Tiny Tactics

There’s no shortage of great articles about how to give and receive design critiques. But what I’ve learned over the years is that most of your design critiques will be with teammates outside of your design team — those surely not versed in design theory and technique.

Instead designers spend most iterations based on feedback from users, technical teammates, and stakeholders. Handling this feedback is much different than that from your designers.

We can’t always get such poignant feedback like this!!

In fact, how you handle this feedback is much more important to your career than how you handle design critiques.

Designers often complain or respond arrogantly, coming across as…well…arrogant assholes (and designers wonder where the stereotypes come from).

Non-designers will have valid business value questions, interactions you never considered, and possibly even – GASP – a better idea! You may crave the respect of your design peers, but it’s your teammates and users who ultimately control your fate.

Here are a few examples of feedback I was ill-prepared to handle as I became a professional designer, and tactics you can use to handle things graciously.