By Raghvendra Singh · Original personal-site article. Read the original ↗
A critique system makes quality visible before the review starts.
Meetings are not a craft system
When quality slips, the default response is another review. The calendar fills. The work does not get clearer. Critique without a standard is just opinion with a meeting link.
What a system actually contains
A written quality bar. A decision log. A named owner. A format that separates taste from risk. Teams that have these four things spend less time arguing and more time shipping.
Make the standard usable
If juniors cannot apply the bar without a principal in the room, it is not a system. It is a bottleneck wearing a framework’s clothing.
Framework
Critique System
Quality visible before the review starts. Opinion with a meeting link is not a craft system.
Quality bar
A written standard juniors can apply without a principal in the room.
Decision log
What was chosen, what was cut, and why.
Named owner
Someone accountable for the call, not the calendar.
Taste vs risk
A format that separates preference from harm.
Takeaway
Write the quality bar so a junior can apply it. If they cannot, you do not have a system.