The Importance of In-Person Feedback by Bryan
July 11, 2010 in Notable with 3 Comments
A lot of our work happens in a digital environment, but unfortunately it's not always the best medium for getting feedback. There's a lot to be said for face-to-face meetings and here at ZURB, we take a hybrid approach to sending and receiving feedback on design work. Here's an inside look at our process.
Digital feedback keeps work focused
Digital feedback has a lot going for it. First of all, it can be a lot easier to articulate an idea because writing things down forces the person giving feedback to think through the idea. Written feedback also serves as a great historical reference so you can recall what your team said in years past.
Digital feedback is also terrific for keeping things brief and succinct— no need for endless conversations that go on and on. It's also asynchronous and doesn't rely on matching schedules or hard-to-plan meetings. Feedback apps like our Notable are particularly useful for getting feedback because it's very specific, contextual, and takes the guesswork out of exactly which concepts are under discussion.
Some things can only be done in person
No matter how useful digital feedback is, in-person meetings can provide much better insight. For instance, body language and tone of voice are very revealing. You'll get a sense of how comfortable the feedback giver is with what they're saying and their tone of voice can help you better understand the scope of the discussion.
Feeling the intent of the feedback can also give you enough insight to get the point of the directive. Don't over look the power an in-person meeting can have toward building and creating momentum based on positive reinforcement. After all, digital feedback can seem rather critical all the way around, but both positive and negative feedback can be easier to appreciate in person.
We use a hybrid approach
At ZURB, our team use a hybrid approach because we feel that practice in digital form makes in-person delivery more efficient and powerful. Indeed, sometimes we switch back and forth several times in the course of a day. The key is to be flexible when working in the web world— being able to switch gears smoothly is important to getting useful feedback.
3 Comments
Wiki Chaves says:
I was recently thinking about this, and if it was better to meet the client and show the design in person (with all the time spend that it represents) or sending the design and wait for the feedback.
I liked your "hybrid approach" idea and agree that we must be flexible.
Can you be more specific about how is this hybrid-process ? I mean, if you first meet with the client and then you continue remotely ?
Cheers, Wiki
Bryan (ZURB) says:
@Wiki Yes, it's a tricky balance- you have to maintain control of the flow of information. Don't put yourself in the position of waiting for anything. There is no set way to do this. For digital feedback, you need to focus on writing solid emails: http://www.zurb.com/article/361/write-killer-email-that-gets-action
Jeremy (ZURB) says:
Holding meetings may be the wrong way to put working in person. When we do get together at ZURB it's more of a "scrum" (a term we use loosely).
To work your right brain and be creative for a scrum, make open collaborative space for people to work nearby each other, spark ideas, and run with them together. Almost all of the great ideas I've seen people design and build come first from these ad hoc, sideline, by-the-water-cooler or in-the-hallway type conversation.
To hold a design critique--and work your left-brain--decide whether the feedback applies to a broad set of explorations (best in person due to body language and the potential need to explore more) or if it's about details on a specific iteration of an idea (better digitally).
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