Tips

25 Years of Tips and Observations

We got you. These aren’t really tips. Just 25 years of notes and observations on how to get the most out of Bang Design, and help the project make you rich in the process.

On Feedback

“Even the most positive and self-assured individual can burn out if too much feedback comes at them”. – Dr Nicole Lipkin, Organisational Psychologist.

The Feedback Paradox: The more feedback you give, i.e., the more involved you are, the worse work gets over time.

1. Frame your feedback with context

Ask yourself if this as per the specifications document, product design language, and generally on brief, and on brand? The most important thing about design feedback is that it must always remain framed by your project goals and strategy for success. Feedback should be aligned with these goals. These goals should be captured in the Product Requirements Document, with support from the Feature Prioritization Matrix. If these are not completed, please take time to do so first.

If it’s not relevant to the purpose of the project, it probably falls into the category of personal aesthetic preference, which isn’t all that useful. *See stay objective below.

2. Reaction to the New

Be wary of your first reaction to a new idea. Don’t be afraid to sleep on it. And Caution: your initial preference is much more likely to be tend to the far left than on the far right:

Predictable/ Familiar -> Unexpected and Memorable -> Strange + Beautiful

3. Be clear and specific

Vague feedback is not helpful. “I’m not feeling it”, or “It doesn’t move me” are ineffective statements.

Be specific – Try to frame your feedback and describe precisely what it applies to (is it usability, form and style, functional details). Video is useful to not lose nuance where a face-to-face meeting is not possible.
Clarity – Speak your mind but stay concise. Use terms that are specific, not ambiguous. Keep everything connected back to your context. For example, ”I worry it won’t attract our target group (and proceed to define that audience)” is far more useful than “make it pop”.
Explain your thinking. The feedback process is a discussion. As co-creators, part of our job is to question everything which is subjective. If your feedback is a vague “I don’t like this”, we’ll probably ask “how will your target user group react to it?”. Please be prepared to answer that why with how it ties back to your project goals and product requirements.

4. Coherence and Respect

Emphasize what is working. Start by explaining the aspects you like about the design. Try to avoid subjective, and especially disparaging, feedback.
Move on to any elements that you have concerns about. For example: “I’m concerned there are too many visible shut lines in the front, or buttons that could overwhelm customers”, or “Can you please reduce the form to a single screen?”.
Ask what our, and your, designers and engineers think. They’ve likely thought this through much longer.
Lastly, follow up to end on a positive note. For example: “I like the way you’ve visualised the core product function, it is simple and compelling. Let’s get that same level of simplicity in the visual details too”.
Sometimes, every now and again, the right feedback is no feedback at all. i.e. just leave the team alone to go take an idea through to fruition.

If you don’t have much positive to say, at the very least, always stay kind and respectful. It may take a few rounds of feedback for you and your designer to get in the same headspace. After all, we all have the same goal here.

5. Stay objective

Our personal preferences are so innate to our decision-making process, yet they have very little weight unless the product/service you’re designing is made for you as the sole user. When providing feedback to your designer, it’s vital that you remove from the equation as much of your own subjective preferences as possible. Instead, focus on what your customers need, and will like. What makes them feel they can trust your company.

Comments such as: “I don’t like this” don’t bring any real value to the process. Instead, think in terms of “our users may find it difficult to use because of their age”. Stay objective and always aligned with your project goals.

On project management

Let’s face it, micromanagement is soul crushing. And none of us want to be doing overtime or rushing to meet deadlines. Even a rocket must be broken into its constituent small parts – seemingly rote work – to manage its development.

Start every project with straightforward tasks and clear instructions. In the beginning, avoid tasks requiring too much discretion or take too much time. As you build your working relationship, the team will assume autonomy over tasks requiring more judgement.

Break down a project into tasks that’ll be finished within a reasonable timeframe. The longer they draw out, the more the deadlines and overall productivity suffer. This is also a good indicator of the task being too big or complex.

We follow a common guideline: no task should take longer than two days. No cluster of 3 dependent tasks should take longer than a week.

The communication channel on Microsoft Teams, our intuitive folder structure, and several starter document templates are your tools to best organize tasks and information between you and our team.

Clarity brings Confidence

The number one product that you ship before you ship your real product is clarity. At the start of any exploration or product development, we will take time to create a sound requirements document, if you don’t already have one. It starts off as a one pager and evolves to a document which removes ambiguities and becomes the single-source of truth. Additional documents such as a feature prioritization framework may be suggested.

Fast Only Counts When It’s Right

Move fast but with discipline and purpose. Cutting corners can result in errors and wrong turns. It creates crises of judgement. It squanders time, money and, in worst-case scenarios, brand equity.

Your boss might typically ask “when will it be done?”. Truth is, no product or task is ever “done”, until it is (That’s why it is called continuous product development). Instead of trying to finish a task perfectly, we work on it until it is in a “good enough” state to be checked off.

Plan to create prototypes of increasing specification fidelity. This is what will build confidence with those not directly involved. However, Prototypes take time and require additional budgets. For team and customer management confidence, communicate to your boss about the exact 3 features planned for the foreseeable period, say 2 weeks. Small wins build large confidence.

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