How to best feed back to your packaging design agency. (Edition 14)

Feeding back on designs can be a very tricky process. Especially if there are multiple levels of sign off within the company. How do you amalgamate all of the feedback in a single minded way?

How do you ensure that none of the feedback contradicts, that it is consistent and captures all of the key points objectively rather than subjectively?

From point of view of the client, you may have to collate information from multiple stakeholders.?

From an agency side, some of the lead design routes could get thrown out at an early stage just because there’s one minor component that isn’t liked by the client. Often, with a few slight tweaks these issues can be ironed out and the design developed rather than have an entire big idea confined to the dustbin because of one element.?

How to feedback efficiently and effectively is an age old problem and a conversation I have a lot with clients.

In essence, most problems can be solved, that is as long as you understand what the problem is. The key is to find a good way of defining exactly what the issue is.?

Here is our tried and trusted method that we use at slice design. It’s not a fancy trademarked process, but a simple approach we like to use that is rooted in both logic and reason.

Design by its very nature is subjective and this methodology is great at taking more a more constructive objective approach rather than critical subjective one.

The process we utilise, is lose, retain, enhance and introduce.

Lose - what isn’t working and needs to be removed?

Retain – What element of the design is working and should be kept?

Enhance - What element is not currently working hard enough?

Introduce - what has been missed from the brief and needs adding to help the route work better?

Let’s dive into each of those a little bit more:

?? Lose:

Often, entire design routes are rejected and thrown out simply because of one element isn’t liked. It could be something as simple as a colour choice. The ability to identify the specific part that isn’t working means that this component can be addressed without the need to reject the entire route.?

??Retain:

It’s a very rare that a design can be rejected outright. There is often something on there that is liked and can be utilised for either further development or on another lead route.?

??Enhance:

This is an especially useful if you want to push something and get it to work a little bit harder. It’s especially useful as it command you to always look for the positive attribute rather than skipping automatically to a knee-jerk rejection based on criteria that I discussed earlier on. It’s also an especially good area to feedback on if you want to change the hierarchy of information such as upweighting the lead benefits of a product on the front of the pack.?

??Introduce:

Sometimes something may be completely missed from the original brief or through the development of a design other opportunities can be identified and this is a good opportunity to introduce these into the mix to either develop an existing design or offer up an entirely new route.?

?? Conclusion

From a design agency perspective this is a fantastic way of collating the most salient pieces of information and feeding back objectively. This methodology creates clarity and simplification that is easy to understand and action.

From the client point of view, it’s a useful tool to collate information and comments from all stakeholders so that all points are captured. It also means that once all the points of captured this can be circulated through all the stakeholders to get alignment before feeding back to the agency. This removes the need for multiple rounds of reworking.?

So, do forward this on to your brand teams and agency teams alike and encourage them to capture feedback this way. You’ll be surprised with the difference it makes.

?? Some key points:

• Design feedback can be challenging, especially with multiple stakeholders involved.
• The "lose, retain, enhance, and introduce" methodology helps provide objective feedback on designs.
• This approach prevents entire design concepts from being discarded due to minor issues.
• The method helps align stakeholders and reduce the need for multiple rounds of revisions.

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This podcast episode looks at the branding & packaging design for Danone GetPRO & the issues of borrowing assets from other brands..

You can follow the show here , it's available wherever you get your podcasts. (If you are an Apple podcasts purist, you can find the show here )

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?? And thats a wrap!

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