When you’re building a UX team—especially one with many junior designers—mentorship isn't optional. It's essential. One of the most impactful skills a designer can develop is the ability to advocate for their design decisions. And that starts by consistently showing their work.

At Vector, our team grew rapidly, and with that came an influx of early-career designers. We leaned into design reviews as a daily ritual—meeting five days a week to ensure every designer had space to share, get feedback, and learn from one another. As skills matured, we scaled back to three sessions a week. But that consistent cadence played a huge role in developing a team that was collaborative, confident, and thoughtful.

Design Reviews as a Growth Engine

Sharing design work early and often builds more than just better products. It builds better designers.

Every design review is a skill-building opportunity—for the presenter, and for everyone giving feedback. Presenting allows designers to practice articulating the “why” behind their decisions. Listening sharpens critique skills and broadens design thinking. Over time, this practice turns generalists into T-shaped designers: strong in one specialty, but conversant across disciplines like accessibility, interaction, motion, or content strategy.

Designers don’t just become more confident. They become more curious and collaborative.

Creating a Safe Space for Sharing

Of course, it’s natural for new designers to be nervous about sharing their work. Many have past experiences of critique sessions that felt more like the Hunger Games than professional development. As design leaders, it’s our job to rewrite that narrative.

Feedback doesn’t have to be scary—it can be supportive, empathetic, and energizing. We model this by setting expectations early, even in interviews. And we reinforce it by leading with kindness in every review.

When someone new joins my team, I always present first. Sometimes I even pretend to be stuck, just to demonstrate that design isn’t personal—it’s collaborative. I invite feedback on my work to show that leadership isn’t exempt, and that asking for help is a strength, not a weakness.

This creates a culture where feedback is normal and welcome. Designers quickly learn that sharing work is how we make it better—not a test to pass, but a conversation to improve.

Practicing the "Why"

One of the biggest leaps in a designer’s growth is moving from simply showing work to explaining it. Junior designers often wait for feedback to be given to them. Senior designers come prepared with rationale, grounded in research, user needs, business goals, and UX best practices.

To help designers get there, I start by asking gentle questions about their process and decisions. Over time, they begin anticipating those questions—and eventually, they present their work with confidence and clarity, knowing how to speak the language of stakeholders.

This ability—to advocate for their own work—is one of the clearest markers of a designer's progression from junior to senior.

Final Thoughts

Designing great products is important. But designing a culture where designers grow into strong, vocal, and collaborative practitioners is just as vital. That growth begins by showing your work—in a space built to support it.

Design reviews aren’t just meetings. They’re where skills are forged, confidence is built, and team bonds are strengthened. When designers learn to share and speak up, everyone wins: the designer, the team, and most of all, the users.