Preparing and Receiving Feedback in Product and Design

How often are you giving feedback? How important do you think that feedback is? Is it delivered more in a, in a positive way or is it kind of delivered more in a judgment? Today I want to talk to you about giving feedback inside your organization to set you up for success. I have a couple big tips, but I also just wanted to show you another way to look at it. And I'm going to show you that inside of my Metaverse, inside of my Roblox video games. So I'm gonna, it's gonna be a lot of fun. Hope you enjoy it. So let's just dive right in. Alright, so what you're seeing here is let's just dive into this. So hello everybody, Drew Bridewell here, head of product and head of design over at Grote, but also founder of Next Level ux. So what I want to do right now is just think about feedback. Now feedback is one of those things that is incredibly, incredibly important. And it's incredibly important because it helps with the engine of your organization, helps solve the needs, it helps kind of bring people together, it helps advance things forward. And it's also just one of those things that it's a part of evolution, it's a part of learning. And we need feedback in order to grow. We also need feedback so we make sure that we're on the right path so we can course correct and just get on the same, you know, really on the, on the path that we need to in order to move forward. So the first thing I want to do is think about, well, what the heck do you do when you got to give feedback? And I think it's really important to start with context. Now context is important to the first number or the first line item on the list here. Context is important because you need to be able to help orient your staff or orient your team, or orient the person that you're giving the feedback to so that they can know what you're talking about. Right? You got to know what you're talking about. So the context is everything. Then we want to know depending on what type of project it is, where are you at in the project? Like what's the phase of this project? Is it in an early concepting phase or is it getting done and you need final review and then it's about what type of feedback are you looking for. Now if you're asking for feedback, you want to really get crystal clear on what you're asking that that feedback for so that your giver can be incredibly sharp with what that feedback is. And so they're not talking about something that's completely irrelevant and not very helpful for you. The other thing that you want to think about is the type of advancement, like the type of advancement that you essentially want to move forward. Like when you get this feedback, what are you going to do with it and what are you going to move forward with this type of feedback? Now, I have these four different circles here for builders and engineers. We have designers and creative, we have product thinkers and development, like the development of the business. And then we have the leadership type of feedback and leadership and the business organization and what they're trying to get feedback on. So all these different areas of the business need to get feedback so that they can course correct, so they can navigate these challenges that they face inside the organization. And it's just something that you should be thinking about. Well, how did creative designers do it? How do product thinkers and develop developers do it? How do business leaders, what do they need to do it? And how do you know the builders of the makers of the team do it? Like the designers, UX designers and never the people people. All this feedback is happening all over the board. So now that we understand the context, the phase of the project, the type of feedback we're looking for and the type of advancement we need, how we want to really shift into how we think about the progress we have, the values we, we want to embody, the principles that we want to follow, the advancements that we're looking for and what success really looks like when it comes down to it, you know, really staying focused on these core elements. That way, when we get back into giving this feedback, we're being very helpful and resourceful for how we do this. Now I know what you're saying, I know what you're saying. You're like, well, feedback is, is, is really challenging. It's really hard. And I don't know how I'm going to be able to explain all these things before I go and I give feedback. Now that is the art of practice, my friends. And that is the art of okay, great. So you got to give feedback to your friends or you're going to give feedback to your teammates or you're going to give feedback to your boss or you're going to ask for feedback. Remember these things, okay? Now feedback is a gift and it's just an exchange of an observation so that you can kind of like understand what this person or what they think about how you're experiencing or how you're performing or how you're approaching a certain project. It's completely fine if you're off in left field, but what you want to do is get back onto the diamond. You want to get back into the game. And sometimes feedback is that entry point to get back into the game. There's always going to be an opportunity to grow and always going to be an opportunity to learn. So if we're asking for feedback on a regular and continuous basis, then we're able to quickly course correct and navigate that. So if I go back to my. To my Roblox world, you know, it's like there are a lot of things happening, you know, in our. In our projects. And if I run over here, you know, I'm thinking about, wow, well, inside, there's so many different opportunities of when you can give feedback. So let's look at that. Now. I know you have a huge team, and in this example, we have engineers, we have COOs, we have designers, we have QA, we have engineers, product managers, project leads, all sorts of people that we work with. But the thing is, you're gonna have a unique set of people that you interact with every single day. Marketing, content, product design. And then you're gonna have processes that you follow so that you can execute and be more successful in what you do. Right? You just have these processes, weekly meetings, things that, you know, rituals, routines, habits that you have. But the key is learning when during this process, at each one of these milestones, for example, you could be getting feedback, you could be getting feedback, and then you could be practicing that new element and practicing, practicing, practice, practicing. And then working towards it for the next milestone, Practice some more, work towards it to the next milestone, and then you could keep doing this process so that you can really feel the absolute growth moment. And that's just a really important thing, because when we get back into this and we really want to strive for design energy, when we're focusing on these elements and we're learning about how to be more effective and efficient with our team, doing the work is important. But doing the work and getting feedback and improving along the way is where the magic really happens. So next time, when you're thinking about giving feedback, I want you to think about, well, okay, cool. What's the context? What phase am I in? What type of feedback could I be giving? And what type of advancement? And then also what kind of progress am I looking for? What kind of values do I want to do when I show up for this? And what are my principles? Company principles, design principles, engineering principles, product principles, and then what are the types of advancements and what does success look like now by doing this, I'm telling you right now, it's going to really help and elevate your abilities to really just take your feedback to the next level. And also think about your communication, think about your collaboration, think about how you elevate things, think about your focus, think about the timing of these things and how you reframe. Because during the creative process there's so many different opportunities to give feedback and if we just leave it out on the table and we don't ever do it, then we're not advancing or not improving all the things that we can improve. And you know what? That's what it's all about. I really want to encourage you to have some fun this week. Give some feedback, give it to your friends, ask for feedback and see how much better you can get by producing just a culture of learning and a culture of feedback. Because feedback truly is a gift. So I hope you enjoyed this episode and I just want to encourage you. If you haven't yet checked out nextwx me, then check it out now. We have some free masterclasses around reflection. If you just need a masterclass on how to reflect a little bit better on your weekly and monthly cadences, we also have a Clarity Builder course, which is a quick $10 course that's going to unlock the ability for you to just increase your amount of awareness that you have in your life. And then also we are, we're just doing so many other fun things. So if you are interested in learning more about Next level ux, please feel free to reach out, comment down below at the end and subscribe if you have not yet done so. All right, have a beautiful rest of your day and I will see you in the next one later.