Developing a Consistent IBM Design Crit System

Critique is an important step in the design process and one that is practiced at IBM. It's a crucial method of receiving feedback, sharing domain knowledge, maintaining organizational consistency, and gaining vision on other teams' work. However, not all teams have adopted crit and existing crit processes differ vastly. Participants feel pressured to present or struggle to find value in the activity, and in the end, responsibility tends to fall on the shoulders of facilitators. My mission is to rekindle excitement for design crit, increase sign-ups, lessen pressure on presenters and facilitators, and eventually create one consistent IBM crit system. To do so, I rounded up a diverse team of IBM designers, facilitated recurring sessions and workshops, advocated for design crit, and completed a number of deliverables such as Figma presentation templates and a formal sign-up.