One of the scariest things for designers is getting feedback. We are terrified by the idea that someone is going to hate what we’ve spent countless hours designing. This is completely understandable as we have created something beautiful out of nothing. We care for this thing we’ve created the same way a mother protects their new born baby. Here’s the thing though when we don’t receive feedback on our designs we feel slighted and ignored. This is why it’s a benefit to get clients involved early and often. Having an open dialogue with clients can help benefit the final product greatly.

Why is there such a benefit to everyone using an open dialogue? Well, having open communication loop breaks down people’s natural barriers. Just like you are protective of the work you are crafting, your client is protective of the business they’ve built. Letting yourself be open to continuous feedback will allow you to be open-minded to new solutions and ideas that you may never have thought of. This is where true innovation comes from. Sometimes being more open in general can help generate entirely new business ideas or side projects.

In fact, getting designs out into the open early and getting constructive feedback can be beneficial even when it comes from our colleagues. You don’t necessarily have to include them with a private link of client work. This type of information should be kept to between you and your clients, but can post snippets or screenshots of in-progress (WIP) on sites like dribbble or Behance. Putting your work out before it’s perfect will open room for constructive feedback. If you post it when you consider it to be perfect, the feedback will just be “Nice work!” or “Awesome”. These statements don’t tell us anything useful. Don’t get me wrong, I love praise as much as anyone else, but I know this won’t make the product better.

I’m reminded by a quote from Reid Hoffman about shipping products early. You shouldn’t love what you first put out there. Some people have a lot of trouble with putting their work up on these sites because they find the feedback is either too negative or not very constructive. My response to that is that not all feedback should be listened to. There are always going to be haters who hate just because they can. If you have the time try to understand why these people hate on your work so much. You might find that they actually have a nugget of constructive criticism hidden deep down in their feedback. But sometimes they don’t and you should just ignore them. Life is too short to let people like that get you down.

If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.

– Reid Hoffman

The first versions of any new creative project are meant to help define the project. They are your first thoughts usually of what you think the project is all about. That’s why sharing with your client and start the discussion about what direction you should be taking should never be the “be all end all”. They are meant to help you better understand and define the scope of the project. Then you have the ability to go back and review the feedback. Find the information that helps you start on your next plan of attack with better insight into what needs to be accomplished.

I used to hide my projects from the world until I felt they were brilliant. However, usually this meant I’d gone so far down one path for so long that I had missed the mark and the objectives of my clients. Meaning I would have to going back to square one and redo all the work I had already done. When this happens you feel demoralized, wasted, insecure plus you’ve already spent budget working on the first design. Now I share work early and often. I get the feedback I need to better define the end goals of the project. My clients are happier and feel very involved which really is a good thing. No one knows their business better than they do. You are also building a stronger relationship of trust with your client because you are being transparent. Just make sure that you manage a clients expectations upfront on what you are presenting and would you are looking to accomplish from sharing this WIP. This will help keep their feedback focused on the current work without having to worry about personal injections. Finally, getting feedback early on really does help you better manage your time, creative output and moral.

So next time you are working on a project and you’re not sure about it, don’t keep it hidden away until you are finally happy with it. Instead put it out there for the world or, at the very least, for your client to see. Start up the conversation about why you went down this creative path, how you’re feeling about it and where do they think you could improve to better fit their brand. You’d be surprised at how happy clients will be to offer feedback so early in the game. You also might find that the work is better than you thought it was.