At some point or another, you'll be asked to review a peer’s work—assuming you don’t give everyone the stink eye for so much as considering talking to you. I’ll assume not, because it’ll make us both look better.
What I’m reflecting on today is the difference between strategic versus tactical design advice.
Less, “Change this! Do that!”
More, “What do you want your customers to do next once they land here?”
I recently came across Fabricio Teixeira’s short-and-sweet article, When to give strategic vs. prescriptive design feedback, covering a few simple methods to rethink and reframe how we give each other feedback. It’s easy to brain dump your raw reactions, but much harder to make sure it’s actionable and well received.
Your intentions won’t matter; how they felt will.
You might have great ideas worth hearing, but if it comes across as pushy or inconsiderately hasty, that might be the last time you’re asked for your thoughts
For how to set the scene and phrase your feedback, I’ll encourage you to read Fabricio’s take—seriously…I’ll wait. It’s okay. This page isn’t going anywhere. Done? OK, well perhaps like you too, reading that led me to these additional questions I’ve used in some form or another during design reviews or probing teams’ thinking:
What is the minimum we actually need from the customer here to get the job done? How much is just enough before it starts to hinder their progress or conversion?
How will our business and customers be positively (or negatively) impacted by <this thing> as a result?
How much direction does the team need so they can remain creatively in control and confident about their work?
What do they want from me that’d foster a strong working relationship?
Everything we produce is directly or indirectly in designed to some degree, from user interfaces to emails and slide decks. Giving good, welcome feedback applies to any of it.
Maybe you’re tapped on the shoulder to read over a business case ready to be sent to their leadership team or they’re asking for a once-over read of their presentation. Your feedback can follow the same types of design intent questions that might be asked when reviewing an app, website, feature, etc:
What is it we want the user/audience to take away from this or be able to decide/accomplish as a result?
Is each page or element strongly contributing to task success or helping to tell a cohesive story?
What are some ways this could possibly be better and why should or shouldn't we consider them?
What does the team think about the problem before I tell them my idea? How do I phrase it so they're open to hearing it? Are they asking for a grammar check or direction on the entire piece?
Is this the right time and place for this thing or thought?
There’s a hundred more great questions that could be added to this list. Which ones have worked for you?
