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It is quite common to see designers complain about the poor quality feedback they have received from stakeholders or clients. “They literally told me to make the logo bigger!” they might be joking, or, “They told me ‘it just doesn’t feel right’ but couldn’t explain why. What am I supposed to do about it?” Our response is usually to empathize with our poor colleague – after all, we’ve all been there before – and laugh at the stupidity of customers.
This kind of interaction can be a great bonding moment with a fellow designer. Still, as an industry that is meant to be good empathy with people we might be missing something here, especially if we find that we get this kind of feedback quite often. Maybe it’s not all the stupid coworker’s or client’s fault. Maybe that has something to do with it too how we present our work, the questions we ask and when we choose to ask them.
What’s going wrong
I’ve been through more bad design presentations than I care to think about, with designers walking through every design decision they ever made.
“First I tried it. Then I tried it. I didn’t like how it worked, so I tried this other thing, and it felt better.”
It’s like sitting through a slideshow of someone else’s baby photos or vacation photos or a kid coming home from school talking about the exciting finger paint bottle they just had. Super meaningful to them, but pretty dull to everyone else.
So it’s any wonder when the rest of the people in the room tend to turn off their critical faculties – after all, there are no business problems being shared or important decisions being made – and go on a step-by-step tour with the designer of their Figma history, only to be pushed back into the room with the immortal words:
“So what do you think?”
At this point, the drivers break into action again. They were asked what they thought, and if there’s one thing managers love to do, it’s give feedback. So they’ll jump in with a list of things they personally don’t like:
“It looks too big. It looks flat. I don’t like this color. Can you make this area pop a little more?”
Opinions, opinions, opinions. This is exactly what the designer do not have want.
So how do you break this cycle?
Frame the request for feedback
Instead of presenting a linear case study that will show each design review, the first thing you should do is frame the problem—essentially to explain what is wrong with the current design and what problem are you trying to solve with the new version. After all, design is meant to be about problem solving rather than pretty pictures, right?
If you want to show some dead ends along the way and heighten the drama, that’s fine. However, you will have to explain it in terms of the problem is solved rather than saying vague things like “This font didn’t work” or “We need a better color scheme,” as such things will encourage subjective opinions.
Instead, when you present the final design, engage with the stakeholders at a strategic level and explain how the new design solves the problem. Or even better: Explain how you’re going to test/prove how it solves the problem and by how much.
“We’re going to push this release out next week, and we’ll get back to you with some numbers by the end of the month.”
It’s much better than a vague, “What do you think?”
Be specific
If you’re really looking for feedback, be specific about what kind of feedback you’re looking for. Are you looking for comments on the visual style, or is it already set by your design system/brand guidelines? Often, you’re not really looking for feedback as much as trying to understand if they agree that this solution solves the stated problem. So if that’s what you’re looking for, ask them.
If you think there might be contentious issues with the design, flag them upfront. So, for example, rather than waiting for the Chief Marketing Officer to ask about the opt-out checkbox, let them know that it’s changed to opt-in to comply with GDPR.
When you receive feedback, don’t always assume that you are being asked to change something in the design. It is perfectly reasonable to receive the feedback as a gift (free advice) and let people know that you will take what they said into account.
If you are unsure whether the feedback is a request, please do not hesitate to clarify. If that person is not the DRI (directly responsible individual), let them know that you will run it past the DRI for final approval. Managers are often just trying to be helpful, so it’s your job to frame the problem and channel their feedback in the right way.
Don’t be afraid to say:
“We are not currently looking for feedback on the visual language, but we would love feedback on X!”
Whatever that X might be, of course.
Don’t seek external validation. Ask for (real) feedback
Designers often ask for feedback at the end of a presentation when it really isn’t necessary. It is perfectly reasonable to set a presentation as an update and something along the lines of:
“We are not looking for feedback at this stage.”
Designers are desperate to be appreciated, so asking for feedback at the end of a presentation can be a clumsy attempt to garner praise.
You say:
“What do you think?”
When you really mean:
“Please help my fragile ego and tell me how amazing I am!”
Unfortunately, this subconscious need for external validation often returns, and you feel worse rather than better.
This is an important distinction I see between junior and senior designers. Junior designers often ask for feedback in the hope that they are right and will get a pat on the back. By comparison, more senior designers really hope they missed something because they realize good feedback will help them grow.
As such, the correct response to such feedback is:
“That’s very interesting – tell me more!”
It would be much better to say rather than bark out a list of reasons why the feedback is wrong and you are right.
Learn from our mistakes
As an expert, you can tell people their ideas won’t work or backfire until you’re blue in the face, and they still won’t listen. Instead, the only way most people learn is to keep going, experience the failure in a tangible way, and then start their own learning loop.
While you want to avoid the “told you so” conversation, you do need to be visible when that light bulb goes on, so they know that the next time you point out a problem, they can avoid a lot of pain by listening to what you have to say. Usability testing is a good way to instrument this learning process.
Unfortunately, designers are very good at citing all the reasons why something won’t work and end up feeling frustrated when people don’t listen. However, we are less good at follow-up. As such, the person ultimately responsible often never sees the problem occur because it is obscured, not directly experienced, or hidden in the data, and they do not see you as someone who can help them avoid similar mistakes in the future not. Instead, we get angry at stakeholders who don’t heed our (often) very good advice, which ironically makes them even less likely to listen to us next time.
As a startup advisor, I often see founders make easy to avoid mistakes. I will always mark this because I think it is unfair to see people hurting themselves and their businesses unnecessarily. However, you often have to let them make those mistakes to learn.
Show your work early and often
This last problem is a bit of a biggie. I see far too many designers who only want to show work they think is 95% done and then get frustrated and defensive when asked to make changes. You can understand why. It’s like getting to the finish line of a marathon, only to be told that the race has been extended by another ten miles. It is exhausting and discouraging, and you are not quite sure that you have enough “gas in the tank” to continue.
This behavior is often linked to a designer’s psychology and sense of self-worth. We don’t like to receive criticism – I mean, who does? — because it often feels like we’re being criticized rather than the work we’ve done. So we hide until we’re sure we’ve nailed it before walking out into the flickering sunlight, only to have some mean driver crush our dreams.
The answer is annoyingly simple.
That way, when you get said feedback, you’re not going to be shocked or surprised, and you still have enough energy and will to make the necessary changes. So rather than being precious, good designers show their work early and often! They bring drivers with them on the trip.
Just kill the “big reveal” moment — you don’t need it!
Closure
Ultimately, feedback is a gift. This allows us to produce better products with a greater chance of being accepted by our customers, partners and peers. To get useful, actionable feedback, designers need to get comfortable showing work early and often; they need to get better at presenting the business case for their work; and they need to get better at asking the right questions and leading the kind of feedback they want and need.
The best designers know this. Good designers hope to be proven right. However, great designers want to be proven wrong. Why? Because it’s the most efficient way to learn and get better.
Further reading
There are many great resources out there on design feedback! Here are some of my personal favorites, including some excellent articles from Smashing Magazine.
(mb, yk, il)
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