Feedback isn’t about your design

The reflex is the same for most designers: someone criticizes the screen, and you start defending the screen. It almost never helps.

Feedback on a screen is rarely about the screen. It means someone can’t reach their goal. A product manager sees a metric at risk. A developer sees a week of extra work. A user sees a step they don’t understand. Your job is to find which goal it is.

Defend the goal, not the solution

A simple order that works:

1. Repeat what you heard, in your own words.
2. Ask “why” twice.
3. Only then answer.

Now you’re solving a findability problem. Maybe the button gets bigger. Maybe it moves, or the step before it goes away. Either way, you and the person who gave the feedback are working on the same thing.

Ask for harsh feedback upfront

Show work early and ask the uncomfortable question yourself: what would make you reject this? It’s much cheaper to hear the answer in a review than after release.

What’s the hardest feedback you’ve had to accept?