The importance of controling feedback and critique

Any designer who has produced work for anyone other than themselves knows how tricky the design feedback process can be. As designers we have very specific reasons for designing a site the way we do. We have expertise in rhythm, proportion, sizing, whitespace, grids and other graphic design concepts. Many times hours are spent trying different combinations, layout positions, usage of colors, etc… by the end of the work we know what didn’t work and what did.

When we present our work to a client / boss we have two unique and profound depths of insight that they simply don’t have. Communicating and being authoritative on the reasons you chose the design decisions that you did is a key element in ensuring that the client does not get in the way of themselves and end up with a weak design.

Every time I go through the process I think of new and better ways to approach it. To the point where I am currently developing a “script” of how to move from point to point.

My Feedback “Script”

1. Creative Brief

I start way before I even design. Before I even open up photoshop I write a creative/idea brief and deliver it to the client and ask them to sign off on it, to make sure that my thoughts and ideas on how the design should look and feel is in line with what they expect. This at least introduces them to my take on the design problem.

2. The introduction

I find the introduction is one of the most important aspects of the process. This is where it is important to explain how you are going to conduct the feedback and review process, what should be considered and why, and how to give feedback in a way that will benefit the design process rather than hurt it. The following list a general process of what I talk about:

1. We are going to review the designs, I will explain why I designed things the way I did. At this point please hold any feedback until you have conferred with everyone over a few days, and we will reconnect to talk about your thoughts. It is important to discuss feedback and revisions rather than firing off gut reactions.
2. Remember that design is subjective, everyone will like things differently. What is most important is that your clients / users like best. Think about things from a user perspective, not your own.
3. I rerun through my creative brief that was approved. We decided that we were going to design in this fashion because… remember that you agreed.
4. This is not just visual style, but more importantly what it communicates.
5. When you do give feedback tell me what does not work and why. Direction is counter productive, as one change alters the balance of the whole design. Let me what needs to be fixed and I can sort out the design problem.

3. The explination

I will walk through why I chose to design the way that I did for each design. I am learning that it is better to jot down notes during the design process and before the actual review, as I have a tendency to rush through it and miss many important details. Including all of the details is extremely important to help flesh the idea out in your clients mind as well as establishing yourself as an expert.

If the client gets the impression that you are just throwing paint onto a digital canvas they will have no reason to trust your design choices over their own, and why should they if it doesn’t sound like you had any reasoning behind the layouts.

4. Ask for questions

At this point I normally ask if there are any questions about the designs. I am finding it is best at this point to reiterate that we will reconnect for direct feedback in a few days, as this is often a point where it becomes hard to resist expressing ones opinion (and it is understandable).

I don’t normally get many questions, which could mean there is some optimization that could be done in this step of the process.

5. Getting feedback

When reconnecting for feedback I like to go through each item one by one, and have the client not only explain “what” by “why.” Not only does this give me better insight, but also forces the client to really think about the importance and context of the revision. That is not to say that the revisions are invalid. Rather that if there is a request that is not the best of choices it does set you up to say “You may not like the extra contact link, but a user who is 5 minutes late to a meeting and needs your phone number to call on the way to your office will sure appreciate it.”

6. Next Steps

Confirming what feedback and revisions you will act on and which ones were decided to be unnecessary (by the client and you collaboratively.) Sometimes if I think that one avenue is going down a wrong path and I can’t convince the client to agree otherwise I will ask permission to do two concepts to demonstrate my point of view.

How do you handle feedback?

I have yet to see a process that feels and works perfect anytime. Any thoughts/ideas/stories on how you go about handling the feedback and review process would be wonderful.

Working on working on work

When running your own business, especially a small one (meaning it is myself and two helpers) I often find that you can spend just as much time (if not more) on all the details surrounding work as the actual billable hours themselves.

When I say this I don’t necessarily mean doing all the non-fun things like accounting, paperwork, etc… Because if you get to a point where those things are really dragging down your billable hours it becomes profitable to hire someone to do it for you. Even if they bill at the same rate you do chances are they will get through it much quicker.

What I am talking about is the interaction and management of clients and potential clients.

Any project is going to require a dedicated amount of time to communication. Any potential new clients even more so. Now if you have experienced this at a high volume hopefully you have figured out that you need to account for and add it into your proposals. If you haven’t, now is a time to start…

Scheduling

As demand increases and you are required to become more productive to keep up, one of the first things that you will learn is that you really need to set a schedule of what work will be compelted and when. This will help you figure out and align your bandwidth and set realistic expectations for your clients.

What Scheduling Can’t Account For…

The client themselves. Now I have always hated how often people express an angry sense of “Me vs the client” syndrom, however this is a case where you simply can’t always predict, schedule, and account for the timing of a client wanting interaction.

Most clients you come across will have an expectation of getting a response fairly soon after they pose a question (weither it is via phone, or via email). However it is pretty easy to get into a situation where you are simply answering the phone / email all day long rather than making progress on the projects you have available.

How Do You Handle This?

You could hire someone to try and handle your communications. However they are unlikely to be able to do much beyond delay the onslaught of communication and the salary cost is nothing to sneeze at. Author Tim Ferriss recommends driving everyone to e-mail, setting up a auto-responder that says “I check e-mail at 10:00a.m. and 4:00p.m.”, and then only answering e-mail twice a day.

This is a good start. However you are still likely to have issues with those who just can’t help but pick up a phone, and bug you time and time again.

Be Clear Up Front, and Charge for Points of Contact

Lately what I have found to be effective is to be very clear up front that I… selll… hours. I don’t sell a product, so what you are paying for is the time of myself and my employees and contractors. This time is NOT just the time that anyone is directly working on the project, but also the time it takes to manage your project including phone calls, emails, etc…

Clients may not like this idea at first, however if you clarify it with “If I did not handle the business this way I could not realistically give you a clear picture of when your project would be done, or that it would be done on time.”

At this point there seems to be a bit more clarity in the situation. I usually go on to say “This is also the reason why it is important to understand that it may take up to 24 hours for me to get back to you. However this will most likely only been under extreme cases.”

Sometimes it All Crashes and Fails…

This last week it just didn’t work out. A very quick turn around project for a new group (Sustainable Solutions Alliance) while handle a few other Phase II / Phase III including some SilverStripe coding for Ann Arbor State Bank I had an onslaught of calls, emails, and problems, that I couldn’t really pass off. Being that some of the calls and emails were “things have broken” it is hard to explain to a client your 24 hour policy when it is the state of “emergency.”

I have yet to find the best way to handle this. As you start to acquire and aid new clients at some point you will run into a large portion of dormant clients (who are not regularly assisting your cash flow) who will have no problem knocking down your door when something goes wrong.

At this point I think raising your rates might be the best solution, but I am all ears. Anyone have any worthwhile suggestions?

We are all consultants

I have never been the type that has been overly pushy about my opinion. In a lot of ways that has helped me in regards to my business, as there have been times where I disagreed with a client I was able to quietly sit back and do things their way rather than offend them and potentially damage our working relationship. However this is to their disadvantage as well.

As web designers (regardless if we are part of an internal department or freelancers) it is pretty easy to fall into a “well I will build what you tell me to build” sort of mindset. Because people use the internet day in and day out they tend to gather a whole list of things that they think they want on their website, with out really much thought that goes into it.

The result is you get a list of items “We want blah, blah, blah blah, and blah…” of course the easiest thing to do is to simply nod, smile, and build it the way they want it. After all, battling and educating the client / boss / etc is really just unpaid time and frustration.

This is even more difficult when you are a freelancer, business owner, or sales person. As you could spend hours working out what the potential client really wants, only to have them take your spec sheet to a cheaper firm.

Despite some potential draw backs, we are all consultants when it comes to the web. We all have a much better understanding of what will work, what is/isn’t a good idea, and the best way to make a website a success than anyone who would be hiring us. It is our job to consult, recommend, and make suggestions every step of the way. Even if it results in unpaid hours now, it will further your career later.

I have found that several potential clients love the initial process of suggesting, recommending, and discovering what they really need in their website. It has helped seal jobs before, as they felt not only did I better understand their needs but I had a level of creativity that the other firms did not.

A tricky aspect of this situation is a joint worry about scope / price creep. You obviously don’t want to do more work than you get compensated for and the client doesn’t want the price to rise indefinitely. Especially at the start of an engagement, it is very comforting to know that X dollars will be exchanged for X specific deliverables.

I have started a new process of engagement that protects the client and yourself from scope and/or price creep. The normal meetings and proposals are pretty typical and standard, I issue a price that states “If nothing else changes, this is exactly how much you will pay for these items. However we will do an initial kick off meeting to dive into your company, brand, customers, and needs that could change this scope to be larger or smaller.”

The reassuring factor for the client is that they know they can always just choose to do what was originally on the table. However if a great idea comes up in the kick off meeting they can opt to incorporate it as well. The reassuring factor for you, is that if you suggest a change you know there is an understanding that it won’t be free.

This also includes shrinking the scope, as needed. There have been times where I have suggesting removing pages, features, and functionality because it wasn’t going to make an impact compared to how much it was going to cost. A lower price is always a welcome surprise from a clients perspective.

So next time you are about to start a project don’t consider yourself the builder, consider yourself the architect. It is your job to use your expertise to ensure the website that is built is as effective and successful as possible.