How to grow as a designer if you're not getting good feedback
How to deal with being a UX team of one or working with vague stakeholders
"The main problem is that I didn't receive much good feedback." A mentee said, reminding me of my past.
He, like I was at the time, was trying to get over the "Design Hump" that happens around the 3–5 year mark. Caught between Junior and Senior Designer, this is the critical time when you need feedback to grow, and he wasn't getting it.
As the sole UX Designer at startups, I faced the same situation, and perhaps some of you have. If your team isn't great at providing feedback, you may be being isolated and stunted from professional development.
How, then, can you grow in these situations? Here are some tips for getting the feedback you need.
Why asking questions, especially during the Design Hump, is critical
The "Design Hump" is a period few people talk about, but it's a critical period where you must begin to question everything. I like to use an example called Shu-Ha-Ri, from Japanese martial arts, as an analogy:
Shu (Obey): The Junior Designer follows the fundamentals, techniques, and instructions given to them
Ha (Detach): The "Design Hump" is when you break with 'tradition,' and begin to ask questions to find new approaches
Ri (Separate): When asked to do something, the Senior Designer can dig deeper and find the actual need and value rather than just what's asked.
For a more straightforward example, imagine your boss telling you, "I want you to design a searchable set of cards that show previews of relevant data."
The Junior Designer might spend their time creating well-designed and spaced cards, with filter options located above.
The "Design Hump" Designer might ask, "Wait, why don't we consider creating a table (or other solutions) instead?"
The Senior Designer would pause before designing and ask many questions to understand better how this feature will be used and what they need to design.
However, when your boss responds with, "Why are you asking questions? Do what I tell you." It can feel like you're unable to grow.
In addition, if you cannot get feedback on what you've designed, it may feel like you're just designing things and guessing if you're making any progress.
If your team refuses to budge on this, you may want to look for another job at a certain point. However, if they're not 100% hostile to you (or it's tough to get another job right now), here are some steps to get the feedback you need.
Write down what they say and translate it for them
One of the things I've learned working with Healthcare UX is that translating what people say is a critical skill for feedback.
This is because sometimes, your team members aren't being hostile or vague; they're giving you feedback in the best ways they can manage. If you're a new addition to their team and need to learn more about UX, they may not know exactly how you think or work.
I can't count the times I've had supportive co-workers and team members who were surprised I tested designs with users and got their feedback.
So one of the key phrases I've learned always to use is "So what I'm hearing is…"
After they explain a fundamental concept, the critical part of their workflow, or whatever feedback they give you, paraphrase what they say in your own words.
Team member: The average medical professional deals with thousands of these forms weekly, so this won't work.
You: So I'm hearing that you think this design will scale poorly due to the number of forms users fill out?
Team member: Actually, no. This is too different from how it's always been, so learning this new method will severely impact productivity.
Doing this can lead to more explicit feedback about why one thing or another won't work. However, there are other ways you can get feedback.
The five-minute introduction: Getting insights from the lunchroom
Back in the office, I could get feedback through the lunchroom. I'd meet co-workers or friends who knew next to nothing about my project, and through a five-minute introduction, I'd get some valuable feedback.
Having casual conversations about the purpose of my project or quickly showing them the website and asking a few general questions can give you a view of the outsider's perspective on what you're doing.
Often, this is an essential piece of feedback, especially regarding general questions about usability. For example, here are a couple of questions I asked in these sessions:
How can I find X product on this website? Or, how would you navigate to X product from the homepage?
Which of these designs do you like, and why?
In your words, what do you think X product's primary use is?
What's the first thing you would do once you logged in/landed on the page/created an account/etc?
Is this a replacement for user testing? Of course not. However, when you're trying to decide between multiple design solutions or want someone else's opinion before you take it to your boss, this can be a great source of tiny insights.
Find case studies and compare them with your work.
Lastly, if you're willing to read online, case studies, best practices, and other resources can be a great source of indirect feedback. While you can't post and ask questions about your work (unless you're willing to transform and anonymize it), you can see what others have done and how it compares with your actions.
Reading about other's thought processes, experiences, and learnings while designing a similar application can help you understand what you may want to do. Likewise, suppose you are careful and don't mention any specifics to your company. In that case, you can ask general questions about your problems on design forums and get some answers.
Alternatively, you can write about your anonymized work on Medium, like I do.
Doing so can help you receive enough feedback to grow.
Sometimes, you must seek feedback in strange places to grow
I've been the sole UX Designer not just in my team but in the entire organization before.
Getting enough feedback to grow as a Designer can be challenging without anyone to turn to. While it can be uncomfortable to seek out this feedback at the moment, what is often catastrophically worse is if you don't seek it out.
If you don't, you may run into the issue where your design portfolio doesn't show growth, and you can't talk about what you learned from project to project.
If you're struggling to get enough feedback from your team, consider using these tips to get enough feedback to grow as a designer. This way, you can overcome any challenges you face and grow into the Designer you want to be.
Kai Wong is a Senior Product Designer and Data and Design newsletter writer. His free book, The Resilient UX Professional, provides real-world advice to get your first UX job and advance your UX career.