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Listening to feedback can be challenging. Not all feedback is constructive or helpful. And it's important to recognize the emotions you may feel while receiving feedback.
Challenges of receiving feedback
- Emotional response
- Feedback quality
- Feedback direction
Emotional responses to feedback
When feedback threatens our worth (sense of self-respect and confidence)...
- Shame emotions: negative self talk, self-doubt, sadness, worthlessness, embarrassment, hurt
When feedback threatens our safety (perceived physical, social, or material security)...
- Secondary emotions: judgement, blame, anger, violence, betrayal, withdrawal, or denial
- Primary emotions: fear (anxiety, worry) and sadness (loss, disappointment, discouragement)
When feedback causes disconnection (an emotional disconnection from the situation)...
- Reactions: feeling numb, stunned, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, or shocked
Feedback helps you and your designs get
better, but it's not always easy to hear.
0:00
There are three main challenges.
0:06
Handling your emotional response,
navigating unfair feedback,
0:09
and preventing miscommunications.
0:14
Handling your emotional response to
feedback can be the most difficult.
0:18
We can all remember a time when we were
criticized and it didn't feel good.
0:22
As humans we crave approval because
it confirms our sense of worthiness.
0:28
And we naturally fear rejection because
criticism questions our safety and
0:33
worthiness.
0:38
Let me break down this emotional response.
0:38
Worth is the sense of self respect and
confidence.
0:42
When feedback threatens our worth,
we feel shame for emotions such as
0:45
negative self talk, self doubt,
sadness, embarrassment, and hurt.
0:50
Safety is our perceived physical,
social, or material security.
0:56
When feedback threatens our safety,
1:01
it's usually displayed as a secondary
emotion, such as judgement,
1:04
blame, anger, violence,
betrayal, withdrawal, or denial.
1:09
Those reactions are rooted in fear based
emotions, such as anxiety and worry.
1:14
As well as sadness based emotions such as
loss, disappointment, and discouragement.
1:19
Another common reaction is to emotionally
disconnect from the situation.
1:25
This amounts to feeling numb or shocked.
1:31
It's important to know that for those
with past trauma, criticism can trigger
1:34
memories of past abuse and
the emotions can compound in intensity.
1:39
I'll be teaching you techniques to handle
your emotional response to criticism
1:43
later in this workshop, but
please be assured you are not your design.
1:49
And a criticism of your work
is not a criticism of you.
1:54
Believe it or not, the more you practice
receiving feedback the more of it you'll
1:57
want and
the better you'll become as a designer.
2:01
The second challenge relates to
the quality of the feedback.
2:04
Later on I'll speak about the spectrum
of feedback, all the good and the bad.
2:08
Some of this is uncontrollable,
2:14
but if you can get ahead of the feedback
you can prevent miscommunications.
2:16
When you present a design,
there may be confusion around the context,
2:20
constraints, and goals.
2:25
People with different perspective,
non-design backgrounds, or
2:27
new collaborators may not
be aware of your process.
2:31
There may also be a lack of
awareness regarding technical, time,
2:35
or resource constraints.
2:39
Providing those details up front
allows everyone to get aligned.
2:41
The third challenge refers
to their feedback direction.
2:47
As a UX designer, you're tasked
with merging several ideas and
2:50
perspectives into a clear cohesive vision.
2:54
Distilling disparate comments and
moving in a clear direction is difficult.
2:58
And you may feel like you're being
sent in multiple directions.
3:02
How do you know what to do
with the feedback you receive?
3:07
That covers the challenges.
3:10
In the next video I'll discuss
the different types of feedback.
3:13
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