It’s critical that you establish a culture of candid feedback within your design org. This is the only way that creativity and innovation can thrive.

To do this. You must first foster trust. And one way to do that is to establish a culture that’s candid, but also kind.

To establish kindness. You need to establish a spirit of Goodwill and empathy. This means that designer’s ego and pride need to be checked at the door. And called out whenever you see them surface.

All feedback within your design team should be additive. The opposite of additive is competitive or combative feedback. You can tell the difference by the motives.

The goal of additive feedback should never be to show how smart you are, or to tear somebody down. The goal of added feedback should be, “how can we work together to make this design the best it can possibly be?”

Oftentimes kindness comes through in your tone. And the way that you phrase your feedback.

Kind feedback assumes positive intent. And gives the designer the benefit of the doubt.

If you’re ever unsure how to phrase feedback, a good fallback can be to just phrase it as a question. “Have you ever considered…”, or “Have you thought of…” Sharing feedback like this allows you to share your thoughts in the spirit of collaboration.

Without kindness, candidness cannot survive. And without candidness, no design team will ever reach their full potential.