Before we get into all of the many ways that you can solicit feedback. Let’s first talk about your gut.
I’m a firm believer that your gut really matters.
Probably more so than our industry likes to admit.
But what is your gut? It’s a combination of the experience and insights you’ve picked up over the years, combined with intuition.
If there was a spectrum with gut driven on one side and data-driven on the other and a line right down the middle, my guess is that the best designers tend to lean towards the gut driven side of things.
But you can’t be 100% gut driven.
The shorthand I often use for this is “gut driven, but data informed”.
I’ve worked with many junior and senior designers over the years and I’ll share a common pattern that I’ve seen over and over.
Junior designers by necessity tend to be very open to feedback.
As the designer progresses in skill and experience, there’s often a phase where they assume they don’t need any feedback. They assume that as a designer, they’ll know what’s best and their gut is all they need.
This is obviously a trap!
Unfortunately, some designers get stuck in this state forever.
Most designers eventually recognize that their ego and pride is getting in the way and eventually course-correct.
There’s a symbiosis here.
Without your gut, there would be no designs to solicit feedback.
And without feedback, you’ll never consistently take designs from bad, to good, to great.