#18 Feedback, good or bad, is just information

Aug 15, 2023

Hello my friend! 👋

I had a chat with my student M a few days ago. She wasn’t happy with the feedback from her grader and wanted to know my take on it. I gave her my thoughts and then asked, “Does the feedback upset you because it’s not what you expected?” She said yes. I told her it’s always a good move to get a second opinion when unsure like she did with me. But also, feedback is just someone’s viewpoint. It doesn’t define her worth.

It got me thinking, I’ve come to see feedback, good or bad, as just information. I get it’s hard; we often take feedback personally. But it’s just one person’s perspective. We can’t change that. Instead, it’s better to understand why they felt that way. And then, use that info to decide our next steps. What we do next, that’s what truly matters.

Here’re a few things I’d like to share with you today 🙂

Thoughts on Coaching Students Transitioning into UX Design
John Wick Meets UX: How to Fight the ‘Me Against the World’ Mentality
Crucial Conversations
Teeth as a product process
Prototype Your Life: A Designer’s Approach to Personal Development

Thoughts on Coaching Students Transitioning into UX Design

I recently tutored two American students who graduated and transitioned into design. One with an extremely high level of design, but she lacks self-confidence and always feels that her work is not good enough. The other, has average design work, but he is very confident, or frank, during presentations: "I did an extremely poor job at this step, I don’t even know what I was doing.”

https://beartalking.com/thoughts-on-coaching

John Wick Meets UX: How to Fight the ‘Me Against the World’ Mentality

In this article, I compare the early days of my career as a junior designer to the action-packed John Wick movies.

https://beartalking.com/john-wick-vs-designer

Crucial Conversations

A couple of weeks ago, I took part in a two-day workshop on Crucial Conversations, a training that’s been on my wishlist for a while. I discovered that although I excel in design execution and strategy, navigating difficult conversations is an area where I can improve significantly. Details here:

https://beartalking.com/crucial-conversations

Teeth as a product process

I’ve been thinking lately, changing teeth (yeah, I observed my daughter) feels a lot like a perfect product development process. Imagine this: your baby teeth are like the beta version of a product. You launch the first version, use them for a while, and learn from the experience. When your body is ready, it begins to replace your teeth one by one, not all at once. It’s iterative, just like a well-executed product design cycle.

Prototype Your Life: A Designer’s Approach to Personal Development

Ever thought of your life as a prototype? Unleash a unique perspective to your personal growth!

Have a great one and see you soon!

Bear Academy Newsletter@2023

Bear Academy Newsletter

Non-crap tips and thoughts on design, product and technology ✨

🐻 Bear Who?

Hi there 👋, I’m Bear, a seasoned Product Designer with 15 years of overall design experience and six years in product design, transforming the user experiences for millions 📝

As an Apple Award-Winning Podcast Host at BearTalk and a Design Mentor at Springboard and CareerFoundry, I apply my self-taught design skills and science background to solve complicated problems and mentor budding designers 😃

In my downtime, you’ll find me reading, drawing, podcasting, and making videos about everything from tech to design and productivity 👨‍🎨

🤓 Work

💼 What I do：Product Designer at Xero
🌃 I also do：Design Mentor at Springboard and CareerFoundry / Founder at Bear Academy
🎤 Side hustle：Podcast host at Award-winning podcast BearTalk

Bear Academy Newsletter

#18 Feedback, good or bad, is just information

Thoughts on Coaching Students Transitioning into UX Design

John Wick Meets UX: How to Fight the ‘Me Against the World’ Mentality

Crucial Conversations

Teeth as a product process

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