The perfect feedback session doesn’t exi —
Structuring feedback sessions like Zendesk’s Content Design Team
Reviews, feedback sessions, design critiques, workshops — whatever you want to call them — are meetings where teams review one another’s work and provide feedback. Yes, the F word, feedback. Did your shoulders tense while reading it? Feedback sometimes gets a bad rep — a euphemism for when a team member wants to rip you apart. In reality, feedback is crucial for improvement, whether that be in a work environment, creative setting, or at home.
As a writer and Content Design Intern, I’ve sat through countless workshops all run in different ways, but it wasn’t until I interned with Zendesk’s Content Design team when I learned how to structure a successful review session. Whether it’s at live in-person meetings or asynchronously on tools like Miro or Figma, the team makes review sessions feel inclusive and well worth it. Keep reading to learn more about how to sculpt your review strategy to match your and your team’s needs.
Ahem! The beginning of the meeting
Set intentions
At the beginning of a review session, or a 1:1 feedback meeting, it’s helpful to set intentions. Setting intentions defines the goals for the meeting and explains how they will be accomplished. It also gives space for the group to come up with their own feedback standards.
Setting intentions can include deciding on things like:
- Raising hands versus just talking when there’s an idea
- Creating safe-space rules as a group. (Ex: assume best intent, speak from your perspective, use I statements, what happens in the meeting stays in the meeting)
- Deciding whether the review-ee should respond to feedback during the session or wait until the end of the session
Make a schedule
To make sure the entire team is on the same page, lay out a meeting schedule before the start of the meeting. This way, everyone knows what’s in store for the day. By being transparent, no one is caught off guard or left feeling like they’ve been put on the spot to share what they’ve been working on. Plus, setting a schedule ensures that everyone who needs feedback will get it.
Decide on the type of feedback session
Before you start your feedback session, it’s best to decide what form you want your session to take. There are two main types of feedback session: traditional and brainstorm. Each has advantages for different situations.
Traditional
A traditional feedback session is one where someone presents work and the rest of the team comments on it. The feedback during these sessions usually comes in two forms: constructive and prescriptive. Constructive feedback acknowledges what’s going well and what can be improved on. Prescriptive feedback only explains how to correct the problem.
Let’s use an example. Say someone wanted feedback on a newsletter they wrote. A piece of constructive feedback could be that you like the conversational writing style in the newsletter, but that you wanted more detail in the upcoming events section. While a piece of prescriptive criticism would be, “Say xyz about the upcoming events instead.”
What differentiates prescriptive criticism from constructive is that prescriptive criticism doesn’t provide any explanation. It’s okay to make prescriptive suggestions in your feedback as long as you explain where the suggestion is coming from and how it’s building on existing ideas, not just, “Your idea sucks, here’s a better one.” Instead of shutting things down, help your team nurture and grow ideas by giving constructive feedback.
Brainstorm
A brainstorming feedback session is one where someone presents work and other team members contribute ideas that they might have for the project as opposed to commenting on the work being presented. One of the best parts of a brainstorming session is that it taps into the variety of perspectives on the team. Everyone approaches projects differently, so seeing their process is helpful for developing an idea. Brainstorming sessions also keep the feedback the team is giving on track because they have a better idea of what’s possible versus what’s not. Making the feedback session collaborative generates new ideas and brings the team closer together.
Getting the background rolling
Now let’s dig into what should happen after the meeting has started and right before actually giving the feedback. First, it’s important to make sure everyone understands what the feedback is going to be about. Whether it’s a project that everyone’s familiar with or a personal meeting with a manager, always start by giving background information.
This background info should include:
- Context — what are you working on? Why are you working on it?
Context is arguably the most important part of a feedback session besides the feedback itself. If the team knows what you’re working on and why you want feedback, their feedback will be better suited to your needs.
To provide context during Content Design critiques, the person seeking out feedback walks the team through the user flow of their project. They show various mock-ups to get the team thinking about the project and its nuances. It’s helpful that the context is both explained verbally and through images, so that the visual and auditory learners on the team can benefit.
If your feedback session is based on something less tangible and more abstract, you can always write out a list beforehand with helpful context and share it with the people at your meeting, so they can read along with what you’re talking about.
- Specific questions — what do you want to learn?
Always bring specific questions or topics you want to figure out to a feedback session. If the group has no direction, you probably won’t leave with the feedback you were hoping for.
For a content design critique that looks like, “What’s a better word for _____” or “The tone of these two sentences doesn’t feel like it matches the message, any ideas?” In a 1:1 meeting that could be a specific topic, like part of a project you worked on or your 30–60–90 plan. If you don’t have specific questions or specific areas you want feedback on, consider asking yourself why you think you need feedback.
Lights, camera, feedback
The moment you’ve all been waiting for — the feedback itself. It’s important to keep a few things in mind when giving or receiving feedback:
- Be respectful and empathetic
Whether you’re giving or getting feedback, think before you speak. Make sure what you’re going to say is respectful of the other person or people on your team.
Also consider whether the comment you’re making is additive to the session, not repetitive. If someone else on your team makes a point, you don’t need to reiterate it. Instead, say that will move the session in a positive direction
- Be constructive
Constructive feedback acknowledges what’s going well and what can be improved on. Instead of shutting ideas down, help your team grow their work by explaining your thought processes.
- Be engaged
For different meeting types, engagement looks different.
Meetings in-person:
☑️ Make eye contact when speaking
☑️ Write down what people are saying, even if you think you’ll remember it
☑️ Put your phone and/or tablet on silent so it doesn’t disturb the meeting
Meetings virtually:
☑️ Mute yourself when you’re not speaking so others have the chance to share their thoughts
☑️ Turn off notifications so they don’t disrupt the meeting
☑️ Read the room. Keep your eyes on people’s physical and emoji reactions to see if they understand the feedback you’re giving, or if they understand the project at hand.
☑️ Download the chat from the video conferencing software you’re using afterwards, so you can save any comments you might have missed
Asynchronous:
☑️ Leave comments with questions, thoughts, etc
☑️ Respond to requests for feedback in a timely manner. But also acknowledge that you might be working with folks in different time zones. If that’s the case, set a date that works for everyone in the group to provide feedback by
Thank you and you and you
After you finish giving feedback, the best way to close out a feedback meeting is to say thank you. Saying thank you acknowledges the time the team spent focusing on giving constructive feedback and it ends the session on a positive note, which helps remind everyone that feedback is positive, no matter what. Even if you’re not sure what you think of the feedback you’re receiving, it’s best to thank the person or people taking the time to talk with you. Because whether you like it or not, they thought about and wanted to support you.
