There are two types of designers:

• Those who get frustrated by vague feedback
• And those who use it as a competitive advantage

Most will tell you to "educate" your stakeholders. To teach them how to give better feedback.

Good luck with that.

I’ve worked with founders, CEOs, and product leaders at some of the fastest-growing startups. None of them will ever give you the perfect, structured feedback you’re hoping for.

But after hundreds of design reviews, I’ve managed to reduce the number of feedback loops to an average of 1.6 (yes, at Grauberg we measure this).

Today, I’m sharing my framework for turning vague, frustrating feedback into your greatest asset.

Why even top leaders give shitty feedback

“Make it pop”.
“This needs to be more modern”.

I’ve always assumed that people are aware that feedback like this is not helpful. I was wrong.

And after doing the research, I found out why.

Here are 3 psychologic reasons why people give vague feedback:

1. Lack of design vocabulary

​Researchers found that humans can recognize patterns & images 60,000 times faster than they can verbally describe them. This is known as the “articulation gap”.

Something feels wrong, but our conscious mind hasn’t caught up to explain why.

When stakeholders say “make it pop,” they’re experiencing this gap in real-time. Their pattern-matching brain has identified something that doesn’t align with their mental model of success, but they lack the design vocabulary to explain it precisely.

2. The Curse of Knowledge

People tend to assume you have the same information and knowledge as they do.

This is a cognitive bias called the “Curse of Knowledge” – once you know what you want, it becomes harder to imagine not knowing it.

This explains why you might hear feedback like “it needs to be more modern” without any specifics. In the stakeholder’s mind, their definition of “modern” is so clear that they assume it’s universal.

3. The Feedback Paradox

Here’s where it gets interesting: There’s more to feedback than just “trying to make something better. Researchers dubbed this the “status-safety paradox” – the more senior you are, the more you fear looking unknowledgeable by giving specific feedback that might be wrong.

This is why founders and executives often default to vague, feeling-based feedback. It’s not that they don’t care about being specific – they’re unconsciously protecting their status while trying to guide the design in the right direction.

What this means for you

Understanding these psychological barriers changes everything about how you receive and process feedback. Instead of getting frustrated by vague feedback, you can see it as an opportunity to:

• Bridge the articulation gap through targeted questions
• Break down the curse of knowledge by making assumptions explicit
• Create psychological safety that encourages more specific feedback

Now that you understand the psychology behind it, let’s get practical.

10 examples of bad design feedback and what it actually means

1. “Make it pop”

What they say: “Can you make this pop more?”

What they mean: “The visual hierarchy isn’t clear enough, and I can’t immediately see what’s important.”

How to avoid next time: Before showing the design, explain your hierarchy decisions: “I’ve emphasized these three elements because they drive our main conversion goals. Let me walk you through how the visual hierarchy supports our business objectives.”
​

2. “Make it more modern”

What they say: “This feels a bit dated. Can we make it more modern?”

What they mean: “This looks similar to what our competitors were doing last year, and I’m worried we’re falling behind.”

How to avoid next time: Start the review with a competitive analysis: “Here’s what our competitors are doing, and here’s how our design pushes beyond that to set new trends in our industry.”
​

3. “Something feels off”

What they say: “I can’t put my finger on it, but something doesn’t feel right.”

What they mean: “The design violates my mental model of how this should work, but I can’t articulate why.”

How to avoid next time: Break down the design into smaller pieces: “Let’s look at each section separately - the navigation, the hero section, the features. Which part triggers that feeling most strongly?”
​

4. “Make the logo bigger” (another classic)

What they say: “The logo needs to be bigger.”

What they mean: “I don’t feel our brand is prominent enough in this design.”

How to avoid next time: Present a brand presence strategy: “Here’s how we’re establishing our brand through consistent visual elements, typography, and imagery, not just logo size.”
​

5. “Can I see more options?”

What they say: “I’d like to see a few more options.”

What they mean: “I don’t feel involved in the decision-making process, and I’m worried we might miss a better solution.”

How to avoid next time: Show your design exploration process: “Here are the three directions we explored, and here’s why this solution best meets our success criteria.”
​

6. “Make it simpler”

What they say: This feels complicated. Can we simplify it?”

What they mean: “I’m overwhelmed by the information density and unclear about the user’s journey.”

How to avoid next time: Present the user flow first: “Before we look at the UI, let me show you how we’ve structured the user journey to make complex tasks feel simple.”
​

7. “It needs to breathe more”

What they say: “Add more white space.”

What they mean: “The information feels overwhelming and hard to process.”

How to avoid next time: Explain your spacing system: “We’re using a consistent spacing scale based on user testing. Here’s how it helps users process information effectively.”
​

8. “Make it more premium”

What they say: “This doesn’t feel premium enough for our brand.”

What they mean: “The design doesn’t justify our pricing position in the market, and I’m worried customers won’t perceive our value.”

How to avoid next time: Begin with a value perception strategy: “Here’s how each design element—from typography to micro-interactions—reinforces our premium market position. Let me show you how we compare to other premium brands in our space.”
​

9. “It looks boring”

What they say: “This looks a bit boring.”

What they mean: “I don’t see any distinctive elements that make our product stand out.”

How to avoid next time: Present your distinctiveness strategy: “Here’s how we’re balancing familiarity for usability with unique elements that make our brand memorable.”
​

10. “We should add X,Y & Z”

What they say: “This is nice, but what about this metrics and that feature?”

What they mean: “I’m scared people miss information.”

How to avoid next time: Present the purpose of the design first. “WHY” does it matter? You could say “I agree, those things are important, but the user don’t needs them right now to achieve this specific goal. However, they can still access it here.”

How to get better feedback in the first place

There are so many things you could do to improve the feedback you get, things I tried myself + dozens of tips from my online research.

However, those 3 things seemed to have the biggest impact:

1. Call the iteration “a draft”.

I already touched on this in my last newsletter, but this is a big mindset shift. Stakeholders understand that this is work in progress and will have lower expectations.

2. Don’t just send a Figma link, present the design.

Sending the design without any context does not work. Most of the time, people don’t have the same knowledge and information as you (The Curse of Knowledge).

Context, like why this feature matters, might be missing, as well as all the research you did.

I like to record a Loom video and walk through the design I made, + share why it matters.

3. Be specific about the feedback you are looking for

“So… this is it - What’s your feedback?”

Not a good call-to-action.

A better way is to ask for specific feedback, like “How can I improve the layout here?”, or “Is there anything in this design that we exceeds our tech capabilities?”

Once you got feedback, it’s time to prioritize it. You can do this either directly when receiving it, or after everyone added feedback to your Loom.

I like to use the MoSCow method.

Prioritize your feedback into:

M - Must Have

S - Should Have

C - Could Have

The real power move: Beyond better feedback

Here’s what most designers never realize: The way you handle feedback doesn’t just affect your designs—it shapes your entire career trajectory.

Think about it.

Every time you receive and respond to feedback, you’re not just iterating on a design. You’re teaching everyone around you how to think about design. You’re showing them the strategic value of your work. You’re demonstrating why design decisions matter for business outcomes.

The best designers I know aren’t just good at handling feedback—they’ve turned feedback sessions into their competitive advantage.

They don’t:

• Get defensive about their work
• Silently implement every suggestion
• Hope for better feedback next time

Instead, they:

• Use feedback sessions to understand deeper business needs
• Transform vague comments into strategic discussions
• Build trust through structured design processes

Your next move

Tomorrow, in your next design review, try this:

Before showing your work, say: “I’d like to try a different approach to this review. Can I take 2 minutes to explain the strategic decisions behind this design first?”

Then watch what happens.

You’ll notice the feedback immediately shifts from “make it pop” to actual strategic discussion. People will engage with your thinking, not just your pixels.

This isn’t just about getting better feedback.

It’s about positioning yourself as a strategic designer.

A Full-Stack Designer.

​

See you next week,
Nik

​

The Full Stack Designer’s Toolbox

The FSD Toolbox presents some quick learnings or tools for every building block of a Full-Stack Designer.

1. Visual Design

Have you heard about the 8-8-8 Color Rule?

• Start with any color you like
• Create a lighter shade by increasing all RGB values by 8%
• Create a darker shade by decreasing all RGB values by 8% This creates perfectly balanced color variations that always look professional, especially for buttons, cards, and hover states.

2. Research

A colleague of mine recently showed me the 3-2-1 Synthesis Method:

After each research session:

• Write 3 key observations
• Note 2 surprising findings
• Identify 1 must-solve problem

This prevents getting overwhelmed by research data and keeps insights actionable.

3. Tools

Copy and Pasting in Figma is essential, however most people don’t know all the shortcuts to become a faster designer.

Here are my favourite Copy Paste shortcuts:

• Hold ALT + DRAG to duplicate anything
• Press SHIFT while dragging to maintain alignment
• CMD/CTRL + D to duplicate with exact spacing
• CMD/CTRL + SHIFT + V to paste in place
• CMD/CTRL + Option + V to paste properties

4. Business

Before working on a new design or feature, go to your analytics and screenshot the main KPIs, or put them into a Notion doc.

You not only need those metrics for your UX research, but it also helps you to show the impact of the new feature weeks after it got shipped.

5. Collaboration

I want to highlight something again that I mentioned before:

Every time you receive and respond to feedback, you’re not just iterating on a design. You’re teaching everyone around you how to think about design. You’re showing them the strategic value of your work. You’re demonstrating why design decisions matter for business outcomes.

So even if the feedback culture within your team or with a client is not that strong, you have the chance to improve it.