Design Reviews for (left-brained) PMs
Quite recently, someone who is just starting as a PM asked me:
How do you give constructive feedback on product designs?
And I could immediately empathise with her. As a new PM, I had struggled a lot at properly reviewing designs, and I am sure many others would have too.
Don’t get me wrong! It is not because product designers are jerks who don’t take feedback well. On the contrary, most good designers are open to criticism.
It is just that critiquing a product design triggers a deep-seated insecurity in left-brained product managers like us. While reviewing product designs, PMs , especially new PMs, succumb to ‘Imposter Syndrome’.
What do I really know about art? Do I have any understanding of shapes, colours & shades? Come on, I have never even made a painting before.
Over time, I have realised that you do not need to be good at design to give meaningful design inputs. In fact, you can give really valuable suggestions without having any design knowledge .
Here are the 3 rules that I follow to review designs of my product. Over years, following these rules has helped me improve at reviewing designs and giving constructive feedback. But they have not helped me at all in becoming a better designer.
3 Rules for reviewing product designs
1 — Focus mostly on the usefulness (and usability)
New PMs often think that product design is all about how something looks/feels. In reality, the design also includes how it works. And the latter is much more critical.
Rather than focusing on aesthetics, we can give feedback on:
- Whether the design helps the product serve its purpose?
- Does the design make the product intuitive to understand and easy to use?
- Is the most critical information/actions appropriately highlighted?
- Are there unnecessary steps, functions, details, etc.?
- Are there any reasons why users may find the current design hard to use?
2 — Evaluate how it looks/feels more holistically
New PMs unnecessarily worry about evaluating minute visual elements in the design. Often, they would do much better if they look at the product holistically and see if it meets the purpose.
- What feelings should the product/screen evoke in our users? Does the current design help evoke those feelings?
- Is there anything out of order that draws your attention?Are there things that randomly standout?
Of course, your inputs will be a little vague here. You will only be able to say that ‘the screen doesn’t spark joy in you.’ You will not be able to tell the designer what should be changed to correct it —and that’s okay. You guys can still experiment with space, colours, shapes & shades to improve how your product feels.
3 — Be mindful of the cost of design
New PMs must evaluate the design from the lens of purposefulness.You can help the designer identify constructs that increase the scope of the product but provide marginal benefit to the users. It would be best if you actively worked with the designer to eliminate these things that are of no or low value.
I am sure you would have realised that following these rules require no artistic proficiency. Rules #1 and #3 are purely an exercise of judgement. Even Rule #2 require courage to vocalise your feelings than any real understanding of design.
Of course, there is no denying that if you invest time to learn design or design products yourself, you will also get better reviewing product designs. But, as a PM, that doesn’t and shouldn’t stop you from giving constructive feedback and improving the usefulness, perception, and ROI of your product. Following the 3 simple rules suggest above can take you a long way in doing so.
