Project Overview

As our product design team doubled in size to over 10 designers across four different business areas, our existing design critique sessions began to show signs of strain. What was once a collaborative forum started to feel rigid, with low participation and an environment that was perceived as more autocratic than creative. Recognizing the need for change, I co-led an initiative with a fellow designer to refresh this crucial team ritual, aiming to transform it from a source of friction into a cornerstone of our collaborative culture.

The Challenge: Identifying the Gaps

Through a team-wide survey and informal discussions, we identified several key pain points in our existing process:

• Lack of Clear Guidance: Team members felt there was no clear guidance on what was expected from both presenters and the audience, leading to unstructured feedback.

• A Rigid Environment: The session was consistently led by the same facilitator and featured only one long presenter slot, making the environment feel repetitive and hierarchical.

• Ineffective Feedback Dynamics: Presenters were often interrupted, making it hard for them to cover all their points. Furthermore, some team members tended to monopolize feedback time, preventing a diversity of voices from being heard.

• Low Engagement: The combination of these issues resulted in a low rate of designers volunteering to share their work, defeating the purpose of the critique.

Our goal was clear: we needed to create a safe, engaging, and structured environment that would level the playing field, improve the quality of our design feedback, and help us grow as a team.

The Solution: A New Framework for Collaboration

To address these challenges, I designed and implemented a completely new framework for our design critique sessions. The solution focused on two major areas: changing the session environment and enhancing the structure.

1. A More Dynamic Environment:

• Rotating Facilitators: We moved away from a single, constant facilitator. Now, the responsibility rotates weekly among all designers, giving everyone a chance to lead and fostering shared ownership of the process.

• Multiple Presenters: Instead of one long presentation, the new format accommodates up to three presenters per session. This makes the sessions more dynamic, exposes the team to a wider variety of work, and lowers the barrier to entry for sharing.

2. An Enhanced, Engaging Structure:

• Before: The old one-hour session was dominated by a single, 50-minute presentation and feedback block, which encouraged interruptions and time monopolization.

• After: The new one-hour format is more structured and interactive:

  • Icebreaker (5 mins): To start the session on a positive and engaging note.

  • Presentation Slots (2 x 25 mins): Two dedicated, timed slots ensure presenters are not interrupted and feedback remains focused.

  • Next Steps (5 mins): A dedicated time to recap actionable feedback and define clear next steps.

A Clear Process for Everyone

To ensure clarity and consistency, we introduced a new, streamlined process supported by dedicated tools:

• For Presenters:

  1. Request a Slot: Designers fill out a simple form in our Teams channel to get on the upcoming schedule.

  2. Prepare the Board: We created a standardized Figjam template to help presenters structure their thoughts, provide context, and clearly state what kind of feedback they need.

  3. Present with Confidence: Using the Figjam board as a guide, designers can present their work clearly and effectively within their dedicated time slot.

• For Facilitators & Reviewers:

  1. Shared Responsibility: All team members are expected to check the facilitator rotation list and the upcoming presentation queue to ensure sessions are well-planned.

  2. Active Participation: During the session, the facilitator acts as a timekeeper, ensures house rules are respected, and encourages engagement by having reviewers add questions and comments directly to the presenter's Figjam board for discussion.

Impact and Future Vision

By diagnosing the core issues and redesigning the process from the ground up, we successfully transformed our design critique sessions. The new structure immediately addressed key pain points by creating dedicated, uninterrupted time for presenters and focused slots for feedback.

Our vision for this initiative extends beyond just refining a meeting. The next steps involve piloting this new format, gathering more feedback, and hosting talks on how to give and receive feedback effectively. Our guiding principle, inspired by our Head of Brand & Design, is to "demonstrate not educate"—to foster growth through practice and excellence. Ultimately, the goal is to expand these principles beyond the critique sessions, helping to elevate the entire team's design maturity and cultivate a lasting culture of open, collaborative, and supportive design.