Giving feedback, especially when it’s criticism, is hard. One often has to walk the line between not-clear-enough and too harsh. Why is it bad to be harsh? A lot of research has shown that feeling safe (both psychologically and physically) in the workplace is essential for high productivity. In Google’s research on their teams’ productivity, psychological safety was one of the basic pillars needed for high performance.
Good criticism should:
- Alert the critiqued to what can be improved
- Teach the critiqued something that can be used in the future
- Encourage the critiqued to seek more feedback in the future by making them feel capable of improving
Here are 10 basic rules to abide by when you’re giving feedback on designs, code, proposals, or speeches:
1. Criticize the work, don’t criticize the person
Good: “These sentences are run-ons. Can you fix them?”
Bad: “You write a lot of run-on sentences. Can you fix that?”
2. Explain the principle behind every critique
Good: “We always put braces here because it’s less prone to copy-paste errors, can you add that too?”
Bad: “We always put braces here, can you add that too?”
3. Use “we” instead of “you” whenever possible
Because we’re all in this together =)
Good: “Our signup design is confusing to a lot of users. Can you work on improving it?”
Bad: “Your signup design is confusing to a lot of users. Can you work on improving it?”
4. Recognize the both the good and the bad
I call these shit-sandwiches: compliment-criticize-compliment. But that name is probably not SFW…
Good: “I really like how you pull at the listener’s emotional strings, but I think we need to touch more on our business case too. Can you add it? You know best where it would fit naturally.”
Bad: “We don’t touch on our business case enough, can you add that?”
5. Use socratic questions to identify problems without suggesting solutions
Good: “What would happen if the user just walks away from this?”
Bad: “This should auto-close if the user walks too far away.”
6. Be aware of the relationship between critic and critiqued
You are in a position of power as the critic, and if you also have seniority in your org, your negative words can sound like ultimatums. It’s ok to sarcastically say “ew, that color is gross” to a good friend, but it’s not ok to say that same thing to a junior designer.
In short, critiquing a stranger or someone junior will require more care and empathy. Politeness is key!
Good: “The view seems like the wrong place to execute this code, is there a reason why it’s not part of the controller?”
Bad: “Wrong. This belongs in the controller.”
7. Be mindful of the scope of the critique and why it was requested
Good: “This wireframe makes sense but I’m curious to see if the buttons look too busy or not in the visual design.”
Bad: “There are too many blocky buttons and I don’t like Comic Sans.”
All examples are real situations I’ve encountered at Apple, Literator, BazaarVoice, Fyusion, Marble, and Konsult. Thanks to Designlab for the original list for designers. Thanks to Matt for encouraging me to also make a list for engineers. ❤
