3 Tips for Better Feedback From Your Freelance Design Clients
Getting good feedback starts with 3 steps: detail, documentation, and deadline.
“Can we make it pop?” might be the five most nauseating words that freelance designers hear. Competing for that distinction are the likes of “can we make that bigger?” and “last change… oh wait, actually—”
The prevalence of these phrases in client-designer interactions is the subject of many memes in the design industry. There’s no shortage of formats and images to depict a designer’s chagrin at being found in this situation, yet again. But despite what the memes might portray, it’s not entirely the client’s fault.
In this article, we’ll be covering three tips for getting better and more helpful feedback from your clients. Those tips boil down to three key points:
Detail
Documentation
Deadline
Let’s take a look at what each of these means, and why the absence of them often causes feedback to go awry.
Tip #1: Provide sufficient detail 🖼
Vague questions beget vague feedback. To get more specific and concrete feedback from your client, start by asking better questions. For example:
❌ Vague question: “What do you think of this?”
✅ Specific question: “Does this meet the requirements and expectations of the brief?”
❌ Vague question: “How could this be improved?”
✅ Specific question: “Does this communicate the message outlined in the project’s goals? If not, why?”
❌ Vague question: “Which of these color options do you prefer?”
✅ Specific question: “Which of these color options feels most authentic to the brand?”
All of these reformulated questions have one thing in common: they tie back to the client’s goals. Unlike the original questions, which are lofty and subjective, the new questions are grounded in the facts presented in the creative brief.
Asking questions in this way makes it clearer, for both you and the client, on what’s needed to move forward. When in doubt, both parties can refer back to the creative brief to figure out how questions should be asked or responded to.
If you find yourself in a situation where the client still insists on “making it pop,” you can rely on the same technique to encourage them to provide sufficient detail. For example:
If they say “Can you make it pop?”, ask “What do you mean by that? What specific elements of the design do you feel are visually lacking?”
If they say “Can you move this section up?” or “Can you make this part bigger?”, ask “Do you feel like the current placement or size isn’t prominent enough?”
If they say “Can you make it more colorful?” or “Can you make the colors brighter?”, ask “Just to clarify, do you feel like there aren’t enough colors currently? Or do you feel like the colors aren’t saturated or vibrant enough?”
Each of your follow-up questions should also be accompanied by your own design rationale, consisting of your expert opinion and advice as to what will look the best and communicate the best.
This is especially useful if you notice the client getting stuck in the weeds of the design, like advising on placement or sizing of elements. Combining follow-up questions with your design rationale will show the client why you made those decisions and the best practices they’re based on.
After you’ve done the hard work in crafting detailed feedback questions, maximize their effectiveness and longevity by writing them down — and sharing them with the client in written format.
Tip #2: Prepare documentation 📝
Your project probably isn’t the only project the client is working on. And your meeting with the client might have been their third, fourth, or fifth meeting of the day.
To make it easy for your client to remember what was discussed and what you need from them, write everything down in a format that’s easy to access and update for you both. This could be:
An email, where you list in bullet points each of the questions you have for the client
A presentation deck, where you describe what you need from the client in order to move into the next stage of the project
A Google Doc, where you leave comments for the client to respond to
By writing things down, you’re creating a line of clarity through all the different conversations you’ll have with the client. Whether you’re meeting with them over a video call or emailing back and forth, all of the information can live in one central place.
If the client prefers to communicate over calls or meetings, ask them to send over their feedback in a written summary afterward. Or, you can offer to do that for them and follow up with an email after the meeting that includes the main points discussed. Ask them to reply to the email confirming the details or to add anything that was missed.
This documentation will also protect you in the event that the project, or relationship, goes poorly. If a client changes their mind about an earlier decision, or even if they misrepresent what happened (unintentionally or intentionally), you’ll have evidence of what was discussed. You can use this to point out the discrepancy to them, getting everyone back on track. Or, you can keep it for your own personal records to protect yourself as a designer and freelancer.
Tip #3: Set deadlines 🎯
Let’s say you’re ready to get feedback on your design work. You’ve formulated your questions with plenty of detail and you’ve written them out alongside your designs. With everything packaged up, you email it over to the client. Then you wait.
However, unless you’ve included a deadline by which the client needs to have all their feedback submitted, you might be waiting for a long time. Without a deadline, your request will likely get pushed to the bottom of the client’s to-do list, again and again.
To prevent this, always include a deadline whenever you’re asking for feedback from the client. Generally, 5-10 business days after the designs are presented is a good rule of thumb. By the deadline, the client should have all their feedback submitted in a written format.
To set this expectation with the client, communicate early and often about your feedback process. You can mention it multiple times: at the start of the process, as you’re approaching the feedback portion, and/or when you present the design work. You can also frame it as a safeguard to keep the project on track, without delays, so that everyone can enjoy having the final work delivered on time.
It takes practice to learn how to facilitate feedback successfully. But with these tips, you can improvise for whatever situation you need to present your design work in. Good luck!
What’s been your experience of asking for feedback from clients? What other questions do you have about the subject? Leave a comment down below!
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