Design Review Skill

Turns design meetings from scattered feedback into decisions with clear next steps. Built on the SIGNAL framework: a six-step flow that gives every review the same structure so conversations produce direction instead of more questions.Download the skill file and drop into your LLM chat, or install just this skill through your terminal:npx skills add https://github.com/zurb/glare-skillsWhat you getThe SIGNAL framework: six steps that turn feedback into a decisionA scoring rubric that evaluates any design review on a 1 to 5 scale per dimensionA coaching mode that prepares teams for upcoming reviews and improves performance after themA transcript evaluator that scores a real call and produces a structured improvement reportExample OutputWhat the Design Review Skill DoesMost teams already run design reviews. They fail in predictable ways. The real problem stays unclear. Success is never defined. Feedback turns into scattered opinion. The conversation circles. Ownership is vague. The meeting ends without a decision, and two people leave with different versions of what was agreed.SIGNAL gives every review a flow that turns feedback into decisions and decisions into momentum. Each step reduces a different kind of uncertainty. When a review stalls, it is almost always because an earlier step was skipped.StepWhat it doesCommon failure without itSurfaceNames the real problem before reacting to the workTeam reacts to the design before agreeing on what is brokenIdentifyDefines what "better" actually means in measurable termsFeedback stays subjective — "I like this," "make it cleaner"GroundAnchors the conversation in evidence, not opinionThe loudest voice winsNavigateForms a direction and makes a recommendationThe team keeps exploring without choosingAlignMakes ownership visible before the call endsEveryone agrees but nobody owns the next stepLockConverts agreement into a named action with a deadlineThe same conversation comes back next weekWhat It ProducesThe skill produces three types of output depending on how it is used.Before a review: a call briefthe objective of the meetingwhich SIGNAL steps to emphasize for this call typethe opening move to surface tension earlythe key questions to askthe decision point to reachthe lock script to close withAfter a review: a scored evaluationa score from 1 to 5 for each SIGNAL dimensiona total score out of 30 with a performance bandkey observations anchored to verbatim quotes from the transcriptfour behavioral metrics: talk time ratio, problem ownership, decision language, and reframe adoptionone primary improvement for the next callFor coaching: a behavioral drillthe specific gap to fix based on the lowest SIGNAL scorea practice script written in the person's own languagea success signal that shows the behavior has changedHow to Use ItThree common ways to get value from this skill.Prepare for an upcoming review"We have a design review for our mobile banking dashboard next week. The team keeps getting stuck in opinion loops and we never land on a decision. Using the glare-design-review skill, build a call brief that emphasizes the right SIGNAL steps for a design review, gives us an opening move to surface the real problem early, and includes a lock script for closing with a decision."Best for: any review where past sessions have stalled, kickoffs where the problem is still fuzzy, decision meetings where stakeholders are split.Score a call that already happened"Here is the transcript from our last mobile banking dashboard review. Using the glare-design-review skill, evaluate it using the SIGNAL rubric, score each dimension from 1 to 5, extract the four behavioral metrics, and tell us the single most important thing to change on the next call."Best for: understanding why a review did not produce a decision, coaching a team member on a specific call, tracking improvement across multiple sessions.Diagnose a recurring problem"Our design reviews always end with alignment but the decisions never hold. The same topics come back the following week. Using the glare-design-review skill, identify which SIGNAL step is failing and give us the technique and practice script to fix it."Best for: recurring review problems that feel structural, teams where decisions keep getting reopened, any situation where agreement is reached but momentum does not follow.The SIGNAL Scoring ModelEvery design review can be scored on a 1 to 5 scale across all six SIGNAL dimensions. The total score out of 30 maps to a performance band.BandScoreWhat it meansLeading26 to 30Decisions are clear, owned, and actionable every timeStrong21 to 25Most reviews land well with occasional gapsFunctional15 to 20Reviews produce direction but inconsistentlyDeveloping9 to 14Reviews generate discussion but rarely firm decisionsReactive1 to 8Reviews are unstructured and decisions rarely holdA score alone is not the goal. The rubric is most useful when it identifies the specific dimension to improve and the behavior to change next.How Design Review Connects to the Rest of GlareThe Design Review skill works alongside the Decision Map, not separately from it.Groundis where design signals from the Decision Map enter the review — evidence from Define, Measure, and Focus replaces opinionNavigateis where a Focus decision gets pressure-tested in a live conversationLockis where the output of a review becomes the next step in the Decision MapA review without the Decision Map is still useful. But a review that brings Decision Map signals into Ground produces faster alignment because the conversation is grounded in evidence the whole team can see.