Over time as the delays grow and grow, the lack of momentum, the repeated
questioning of what to do next and a sense that team members just can’t seem
to agree has a tremendous impact on people. They stop wanting to collaborate.
They begin to care less and less about the project. And in some cases they
begin to silo themselves, feeling that since they can only control their own
output, that will be their sole focus without regard to the other team members
and how it impacts them.
In some cases though, these conversations can become much, much worse. As
people talk about what they think should or should not be a part of the design,
it’s not uncommon for their emotions to become engaged. And for some this
can be difficult to control, which can lead to people getting defensive, tempers
flaring, yelling, berating and lines being crossed.
The intent of this book is to help teams take a step back to look at the
conversations that are happening in their projects and improve them. These
discussions about what we’re working on are always happening, whether it’s
because we called a meeting to discuss something specific or they happen
casually as we’re walking to grab a cup of coffee.
But we don’t often take time to examine these conversations and understand
what makes them good or bad. This book will look at the elements of these
conversations and the patterns through which they arise and describe best
practices for making them more productive to projects and toward
strengthening a team’s ability to collaborate through incorporation of critique,
an often-overlooked component of the design process.
The problem with “feedback”
As we’ve described, conversations about what we’re creating in our projects
can come about through a number of ways. One of the most common ways
design discussions are initiated is for a team member to ask for feedback on
something they’ve created or an idea they have. They might just grab someone
at a nearby desk because they want to take a break from putting something
together and think about what they’ve done so far. Or it could be part of a
planned milestone or date in the project’s timeline, often called Design
Reviews.
It’s not that either of these is a bad time to get other’s thoughts. Rather, the
first real problem we encounter is from the word “feedback” itself. It’s a word
that’s become engrained in our vocabulary. We use it all the time, a la “I’d
love to get your feedback on something...”