Giving product design feedback

How to identify what feedback to give, then give the best you can.

With an array of customer and business needs, technological complexities, and the ice constantly shifting beneath our feet, it’s unlikely that any product designer can hit a home run alone each and every time.

Feedback is a quick and effective way to let ideas fail fast to make way for improvements.

Feedback is based on the premise that other peoples’ point of view may help expose flaws or make valuable contributions. It helps people get out of tunnel vision and see things more objectively; the way others see them.

Perhaps the greatest danger of not giving or receiving feedback is that many avoidable issues will raft their way to the customer. Or perhaps that many opportunities within grasp may be missed unknowingly.

There are dangers associated with giving or actioning poor feedback too. Poor feedback may stir someone towards solving a problem that doesn’t exist. It may be prescriptive and cut fruitful thought short. Or maybe, it could be passed on in such a way that it causes tension and conflict between colleagues.

This article is a humble stab at how to identify what type of feedback is…