Design Reviews: Wrapping up
It's the holiday season, so it's probably time I wrap up the design review series, like I was supposed to in October. <insert rim shot here>
Honestly, my goal to get ahead failed, and a new job prevented me from even keeping up. In any case, here's the "better-late-than-never" cheat sheets for the design review series. I hope it was helpful.
I've been developing some ideas for more series of posts around common retrospective themes I've observed and dissecting the Amazon leadership principles. I hope you'll stick around.
Without further ado...the cheat sheets!
Presenter(s)
Before the meeting:
- Create a list of questions you want to answer from the review (more specific is better)
- Focus presentations or diagrams around providing context and highlighting the areas of concern
- Keep any prepared materials short so you can get feedback, which is why you're there
- Send out supporting documents, diagrams, and other materials at least a day (preferably 2+ days) before the actual meeting
- Get plenty of rest
During the meeting:
- Keep things moving. Going too deep in one area may prevent you from getting to other important topics.
- Remember that "I don't know" or "I'll have to look into that" are perfectly reasonable answers
- Make sure you understand the severity of any concerns raised to help with prioritization later
- Take a breath before answering questions. Faster answers are not usually better and are more likely to be defensive.
After the meeting:
- Be prompt with scheduling follow-ups
- Ensure you have a way to keep yourself accountable to the feedback received
- Order the feedback by priority; you usually don't need to deal with it all at once
- Thank the reviewers
Reviewers
Before the meeting:
- Make sure you have some familiarity with the system being presented
- Understand why you are involved in this review (a particular area of expertise, overlap with things you own, etc.)
- Read the materials provided by the presenters before you get to the meeting
During the meeting:
- Keep in mind what the focus areas for the review are
- If you do address something outside of the focus area, expect that concern to be deferred to the end or a follow-up
- Make sure you state how important a piece of feedback is (suggestion, requirement, etc.)
- The person and the design are not one in the same, so focus on the design
- Understand your own biases and whether they are playing a role in your feedback
After the meeting:
- Make time for follow-ups
- Feel free to check in with the team on feedback
- Keep notes for future performance and/or process feedback
Scribe
Before the meeting:
- Make sure you have a place to record notes, parking lot items, and action items (with priorities)
During the meeting:
- Keep notes on discussions and decisions
- Keep track of the parking lot of topics
- Keep track of action items coming out, especially follow-ups
- At the end, recap what need to happen next and who owns it
After the meeting:
- Send out notes. They don't have to be super clean, but it'll help everyone's memories if they can refer to the notes.
Other supporting team members (EMs, PMs, etc.)
Before the meeting:
- Provide early reviews and feedback on presentation materials
During the meeting:
- Remember you are there to support, not present
- If your input is needed (customer perspective, schedule questions, etc.), keep your contributions brief, if you can
- Support the presenters, don't prop them up. They need this experience and small mistakes are not the end of the world. Help them avoid walking into gaping holes, though.
- Listen
After the meeting:
- Work with the presenters on any project plan changes that need to occur
Observers
During the meeting:
- Shhh
- Take notes on your thoughts
- If the scribe is also taking questions from a chat or slack, ask questions there.
After the meeting:
- If you need to be more involved in the design, reach out to the presenters and/or managers.