Run a Design Critique

Use this for a 1–2 hour session with a clock. Prep, five minutes of context, a short walkthrough, feedback, then synthesize. Do not merge the clock into a blob. That clock is the design.

Steps

Keep the timed slices. They stop the meeting from becoming a debate with no artifact.

02Set context (5 min)

Problem, stage, what is already decided. Tell them what kind of feedback you want. Then stop talking.

03Present the work (5–10 min)

Walk the flow, not a gallery. Name tradeoffs. Do not defend.

06Close the loop

Change the work. Show the people who commented what you did with it. Otherwise they will stop coming.

Frequently asked questions

Can this be async?

Share 24 hours ahead. The live hour is still for the parts that need a conversation. Do not replace the session with a Slack thread and call it a crit.

Who should be in the room?

People who will live with the decision: design, the PM, one engineer who will build it. A gallery of ten reviewers is a status meeting.

Is this the same as handoff?

No. Critique is while the work can still change. Handoff is after it is approved. If engineering is seeing it for the first time, you skipped critique.