How do you use feedback to design better cars?

1 Identify your goals

Before you seek feedback, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your design. What are the main objectives, requirements, and constraints of your project? Who are your target users, and what are their needs, preferences, and expectations? How do you measure the success of your design? By defining your goals, you can focus your feedback on the most relevant aspects of your design and avoid wasting time and resources on irrelevant or conflicting opinions.

2 Choose your sources

Not all feedback is equally valuable. You need to select the sources that can provide you with the most useful and reliable information. Depending on your design stage and goals, you may want to get feedback from different stakeholders, such as customers, users, experts, peers, managers, or suppliers. You also need to consider the methods and channels for collecting feedback, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, tests, reviews, or social media. You should aim for a balance between quantity and quality, diversity and consistency, and direct and indirect feedback.

3 Analyze your feedback

Once you have collected feedback, you need to process it and extract the key insights and implications for your design. You can use various tools and techniques to analyze your feedback, such as coding, categorizing, rating, ranking, clustering, or mapping. You should look for patterns, trends, gaps, and outliers in the feedback data and compare them with your goals and expectations. You should also evaluate the validity, reliability, and relevance of the feedback and identify any biases, errors, or contradictions.

4 Apply your feedback

The final step is to use your feedback to improve your design. You should prioritize the feedback that is most aligned with your goals, most supported by the data, and most feasible to implement. You should also consider the trade-offs, risks, and opportunities of applying the feedback and how it will affect your design criteria and constraints. You should document your feedback and the changes you make to your design and communicate them to your stakeholders. You should also test and validate your design after applying the feedback and monitor its performance and impact.

Feedback is not a one-time activity, but a continuous cycle. You should seek feedback throughout your design process, from the initial concept to the final product. You should also be open-minded, curious, and respectful when receiving and giving feedback. Feedback can help you to design better cars that meet the needs and desires of your customers and users. It can also help you to learn, grow, and innovate as an automotive designer.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?