The critique that healed my team
We stopped reviewing work and started reviewing decisions. Everything got faster and people stopped crying in parking lots.
The old crit
Our old critique format reviewed the artifact — pixels, copy, flow. It made the designer defend their work. Most designers got worse at designing under that pressure, not better.
Review decisions, not pixels
We switched to reviewing the decision behind the pixels. 'Why this, not that.' The designer presented the trade-off, not the outcome. Critique became cheaper, braver, more generous. Nobody cried in the parking lot that year.