[IxDA Discuss] what helped most in your career? : Dealing with criticism

[Dan Brown]

The "softer" skills of design is something I'd like to explore further, but
this seems like a good opportunity to throw out some initial ideas.
You'll probably get a lot of input from professionals who tell you to bite
back, but if you're anything like me, that's not your style. In the
dictionary under "non-confrontational" it says "see also: Dan".

You might look at criticism as:

feedback = information + judgment + emotion

What we want is lots of information, but this is often overshadowed by
judgment (I don't like that) and occasionally by emotion (I don't like that
and it makes me upset). Sometimes, we get feedback where information = 0,
which requires us to tease it out from the inputs we're given, namely
judgment (what don't you like about it?) and emotion (wow, this design
elicited quite a reaction, what about it bothers you?).

A good designer not only produces good designs, but is good at facilitating
conversations to get people to elaborate on the information. While I can't
offer you a translation service, you can train yourself to listen out for
specks of information and ask questions to elaborate on them.

Some people are just jerks. They're jerks to everyone, and you don't need to
make it your personal mission to make them kinder, gentler people. This is
the subject for another email, though.

Some other techniques I use:

Do a dry run, and have your colleagues role-play especially difficult
participants. This can help you prepare how you might react to unseemly
comments.

Let people vent: Sometimes I show up at meetings and just know that someone
wants to get something off his or her chest. I let 'em vent. It may be
disruptive, but you won't have their attention until they can say their
piece.

Guide the conversation: send an agenda around beforehand letting
participants know what kind of information they can provide that will be
most helpful.

Embed questions into your deliverables. This acknowledges to the
participants that there are still open issues and can guide the
conversation.

Get good at giving feedback. So many designers I've met will never advance
their career because they can't articulate what works and what doesn't work
about another person's design.

Bring allies: prep your colleagues for potentially disruptive participants
and let them know you'll need help if they act up.

And, if you're right in the thick of it, you can always just shut 'em down
with: "That's good feedback. We'll take a look at that for the next round of
revisions."

-- Dan

On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 12:02 PM, Lukeisha Carr <lukeisha.carr at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
>
> I've been following the original thread about "what helped most in your
> career?".  Many of the posts are very very inspiring.
>
> I have on spin-off question.  How do you deal with the criticism?  I'm not
> talking about polite constructive criticism.  That I have no problem
> accepting & applying.  But what about the down right harsh hurtful comments,
> by peers, managers, &/or end users, when you know you did/are doing the best
> you can at that time?  We all know that some jobs/careers are just not right
> for some people.  They may have strengths/weaknesses that would indicate
> that they belong in a different career.  How do you keep going, and
> believing that you are in a place in your career where you DO BELONG?
>
> Now some of you may answer that it never bothered you, for you may have
> thick skin, but I'm also looking for answers from people who were, at least
> at some time, or may still be, very sensitive to that kind of criticism.
>  Knowing that it will always rear its ugly head, how do you survive that
> now?  In what ways did it make you stronger?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> ~ L
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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