Great tips and advice here Scott, and can see you’ve focused on techniques for gathering feedback through in-person or live feedback sessions. There is relevance here also for methods and rulesets to gather productive feedback via asynchronous review tools and shared, collaborative files. Do you have any thoughts on any other considerations there? We like to set some parameters around the focus areas and specific questions for reviewers to consider in their feedback, and to invite reviewers to comment on others’ feedback where perspectives may align or vary (if they feel it’s relevant and important to emphasise). Considering too that if you ask for feedback without parameters people feel it’s their job to offer some level of commentary regardless so you want to aim for relevance and usefulness. Feedback is so essential to the work we do.
My basic advice on async anything is to do it first live. Assuming you have a good facilitator, it's easier to establish trust and some baselines for healthy feedback in a live session. Even if I could only get half the team on a Zoom, I'd do a simple feedback session and record a video of it. Then the trust, the humor and the supportive attitude is something everyone can observe. Including new people who join the team later.
Ideally you create the vibe that all sorts of opinions are acceptable to express, but also that everyone feels respected and that the experience is positive.
As far as async reviews - it comes back again to leaders. Someone in a leadership role has to set the right example perioidcally. And also reward people for good behavior and call out problematic behavior (typically first in private). Weeding the garden so to speak.
The last note is about cross cultral challenges - there are direct communication cultures and indirect, and async makes these disconnects harder to pick up on, so it's something to look out for if you have a culturally diverse team.
Totally. I really find that "rules set you free" in the sense that having a clear structure means people don't default to the tacit power structures in the room. Everyone knows this for brainstorming, but somehow people don't do it for feedback and crits. I made a video about this recently: https://youtu.be/i1YaCD5Tpgk
What's hard I think is to be a young, inexperienced designer who doesn't have the confidence to set the rules for any meeting. I wish I had better advice for this situation.
I always urge designers to explain the context of the work they are showing so they don't have to answer questions that are not relevant right now. eg. questions like 'how does it scale?' when you are figuring out what it is people need.
And secondly ask the right questions don't ask 'what do you think?' as it opens up a world of possibilities! But be specific on the topic you want feedback on.
Also I don't call them compliment sandwiches anymore but rather bullsh*t sandwiches, but that's just me
Good point about vague questions like "what do you think?" That puts too much responsibility on the other person. Unless they are good at giving feedback and a trusted source it's open the door to unhelpfulness.
Great tips and advice here Scott, and can see you’ve focused on techniques for gathering feedback through in-person or live feedback sessions. There is relevance here also for methods and rulesets to gather productive feedback via asynchronous review tools and shared, collaborative files. Do you have any thoughts on any other considerations there? We like to set some parameters around the focus areas and specific questions for reviewers to consider in their feedback, and to invite reviewers to comment on others’ feedback where perspectives may align or vary (if they feel it’s relevant and important to emphasise). Considering too that if you ask for feedback without parameters people feel it’s their job to offer some level of commentary regardless so you want to aim for relevance and usefulness. Feedback is so essential to the work we do.
My basic advice on async anything is to do it first live. Assuming you have a good facilitator, it's easier to establish trust and some baselines for healthy feedback in a live session. Even if I could only get half the team on a Zoom, I'd do a simple feedback session and record a video of it. Then the trust, the humor and the supportive attitude is something everyone can observe. Including new people who join the team later.
Ideally you create the vibe that all sorts of opinions are acceptable to express, but also that everyone feels respected and that the experience is positive.
As far as async reviews - it comes back again to leaders. Someone in a leadership role has to set the right example perioidcally. And also reward people for good behavior and call out problematic behavior (typically first in private). Weeding the garden so to speak.
The last note is about cross cultral challenges - there are direct communication cultures and indirect, and async makes these disconnects harder to pick up on, so it's something to look out for if you have a culturally diverse team.
Totally. I really find that "rules set you free" in the sense that having a clear structure means people don't default to the tacit power structures in the room. Everyone knows this for brainstorming, but somehow people don't do it for feedback and crits. I made a video about this recently: https://youtu.be/i1YaCD5Tpgk
What's hard I think is to be a young, inexperienced designer who doesn't have the confidence to set the rules for any meeting. I wish I had better advice for this situation.
As always, spot on!
I always urge designers to explain the context of the work they are showing so they don't have to answer questions that are not relevant right now. eg. questions like 'how does it scale?' when you are figuring out what it is people need.
And secondly ask the right questions don't ask 'what do you think?' as it opens up a world of possibilities! But be specific on the topic you want feedback on.
Also I don't call them compliment sandwiches anymore but rather bullsh*t sandwiches, but that's just me
Good point about vague questions like "what do you think?" That puts too much responsibility on the other person. Unless they are good at giving feedback and a trusted source it's open the door to unhelpfulness.
BS sandwich is a better term. I agree.
Oh yes. Oh yes. Oh yes. Thank you!