Coaching designers to overcome fears and fully engage in design critique

I love mentoring and coaching designers. As a design leader, I’ve had the opportunity and privilege to experience both many times throughout my career. The Facebook design team posted a few great articles recently on their experiences in design critiques (like this one by Tanner Christensen) that inspired a reflection for me: what keeps design teams or designers from engaging fully or successfully in critique? And how can design leaders (and others) help them make the transition to successful engagement?

It is important to note the incredibly diverse backgrounds that “Designers” have, even in a narrow scope such as product designers for software. The design industry has been growing wildly in the past decade. There are designers trained at design school, designers who “fell into” their careers, and designers who have taken quick intensive training to try to make a career transition toward design. With that in mind, everyone has different experiences and reactions to receiving a providing critique.

Jared Spool’s Moving from Critical Review to Critique is popular; I’ve experienced both and will vote critique over critical review everyday. But what if you’re not as lucky as Tanner, and you aren’t walking into a group who is already well-functioning in this type of environment? How can a design leader coach a team into this type of experience?

As with most coaching, there are two steps: (1) assess which aspects aren’t working well, then (2) supplement less-than-successful critiques with one-on-one coaching. I believe that both are necessary to make change. Fear is a common blocker to a successful critique. You need that second step to provide a safe place and appropriate time to discuss the fears and how to remove the hurdles. Fear is an emotion, so it’s important to recognize that it may create blockers for people, even if it sounds silly to you.

Fear #1: I don’t want to hurt their feelings!

This is a common fear for designers whose experience has been rooted in pixel-bashing or oneupmanship. This fear must be healed for two reasons: (1) the designer with this fear will not help her product or colleagues improve, and (2) she may not use critique provided to her usefully because she is emotionally interpreting the questions as insults and may fail to grasp a key opportunity. There are two great elements about Spool’s description of critique for this person.

First, they can feel comfort knowing they get to contribute a complement every time! This is probably their sweet-spot. The key is to coach in not overusing that skill. I’ve seen some designers try to find too many things to complement, which can lead to an inauthentic type of conversation, and can leave the recipient without the second half of the critique.

Second, they can learn to ask the best questions. Coaching on how to ask useful questions is doubly beneficial. Designers are inquisitive; great designers ask great questions. In a coaching discussion separate from the group, you can probe more openly about questions that could be improved. “What prompted you to ask Question X?” They probably felt something was wrong with the design and were trying to move from critical review to critique.

The final and most important coaching factor is fundamental to being or becoming a Designer: put the user first. Even experienced designers on a bad day can use the helping hand who pulls them out of the weeds. If you truly put the user first, and intentionally shape your questions about how to make the product better for that user, sometimes fear will dissipate.

Fear #2: I’m not as talented as they are, so I shouldn’t say anything

Designers who are junior, shy, or intimidated may find this fear creeping in. Though every participate is not required to provide input on everything, a design leader may sense this if a participant remains quiet for multiple meetings. Now, if the person in the position truly has nothing to offer to the group, the leader should assess whether not they have the right position. But if you believe they have talent to offer, no matter how junior, their critical thinking can be useful.

Individual coaching opportunities may include directly discussing your expectations of their participation, and also include some parallel activities that help boost their sense of contribution value and ownership of their own voice:

• Be explicit — remind them of why you hired them (or why you are keeping them on)
• Suggest or offer some planned speaking opportunities in a safe place, such as an internal lunch-and-learn or team meeting type of setting
• Brainstorm on some creative writing topics together (they could be posted on an internal wiki, here on Medium, on LinkedIn, etc)

Fear #3: I have to satisfy every stakeholder completely

Designers with this fear may appear in “analysis paralysis” or in a creative block after presenting at a critique. A great critique will give a designer some questions to consider, some research to do, some production iteration, etc. If a designer feels he or she must completely satisfy every stakeholder, they may spend more time than necessary on the follow-up actions. Just as with usability assessment or qualitative research, the interpretation is critical here. As the lead designer on the subject matter (note: if you own one pixel, one behavior, one element, one byte of data, then be the lead for that), it is your responsibility to determine when you have enough information to make a great decision for your user. How much is enough is a learned skill.

A coaching technique I have seen successful is to discuss the critique action items with them individually, asking them questions that help prioritize and weigh the actions. It’s also helpful to discuss a appropriate tactic for them to get back to participants and stakeholder (first of course, being clear on the difference between the two). How will follow up happen? Some results may be posted to a shared wiki, some stakeholders may need explicit follow up via message/email/drop-by, or some iterations may simply get another round of critique.

It’s Your Job

All Product People: Designer, Design Leader, Tech Leader, Product Leader, Engineer): it is your job to contribute to an environment where your can help your target users. So let’s all do our jobs, and help one another overcome fear!