The Art of the Critique

How to Give Creative Feedback That’s Actually Helpful

The ability to flip a harsh critique into straightforward feedback without having a negative impact on a working relationship is truly an art form. With most of us preferring to hear how good we’ve done, it can become easy to skip over small details that you’re unsatisfied with and ‘just live with it’. By doing this we sell ourselves short of the best work possible and become complacent in our duties. But how do we give creative feedback that’s actually helpful while at the same time managing ego’s and timelines without being brutally blunt?

I’ll discuss a few of the ways I’ve learned to help guide our creative team at Buckets and a few others I think those new to dealing with creatives could benefit from.

Plussing

One method to provide positive feedback and drive fine tuning of details during a critique is something Walt Disney called ‘Plussing’. Begin the feedback process by focusing on the elements you do like and expand on where it can go from there. As each iteration round goes by, you continue to point out the positives instead of focusing on the negatives. By continuing down a path where you are concentrating on the wins, additional feedback to satisfy even the smallest details are better met without derailing your creative team.

Learn the Lingo

Ever go to a foreign country and couldn’t speak the language? It was probably pretty frustrating trying to interact with the locals. You might have asked for a bar of soap in the local market and ended up with some cheap sandals and hair braids. The same could be said when having a discussion with your creatives. Your perception of the color red could be drastically different from theirs. Or you may be talking about an element and refer to it with the wrong title, leading them into a puzzling labyrinth which they might not find the way out of.

By understanding the language of those you’re interacting with you’ll be able to communicate properly, which typically helps to cut a few corners and speeds up the process, instead of looking like an interloper. You might even earn some mutual respect for each other along the way. Telling someone to ‘Make it pop!’ is definitely not going to earn you a pen at their whiteboard.

Keep Your Door Open

The creative process within a team environment is not a one way street. If your creatives have feedback and you don’t listen to it, eventually they’ll tune out and go into auto-pilot mode, leaving you as the creative hub for the duration. If one of your goals is to grow and develop your talent, take the time to engage their concerns. Chances are they’ve tried a few of your ideas out already, it didn’t work out, and they’ve moved forward. If your door is closed to ideas and feedback you aren’t leveraging the full brain trust of your design department.

Sharing and Caring

A common pet peeve of designers is to hear the phrase, “I want it to be just like this, but make it different.” Instead of looking like a novice, elaborate on why you are drawn to your example and what kind of room your creative has to make changes. Color, size, position, copy… they’re a few examples of what you can describe. If you’re not sure why you like it, let your designers lead you through the discussion. They’re not only trained to do it, they’ll appreciate the fact that you took the time to clarify the details.

Know When to Hold Back

There is definitely something to be said about providing in-depth details for critical areas. While there is ample reason to be ultra critical for these pivotal areas, there are times when holding back your immediate thoughts can reap endless rewards. Ask your creatives to explain their thoughts about something you may not agree with and see where it leads. Learning about an area where there are concerns and how they came to their solution helps reduce divisiveness as requests for changes come about.

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