How to deal with negative reviews of your work?

For an example of work, where negative reviews they hit hardest, you don't have to go far. These are web designers. Imagine working hard (and even at night) to design a website for a large brand. Imagine that after a cruel week and almost round-the-clock work, you see the result, from which goosebumps run happily and you can't wait to show the result to the client.

The moment of truth comes when the client passes judgment:

"Well, I have to say that I expected something better."

Most likely you are familiar with this situation: you are doing work that you are really proud of, and someone without your professional skills, knowledge and experience puts forward momentary criticism, often based on vague or subjective criteria. For example, such critics may not be very good at design, but know exactly what they don't like.

And, since you are connected with these people in a performer-client relationship, you must help them formulate what exactly they do not like in order to continue working on the project. Easier said than done, because criticism tends to sting very hard.

Let's take a look at how to respond to this kind of feedback for your work:

1. Take a deep breath and focus on your own goals (your own vision)

No matter how frustrated, resentful, or even angry you are - never react defensively or aggressively! Start with deep breathing and remind yourself of your goal.

2. Clarify

Before explaining, defending, or making changes, it is very important to understand what the client dislikes about your work. This is not so easy, as usually the client's first reaction is not very clear and constructive.

Here are some examples of useless feedback:

Vague criticism. Rejection of work in general terms without specifying on what criteria the criticism is based: “terrible”, “terrible design”, “no good”, “disappointing”.
Lack of examples. The client is not able to back up his words with examples.
Exaggeration. One-sided black-and-white judgments denying the presence of gray shades (intermediate options, alternative opinions).
Disrespectful criticism. Manifestation of aggression and rudeness on the part of the client.

Before starting a constructive conversation, you need to clarify what exactly does not suit the customer. These clarifying questions will help you:

"What exactly do you dislike?"
"Could you provide an example (s)?"
"Could you point out the part of the work that you don't like?"
"Don't you like the font you selected directly or its size?"
"Don't you like the story or the way it is told?"

At this stage, your goal is to understand and help the customer formulate his criteria for judgment, and detail why (in his opinion) the work does not meet these criteria. You do not agree with the customer, you simply specify what he means by his review.

3. Ask problem-solving questions

The next step towards achieving a peaceful resolution of the situation that has arisen is either (a) accepting the work in its current form, or (b) agreeing to make changes. Problem-solving questions are a powerful tool in reaching a peace agreement.

Describe the potential solution to the customer and ask if it would be acceptable to the other person. For example, to validate a piece of work as it stands, you might say:

“I know you don’t like the look, but if I can provide evidence that your customers prefer this design, would you approve it?”

Or, when agreeing to a change, you can ask:

"If I change the color and add a new title, will you be happy?"

Your goal is to end the conversation with a clearly agreed next step. The client may still be skeptical, but at least you will know what needs to be done to get your work approved.