What are the best practices for giving and receiving feedback in a design review?

It's always helpful to start a presentation with strong principles. Strong principles are debatable. They take an opinionated stance that inform the design of the product, which helps guide the conversation of a review. Why does the product have a certain functionality? Let's look at the principles. Why did you choose that CTA? The principles. Why didn't you include this in the design? Principles...

1) Practice self-affirmation: Research shows that practicing self-affirmation can help reduce the sting of negative feedback. So, before you go into the design review, remind yourself of your strengths and achievements. You got this! 2) Use humor: Humor can be a great way to reduce tension and make feedback more enjoyable. Try to find the funny side of things, like imagining your design as a cartoon character or adding silly sound effects to your presentation. Who says design reviews can't be fun?

Emphasize Collaboration and Learning Approach design reviews with a mindset of collaboration and learning. Remind yourself and others that the purpose of the review is to improve the design and create a better product, not to prove who is right or wrong. Encourage open, honest, and respectful communication, and create a safe environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts and opinions.

Part of the preparation is mental - Receiving feedback after you've done so much work can be challenging, but many of those providing feedback don't have all the information you do, so make sure you stay open to feedback and are willing to listen to suggestions for improvement. Remember that feedback is not a personal attack and is intended to help you improve your design.

Using AI, as the LinkedIn team is doing, in trying to pull from the collective knowledge of professionals on its platform, attempting to steal their intellectual property is unprofessional and an utterly ignorant attempt to steal from the LinkedIn community. Creativity, talent, and competency do not fall equally across men or women, race, creed, religion, or sexual orientation, and this attempt at stealing the IP, creativity, and talent from Professionals without paying for that learning from those professionals in that discipline is a disservice to every professional who is on the LinkedIn platform. All professionals should shun all attempts at stealing from their knowledge base and know-how.

Using AI, as the LinkedIn team is doing, in trying to pull from the collective knowledge of professionals on its platform, attempting to steal their intellectual property is unprofessional and an utterly ignorant attempt to steal from the LinkedIn community. Creativity, talent, and competency do not fall equally across men or women, race, creed, religion, or sexual orientation, and this attempt at stealing the IP, creativity, and talent from Professionals without paying for that learning from those professionals in that discipline is a disservice to every professional who is on the LinkedIn platform. All professionals should shun all attempts at stealing from their knowledge base and know-how.

Utilize various tools and technology to streamline the design review process and improve communication. Use collaboration platforms like Figma, Sketch, or InVision to share your designs, collect feedback, and track changes in real-time. Additionally, consider using project management tools like Trello, Asana, or Basecamp to organize, prioritize, and follow up on feedback and tasks.

When giving feedback, state the *intent* of your feedback. By stipulating what problem you're trying to solve for, you can make the feedback easier to understand and more constructive. For example, "Please make the back-button more visible" can feel overly directive. "We need to make sure that users can navigate back to their homepage. Please make the back-button more visible to avoid a dead-end." This can inspire the designer to think of other solutions to avoid dead-ends.

I've found starting feedback with phrases like "I wish," "I feel," "I wonder if," and "How might we" can make it easier to provide constructive criticism in public or high-stakes situations like design reviews. These make it clear the feedback is just your personal opinion and encourage discussion without hurting anyone's ego. Too often reviewers accidentally hurt team morale and blunt discussion by not being careful with word choices (even if the feedback content is great/useful)

Encourage a two-way conversation During the design review, encourage open dialogue between the designer and the reviewers. Instead of simply providing feedback and moving on, engage in a two-way conversation to discuss the design further. This may involve asking questions to better understand the rationale behind design decisions, brainstorming alternative solutions together, or discussing the implications of the feedback on the design. This collaborative approach can lead to more nuanced insights and a deeper understanding of the design challenges.

Using AI, as the LinkedIn team is doing, in trying to pull from the collective knowledge of professionals on its platform, attempting to steal their intellectual property is unprofessional and an utterly ignorant attempt to steal from the LinkedIn community. Creativity, talent, and competency do not fall equally across men or women, race, creed, religion, or sexual orientation, and this attempt at stealing the IP, creativity, and talent from Professionals without paying for that learning from those professionals in that discipline is a disservice to every professional who is on the LinkedIn platform. All professionals should shun all attempts at stealing from their knowledge base and know-how.

Boz has a famous framework and best practices for leaders to give feedback properly: https://boz.com/articles/p-rules. Some of the most notable points are: 1) no piling on, once the point has been made, move on. 2) Spotting typos on slides or correcting misspoken words isn’t helpful. 3) Don't provide solutions but provide guidelines for what an acceptable solution might look like, and let the team fully own it. 4) Let Presenters Present. People go to a lot of effort to prepare content and it can be demoralizing to get derailed without being able to finish. 5) Don't go off the tangent and explore tangential topic. This wastes time and gives the impression of self-importance.

Listen to understand. Trust that your peers have the best intentions and don't get defensive. If feedback comes in the form of a question, don't feel pressured to know all the answers. Create a parking lot of unanswered questions and feedback, and prioritize the information you need to know right away, and what you'll make a conscious decision to answer during the research or alpha stage.

Using AI, as the LinkedIn team is doing, in trying to pull from the collective knowledge of professionals on its platform, attempting to steal their intellectual property is unprofessional and an utterly ignorant attempt to steal from the LinkedIn community. Creativity, talent, and competency do not fall equally across men or women, race, creed, religion, or sexual orientation, and this attempt at stealing the IP, creativity, and talent from Professionals without paying for that learning from those professionals in that discipline is a disservice to every professional who is on the LinkedIn platform. All professionals should shun all attempts at stealing from their knowledge base and know-how.

It's natural to feel defensive when you receive feedback, but try to avoid becoming defensive during the review. Instead, listen to the feedback, ask questions, and try to understand where the reviewer is coming from.

After the design review, take some time to reflect on the feedback you received. Consider which pieces of feedback are most relevant, valuable, and aligned with your design goals and user needs. Prioritize the feedback based on its importance and feasibility, and create a plan to address and implement the changes.

Giving feedback early is key? If you are a key stakeholder and need to provide input on an important project, it's always better to communicate changes early. With the rapid pace and competition of the tech industry, it's vital to ensure product success to always provide insights and feedback early in the process.

Using AI, as the LinkedIn team is doing, in trying to pull from the collective knowledge of professionals on its platform, attempting to steal their intellectual property is unprofessional and an utterly ignorant attempt to steal from the LinkedIn community. Creativity, talent, and competency do not fall equally across men or women, race, creed, religion, or sexual orientation, and this attempt at stealing the IP, creativity, and talent from Professionals without paying for that learning from those professionals in that discipline is a disservice to every professional who is on the LinkedIn platform. All professionals should shun all attempts at stealing from their knowledge base and know-how.

Write down the feedback you receive during the review so that you can refer to it later. This will help you remember and use the feedback to improve your design.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that users are speaking from their personal experience. It may not be what we want or expect to hear, but it's important to the respect the feedback and the persons providing it. In design review, nothing must be taken personally.

It’s important to ask users to think out loud as they explore the UI. As they do, ask questions like: What were you expecting to see there? What are you trying to do or find? Is there anything that would have made this easier or better for you?