Better Design Feedback

At Pixar they’ll frequently bring a director in his or her in progress film in with a group of other experienced storytellers. And they call this a brain trust. The purpose of the brain trust is not to tell the director what to do. But to highlight areas that may be weak. Or to spark […]

There are multiple ways that you can solicit feedback from other employees within your company. Here are three specific ways. The first is via internal posts where you solicit feedback. The second is you can DM someone directly and ask for feedback. And the third one is you can ask for volunteers to do a […]

Getting feedback from busy execs or senior management can be tricky at times. Here are a few tips that I’ve learned over the years. First distill all of your options into a couple of simple bullet points. Next share, which of those options you plan to proceed with. And if possible show a before and […]

Another way you can gather insights is from analytics. This can be slightly different depending on where you work. Some companies will have a robust internal analytics infrastructure. Some companies will leverage outside tools. And some companies will have little to no analytics. My suggestion to you as a designer is to take a solid […]

Your support team can be an extremely valuable resource when it comes to customer insights. I’m actually a big fan of pairing, at least one person from support with each product team, whenever they’re working on a new feature. Doing so seems to help bridge the gap between support and product. If this isn’t something […]

Looking outside of your company, the first group that I would turn to would be friends and family. Oftentimes, you just need someone to bounce ideas off. It could be that you have some rough sketches or wire frames that you want to run somebody through. You may have a clickable prototype or some high […]

Usability testing is one of my favorite ways to gather design feedback. Usability testing consists of coming up with a series of tasks. Then running multiple people through the same series of tasks to see how well they perform. Usability testing is most valuable when you have a clickable prototype or working code that you […]

Social media can be another good option for getting feedback. You have to be a little careful with social media because different people have different motivations and incentives. That said, if you have a following on Twitter or LinkedIn, you should absolutely leverage it. You’ll probably find most success by keeping your polls or questions. […]

Attending in-person meetups or conferences where your customers will be in attendance can be a great way to solicit feedback and get to clarity. And you don’t have to have a booth in order to get feedback from customers. You just have to be willing to put yourself out there and say hi to people. […]

So this approach takes two people. And it generally works better in big cities. First, buy a number of Starbucks $20 gift cards. Then you want to buy a poster board and a Sharpie. And write on the poster board, “Test my app for five minutes and get a free Starbucks $20 gift card”. Then […]

Fear kills companies. Fear of failure. Fear of looking bad. Fear of making mistakes. Fear of being called out. Fear of not knowing where you stand. Each one of these is toxic. As Ed Catmull said, “The antidote to fear is trust”. As you actively build trust within your company. Fear naturally subsides. If you […]

Good feedback focuses on the design. Bad feedback focuses on the designer. Good feedback helps the designer feel like they’ve had a light bulb moment. Bad feedback makes the designer feel upset, anxious, or sad. Good feedback comes from a place of generosity and kindness. Bad feedback comes from a place of competition and pride. […]

It’s critical that you establish a culture of candid feedback within your design org. This is the only way that creativity and innovation can thrive. To do this. You must first foster trust. And one way to do that is to establish a culture that’s candid, but also kind. To establish kindness. You need to […]

Whenever you’re presenting a design for feedback, it’s helpful to assume that the people who are reading your post or listening to your presentation have zero context. Rather than jumping straight into your designs, it can be helpful to set the stage. You might start with the problem statement. What problem are you trying to […]

As a senior executive there are two primary areas where you can help your design org. The first is to understand and respect the processes that they’ve put in place. The second is to help make sure that the things that they are shipping are of the highest quality. Now there are a couple of […]

Your goal as a design manager should be to create a healthy and happy environment for your designers, where they’re consistently shipping high quality work on time. You do this by building trust.  You do this by being kind, treating people fairly. And not having ulterior motives.  You do this by advocating for the needs […]

A designer’s job is to create new things. And then to use data and feedback, to make sure that the things they designed are the best solutions possible. The best designers, I know have the least amount of ego and pride. They don’t beat their chest. They work well with others and they’re open to […]

 Well friends we’ve reached the end of our journey here together. If you’ve made it this far. Congratulations. If I could leave one final piece of advice, it would be to document everything. The best design teams that I’ve worked with. They have an operations manual that outlines everything from onboarding. To various processes, to […]