Design Critiques for smaller teams

A design critique is a way to get valuable feedback on a specific design solution from your colleagues. The idea is to lift the overall design quality and learn from each other in a safe and trusted environment. As well critiques learn designers how to give and receive contextual feedback.

Design critiques help us gain new insights, improve designs, and learn to understand how to meet and act on client requests. In these valuable gatherings, detailed and constructive feedback can be shared on design solutions.

Critiques should leave you feeling inspired, challenged, and empowered. Smaller group settings do help achieve this feeling. In general, we open up easier and feel more comfortable presenting in front of a smaller group. In order to make this a pleasant and useful experience we need some guidelines.

Roles

Facilitator: to guide and schedule the meeting
Presenters: who present their case
Critiquers: to give feedback
Secretary: to capture feedback

How to organise a small design critique as a facilitator

Start with a calendar invite
Send before the meeting start calendar invites. Keep the critique to an hour max. Make clear preparation should be limited. Fabulous Keynotes don't belong in critiques like these. Opening your Macbook with Figma or Sketch is all you need.

Gather topics
Start a day in advance collecting topics. Reach out to designers on Slack to see what they want feedback on. Topics help you to build an agenda and helps them narrow down what to talk about.

Write down topics and feedback in a central Dropbox Paper. It helps to keep an eye on topics and it gives insights when similar ones return. You can write down all feedback yourself, or appoint each design critique someone as secretary.

Prepare your critique
Prepare the meeting 5 minutes before the critique starts. Turn on the television, put post-its, pens, and a dongle on the table. As well, write down the rules on a whiteboard. The rules:

For all presenters:

Tell us briefly about your project
What was your briefing?
What do you want to achieve?
What do you want feedback on?
What do you not want feedback on?
Can we interrupt you? Yes or no?

Each presenter gets 3 rounds:

Presentation (5 min)
Clarifying questions (2 min)
Receive feedback (3 min)

The format

Before the first presentation starts, the facilitator explains the rules, and tells the groups he facilitates the meeting according to the agenda. Mention that everyone will present, regardless of function or experience. There is no good or wrong, a small design critique is a safe and trusted environment to learn and improve. Keep it fun and engaging.

Round 1: Presentation
A designer has 5 minutes to tell his story. To provide his case with the correct contact, the above "For all presenters" list must be mentioned.
The facilitator asks critiquers to write down all feedback on post-its during the presentation. Critiquers only speak when the presenter indicates that critiques are allowed to ask questions during his presentation. It's the facilitators' job to prevent any form of discussion. \

Round 2: Clarifying questions
There's a big change critiquers have related questions after a presentation. That is why the group has 2 minutes to ask clarifying questions. When new information is shared, critiquers once again write down their feedback. The facilitator ensures that everyone is heard.\

Round 3: Receive feedback
In the last round, the presenter receives feedback on his case. As a facilitator you can ask the presenter how he wants to receive the feedback:

Around-the-room: facilitated one at a time around the room,
or popcorn style: freeform discussion, where comments pop up unpredictably.

It's up to the presenter on how to receive feedback. As well, he is allowed to respond on given feedback and tell the group how he things the feedback helps him forward. And as following up the presenter can ask for all post-its, talk to someone one-on-one, or open the Dropbox Paper as a reference.

A final note

Regardless of the outcome, in a critique there is no right or wrong. As a facilitator, be aware that any presenter is doing his best and is vulnerable. Therefore, make every effort to help him receive the feedback he is looking for.

As a facilitator, you can refer back to the "for all presenters" list if necessary. Good feedback is independent of personal preferences and focussed on solving the problem someone is running into. For this reason, ask critiquers for clarification when feedback is not actionable. It is also very likely that new designers have never learned to receive feedback. It is your role to help them. Receiving feedback is a skill as well.\