Kindly Review

8Perfect Pass‐Through

The Perfect Pass‐Through might feel like a dream. This reviewer gives you the rubber stamp of approval every time. Every once in a while, they may change a comma or an unfortunate typo, but your work remains largely untouched. Sounds great, right? “I love everything” means “I read 10% of it, and I trust you to do your job.” Great in the moment, but you are not growing or collaborating.

This is a nice feedback style. But it's not kind. It's protecting the creator's feelings instead of helping the idea become great. In the Kind Review process, we're aiming for action and kindness.

This style of reviewer can completely trust the creator doing their job, or they can be the opposite and lack enough knowledge to comment. Either way, it's terrible. Producing creative work isn't a one‐person job. It takes collaboration and editing to make it shine. Always know that every great writer has a good editor.

One Perfect Pass‐Through reviewer I worked with was a doozy. She held a director‐level title, but I believe she felt I had more expertise than she did because of my consultant status. Hence she never said a word, good or bad, about our work. I was always so unsure whether she liked our work or hated it. She never gave praise, and she never defended the work, either. She was merely a vehicle to bring our work to her team. It was such a missed opportunity for her ...