Running Design Reviews

# Running Design Reviews - All Guest Insights

*8 guests, 10 mentions*

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## Dmitry Zlokazov
*Dmitry Zlokazov*

> "Essentially founders of the company, they still review a hundred percent of screens that are being shipped and everything that you will see in the app pass this review. And there are a lot of eyeballs that were scrutinizing this and thinking of all possible edge cases and nuances that we need to consider to make sure that every single customer will be happy in this product, in this flow."

**Insight:** Maintain a high quality bar by having founders or senior leaders review every single user-facing screen before shipping.

**Tactical advice:**
- Implement a review process where 100% of shipped screens are scrutinized by leadership
- Focus reviews on edge cases and nuances to ensure customer happiness

*Timestamp: 00:19:31*


## Geoff Charles
*Geoff Charles*

> "I think we're relating now is any large rock that we have on the roadmap needs to be brought into the product review process, where myself and the head of design are present and giving feedback, but it needs to be structured in a way where you are asking specifically for what type of feedback you need and you're highlighting the key risks and tradeoffs that you're making implicitly in that review."

**Insight:** Structure design reviews around specific feedback requests and the explicit highlighting of risks and tradeoffs.

**Tactical advice:**
- Only bring 'large rocks' or high-risk decisions to formal reviews.
- Require presenters to specify exactly what type of feedback they are seeking.
- Use Loom walkthroughs of Figma prototypes to motivate teams and anchor the vision.

*Timestamp: 00:20:38*


## Jessica Hische
*Jessica Hische*

> "The best thing is just seeing what's there and really being able to understand what's not working about it and what your goals are... Always think big picture before you think minutiae, because sometimes people think that... They'll throw a bunch of minutiae stuff at me, but it's because they haven't really stopped to think about what is the overall thing that's bothering them. You just never get there if you're always trying to address detail before you address the big picture stuff."

**Insight:** Effective design feedback must start with high-level goals and 'big picture' feelings before diving into specific technical details.

**Tactical advice:**
- Ask 'What is the overall thing that's bothering me?' before commenting on specific elements like letters or colors.
- Use 'blurred eyes' to look at a brand's overall cohesiveness rather than focusing on individual pixels.

*Timestamp: 00:54:11*


## Julie Zhuo
*Julie Zhuo*

> "The first thing that's most important to address is, well, is this thing actually valuable, is this solving the problem?, is it doing the job correctly... Then once we do that, then let's focus on the next layer which I think about as ease of use... And then finally, if it is valuable, it's easy to use, then I think we get into is it joyful to use, is it pleasurable."

**Insight:** Synthesize design feedback using a hierarchy: Value first, then Ease of Use, and finally Delight.

**Tactical advice:**
- Disregard feedback about aesthetics or minor details until the core value proposition is validated
- Categorize feedback into 'Value', 'Ease of Use', and 'Delight' buckets to prioritize changes

*Timestamp: 00:50:08*

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> "I usually find that if you're going to go in and run a design critique or review session, it's helpful to start off front by saying, 'Here's where we are in the process. This is the most important set of things we want to validate.'"

**Insight:** Set clear expectations at the start of a review regarding the current stage of the project and what type of feedback is helpful.

**Tactical advice:**
- Explicitly state if you are looking for feedback on high-level concepts or low-level execution
- Match the fidelity of the prototype to the type of feedback you are seeking

*Timestamp: 00