It’s a few days from launch, or just around sign-off on a major design component. Someone on the project has an itch and reaches for external feedback, putting part or all of the design in front of new eyes. Then they ask, innocently enough, “What do you think of this?”

What happens next is never fun. The questions and suggestions flow easily, and the project manager is faced with an ugly fork in the road: try to incorporate the feedback without slipping on date and budget, or diplomatically postpone considering the feedback until the development cycle is at a point where it can take in substantial feedback.

The thing is, new eyes can spot serious problems that the team has become blind to, and you don’t want to lose the insight that others can bring you.

So where’s the balance between it all? My experience has been that it’s all in how you ask for that feedback.

When we ask someone “What do you think?” we’re giving them a blank canvas. People being people, they want to help and they’ll do as much as they can to fill that canvas for you. I do it a little differently: when a project is well under way, as in being coded, I’ll sometimes call for external feedback by asking “Do you see any show-stoppers here?”

The difference in responses is huge, and makes all the difference. It also gets me closer to the most critical problems that might make or break a launch,. We’re so often told to ask and listen to feedback, but we need to qualify the kinds of feedback we need when we do the asking. Try it on your next project, and if it doesn’t produce a useful outcome then I owe you a beer.