🇬🇧 Make the most of your design critiques
Sasha Prokhorova is Product Design Manager at Algolia. A geographer by training, she is fascinated by how humans interact with their environments, and is a self-proclaimed map geek. After stints in operations, consulting and client management, Sasha decided to go product-side and solve user problems directly. She moved to Paris from San Francisco almost two years ago is passionate about personal growth, development and learning, which is why the topic of giving and receiving feedback is close to her heart.
Can you introduce yourself & explain what aspect of your work you like the most?
This is the hardest question to answer! Let me tell you about my design journey. I think it began when I was 13 and first came to the United States from Kazakhstan. My parents had a computer, and I began playing with HTML to create Hanson Brother fansites (Mmm…bop!) They were terrible. Curlz MT and flashing backgrounds galore.
As a young adult, I was pushed to study practical and analytical things, less so creative. So while I always had a creative streak, I decided that art classes were no way to spend my private American university tuition costs. I remember I went to university planning to major in economics or *maybe* psychology if nothing else worked out. My first year of college, I enrolled in a geography course, and my fate was sealed. The combination of data visualization (cartography), social sciences and research were compelling to me. I loved to explore how people shaped and interacted with their spaces. I didn’t know at the time that user experience design was a thing, so I think this was the closest I came to studying it. I write in this article about how I made the transition from geographer to designer.
It’s humbling to have your assumptions checked, but inspiring to do better.
Just like in geography, my favorite part of product design is understanding how humans interact with products. I love getting to know people and asking questions, observing them. Then, going back to the “design studio” and, inspired by the users, trying to find a solution to their problem. The feedback loop is quite an amazing experience, too. It’s humbling to have your assumptions checked, but inspiring to do better.
I recently became the team manager, and now my design work looks different. I don’t do projects anymore, but I design the experiences of people on my team. I call it “invisible design.” My favorite part is understanding what makes each of the people on my team different, what inspires or frustrates them, and how I can help craft their Algolia experience to make them the best version of themselves.
Can you briefly explain what is a crit and why this is useful for designers?
Design critique. Design review. Design feedback session. It’s called many things by many people, but the underlying essence and goal are the same: show your work and receive actionable feedback on it. In my experience, critique is extremely valuable, and it is by far my favorite design team activity (aside from 1:1s with each team member). For our team, critique is a safe place to show work in progress, ask questions and share where we are struggling. It can be a place to gut-check as well. We all know, as designers, how hard it is to share work, so having a space like this is really valuable. It’s a also a great practice to ensure you’re not wasting time. It’s so easy to get tunnel vision while working on a design project. Showing it to others with “fresh eyes” could help provide valuable perspectives that you haven’t considered because you’re “too close” and are overthinking things.
I think one of the most important things is to create the right atmosphere: an openness to feedback, care and curiosity about other peoples’ work.
It is important for crit to be organized well, though. If done well, critique can help inspire and unblock designers, and elevate the quality of the team’s design work. Done poorly, it can leave people feeling down, confused, and frustrated. And that means the output will suffer, too. That’s why we take the organization of critique quite seriously at Algolia. Read here about how we run it.
I think one of the most important things is to create the right atmosphere: an openness to feedback, care and curiosity about other peoples’ work. If that attitude isn’t there, then people will clam up an sharing work becomes torture rather than an invitation and an interesting discussion.
Some designers are bit afraid when it comes to present their work. Do you have any advice for them so they can relax & prepare for crits?
I think there are two factors that could be a reason for this: internal and external.
The internal factor is insecurity and fear of being perceived as a “bad designer.” I think the more you show work, the easier it becomes. I was extremely nervous to show my work in the beginning of my career, because I felt I was putting my entire self up for discussion. I perceived any criticism of my work to be a criticism of my person. I couldn’t separate my work from myself. I think that’s quite common. So reframing the idea of sharing work and your relationship with feedback could help here. Understanding that you are not your work: that designs are external to you and are not a reflection on you as a human being. Think of it as “how is this design solving a user and business problem?” instead of “how good am I at design?” No one gets a design right on the first try. That’s normal! Adopting a growth mindset and using each point of feedback as a way to learn more, become better at your craft. Find designers that inspire you, talk to them about this or read their blogs/ stories. You’ll quickly realize that all designers have struggled with this aspect of our work. It’s one of the hardest skills to acquire, I think.
Discuss the rules of engagement together. Talk about how to make the discussion constructive and goal-oriented.
The external factor could be the way critique is conducted. If you show up every time to critique and feel berated and humiliated, or where all feedback is based on subjective preferences (“I don’t like that color”), then you’re no longer coming to critique. You’re coming to opinion-fest. In this case, you can sit down with the team and explain that the way the meeting currently happens doesn’t work for you and does not give you the feedback you seek. Then, discuss the rules of engagement together. Talk about how to make the discussion constructive and goal-oriented.
Also, look at how you are presenting your work and asking for feedback. Are you stating the goal of your design work up-front? Are you providing context and what success looks like? Are you asking for a specific type of feedback and not just saying “what do you think?” If you are not doing those things, then practice presenting your work so that you get the type of feedback that’s helpful to you.
Let’s talk about difficult situations: how do you help a designer that is going off track (poor ux, poor design, problem poorly defined)?
There are two important things in critique: candor and care. Also, focusing on the goals of the design and not the designer.
Most of the time, difficult situations like this can be resolved by simply asking good questions. Designers are smart people, and most will realize that they’re not quite there with the design if you ask good questions. For example: “What’s the most important piece of information to the user?” “What do you think the user will see first on this page?” “Where are the greatest uncertainties for you about this design?” “What metrics will you use to measure the success of the design?” So practice asking good questions of your designs first and then you’ll be able to ask them about others’ work.
Avoid using personal pronouns. Talk about the design and not the designer.
Second, make sure you’re clear on the goals of the design and then express practice delivery. Don’t be an arse. Avoid using personal pronouns. Talk about the design and not the designer. Approach it from a teamwork perspective. For example: “As I understand it, the goal of the design was X. I am concerned that Y in the design is not moving toward that goal. How else might *we* solve that?” And then discuss. Don’t be afraid to challenge other designers on their work. You won’t be doing the many favors by letting them produce mediocre or even poor designs. You won’t be helping them grow. As long as you do this because you care about them and the outcome, then go for it.
Finally, always encourage to test the design with the users of the product. They will, better than anyone, be able to comment on whether the design hits its goals.
It is easy to feel lost or confused when you leave a crit’ with lots of feedbacks… What to do in those situations?
To get good feedback, make sure you’re asking for it well. We just did a training on our team about how to present your design work, because that’s the first step to successful critique.
● Frame the problem providing the context (background, goals, constraints, users’ needs, what you’ve explored already, etc.).
● Specify the type of feedback you need (e.g. “Am I successful at highlighting the error states here?”). This will help focus the entire team and will prevent comments that aren’t useful.
● Use the appropriate fidelity to the part of the process you’re in. If you’re exploring high-level concepts, don’t show up with perfectly manicured high-fidelity mocks. They will put the audience in a different frame of mind, and will bring focus to different details.
Also, ask someone to take notes. The note-taker should record key feedback, decisions and action items. The next critique, update others on your progress and follow up on the feedback and action items. This will help close the loop.
Thanks for your tips! Do you have any advice to finish?
Critique is just part of this process called personal growth. Focus on adopting a growth mindset and you will see that critique will become much easier. Accept the fact that you’ll be learning and making mistakes your entire life, and that’s what makes it so lovely and exciting. Your life will be infinitely more interesting if you open yourself up to design critique, and any other type of feedback, than if you hide behind a wall.
