Encouraging our designers to share with confidence is essential to building a strong studio culture, yet this can sometimes come with its challenges.

For example, some designers may feel uncomfortable sharing ideas with more senior colleagues, whereas others may refrain from sharing unrefined concepts. Fortunately, we've adopted certain routines that make sharing more effective for everyone.

Stand ups

Within our team at the ´óÏó´«Ã½, daily stand ups are coordinated by a delivery manager and consist of all senior designers coming together to discuss their top three priorities for that day. These stand ups not only provide an overview of what everyone in the team is working on, but they also help to uncover any potential overlaps.

Show and tell

For a more in-depth presentation of work, we hold two-hour monthly show and tell meetings, which give all of our designers the chance to talk through their ideas and processes in detail.

From my experience, encouraging designers to share with their peers — regardless of whether they're a junior or a creative director — definitely helps to break down those hierarchical barriers and create a more collaborative culture. Show and tell sessions are great for this, as there's plenty of time for every designer to have their say.

Casual crits

Established as an informal means to show a designer's work-in-progress, casual crits create the ideal environment to comfortably share feedback, whether this is on a sketch, early visuals or concepts in note form. These meetings are led by the designers, rather than a manager or lead.

When it comes to casual crits, I think it's really important not to put too much emphasis on attendance or formality. These sessions are not mandatory to attend, yet most people turn up anyway because it's of value to them.

The design leader's role

Having regular routines where designers can share their work can really help develop confidence within a team — especially when it comes to delivering and receiving constructive feedback. Facilitating open communication helps to quickly identify and unblock problems, which ultimately improves development speed and quality of work.

As a design leader, it's part of my role to recognise that teams are often busy and routines can easily become stagnant or a lesser priority. Therefore, it's my job to find ways around these challenges, discover what works best for the team dynamic and encourage positive routine behaviours that stick.

For example, when new design talent arrives at the ´óÏó´«Ã½, we always encourage them to share their ways of working and suggest improvements to current processes. Our new senior designer recently introduced daily what are you working on? (WAYWO) reminders — a chance for all designers to share a screen-grab of their work. The idea behind WAYWO is that it's quick, honest and unrefined — there's no such thing as 'finished' when it comes to sharing in this format.

One thing that I've noticed is that designers can sometimes fall into the trap of showing only their 'best' work and excluding those initial concept drawings or notes that often spark ideas in others. Seeing our designers share honest WAYWO snippets is a positive sign that our team's sharing methods are working and that people feel comfortable with each other.

When doing the routine feels like more effort than the value you get back from it, that's when these meetings can start to feel like a box-ticking exercise, so we're always reviewing how useful they are and making changes as needed.

This article is part of our Studio Culture series, which explores the important factors that help design teams excel and collaborate effectively.