Just a little off the top
TL;DR: Gilly enamel pins are back. Yes, you want one.
Here’s this week’s excerpt from Design Is a Job 2:
Feedback Is Not About You
Too often we use feedback for our own validation. We talk about positive feedback, and define it as “stuff that makes us feel good,” and we talk about negative feedback, and define it as “stuff that makes us feel bad.” But that’s putting ourselves at the center of the conversation. I believe this happens because most designers are still mapping presentations to the kind of design critiques they did in school. You do some work, you present it to the class, tell them about all the design challenges you faced, everyone nods along because they all faced the same challenges with their projects, you make sure the teacher knows how hard you worked, and then everyone gives you feedback based on how much they like you, and you get a grade. It’s all very validating. It makes sense that a school critique is about you, after all you are paying a lot of money to be there. (You’re still probably paying it off.)
But in a professional setting, where people are paying you to solve a problem, the tables turn a little bit. The goal of real-world feedback is to make the work better, not to get a grade. There is no positive or negative feedback. There is useful feedback and useless feedback. And everyone in that room is, hopefully, trying to break your work.
Walking out of a presentation with a long list of things to fix is exactly what you want, and making sure that people are willing to give you that list is exactly what you should be aiming for.
The next Presenting w/Confidence workshop is scheduled for Thursday and Friday, May 29 and 30. Three hours each session. If you get nervous presenting your work, or dealing with feedback, this is the workshop for you. And yes, we talk about job interviews as well. Sign up!
🎁 Exit through the gift shop.
🥾 This was a good skeet.
📰 This is worth reading on your boss’ time.