Template:Helpful Responses toUnhelpful Feedback
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In a perfect world, 100% of the client feedback you received would beclear, consistent, thoughtful, and prompt. In this section’s Warm Up,
we listed four types of tricky client feedback, outlining tips on how tohandle each. If you’ve been on the receiving end of any of thesecomplicated critiques, the email templates below can help you request
the information you’re missing—and steer an inef-fective feedback
cycle back on track. (Read more about this in our Deep Dive!)

This template came from Tyrus, a free digital toolkit from Airbnb Design.
To learn about Tyrus and find more downloadable templates, visit tyrus.design. Feelfree to edit this template and utilize it for your own purposes.

:Belo: Tyrus

1.

Use this template if you’ve received vague feedback.

Hello _________________,
Thank you for sending over your feedback.
I’ve read through your comments and have a few questions before moving onto next steps.
To start, would you clarify what you meant when you said [insert clientfeedback]? Any further concrete direction you can provide will help me
determine next steps. In this case, that could look like [insert examples].
I’m happy to do more iterations, but want to make sure I’m on track in terms oftiming and budget.

2.

Use this template if you’ve received conflicting feedback.

Hello _________________,
Thanks so much for sharing your feedback!
I’m looking forward to getting started on revisions. Before I begin, I’d love to
get clarity on a couple of key points. First, when you say [insert clientfeedback], do you mean [insert your translation]?
Similarly, regarding your comment about the color being too [insert clientfeedback], are you thinking that the palette should look more like [insertalternate option]? Let’s hop on the phone to discuss further.
Also, let me know if you need a day or two to realign with your team. I
understand how hard it can be to give comprehensive feedback when there
are multiple moving parts and opinions at play—and on my end, it would bebetter to know that I have the green light from all parties before moving
forward.
Thanks!

3.

Use this template if you’ve received narrow-minded feedback.

Hello _________________,
Thank you for sharing your feedback.
I’m looking forward to getting started on the next draft! One thing I did want toaddress beforehand, is your note about [insert client feedback].
While I’m generally happy to accommodate client requests, I’d like to offer mythoughts about why it might be worth considering a different approach in thiscase. Over the years, I’ve noticed that it’s much more powerful to show [insertreframing of feedback] because [insert reasoning]—and in the interest of
creating the most impactful, effective, and current work possible, I wanted toshare this perspective before moving forward.
I’m happy to discuss further if you’d like!
Note: With sensitive conversations like these, it can be easy to misinterpret
someone’s tone in writing. If your client responds to this email confirming thatthey’re interested in talking more, consider planning a follow-up phone callrather than discussing further online.

4.

Use this template if you’ve received feedback that's out of scope.

Hello _________________,
Thanks for sharing your feedback.
While I aim to be as accommodating as possible with revision requests, what
is outlined here is out of scope based on what we originally agreed upon.
I’m happy to address these changes, but since doing so will require a major
restructuring of what’s already been completed, I’ll need additional time andbudget: [list your specific needs here].
If that isn’t possible on your end, I can move forward with the current
illustration, incorporating some of the smaller tweaks you mentioned, including[insert smaller edits].
Let me know which option you’d prefer.