up more POSSIBILITIES in your feedback
- From learning how to ask more “Open questions”, you will be able to provide some suggestions in your feedback, rather than directing them to a specific solution or forcing them to do it.
Tip 5: PRACTISE and ASK feedback for your feedback
- If your shyness is taking over your confidence, or you need more guidance on this topic, why don’t take some Public Speaking courses? It is a smaller and safer environment for you to learn, practice, fail and succeed.
- You are giving, and you are receiving too. Why not ask for feedback about your feedback? How qualified your feedback is and what you can do better. I believe you will see significant areas to improve and build your voice to give people excellent feedback.
