Submitting Work for Review

Quick Tip!

When your submission is in the review process, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask clarifying questions if you’re confused about feedback. Communication is key!

Helpful Staff for this Topic

What are Reviews?

The review process is essential to the function of the Corps. The content we make needs to be reviewed and approved through multiple levels to ensure quality throughout. To begin the review process, you need to understand how to access the review function in Slack.

Using the /Review Function

Go to the desired project channel.
In the message bar, type /review and press enter.
A submission form will appear where you will enter the details of the review and submit it.
Enter the Title of your review. This is the item that you’re submitting. This typically includes the version number of the item, starting with V1 and so on.
Choose the Reviewer, or who the review is going to in the process. If you’re starting from scratch, it should go to the project’s JPM.
Select the project’s Priority level. This will typically be “project,” unless you are submitting an expedited review. More detail on expedited reviews to follow.
Paste the Links to Review. Use the “copy link” option from the share feature of OneDrive—don’t copy from the browser URL at the top! Make sure to link to the item itself, not the entire OneDrive folder.
Finally, enter any additional Notes for Reviewer. Provide detailed information, including any comments or questions you have about your work. Provide necessary context. What is the reviewer supposed to be focusing on specifically? Where does this fit in with the rest of the project? If you’re re-submitting a review with prior feedback, note what you changed and where. Mention what project this review is for! Reviewers have multiple reviews at once, and this helps them straighten things out.
Click Submit.

Project Review Process

JPM
PM
Team Lead
Brandon

Quick Tip!

When you submit a review, make sure the title is specific. Include the version number of the content and any distinguishing factors. Make sure to specify if the version in review is a rough or a final version!

Congrats, you’ve successfully submitted something for review. The next step in the process is to wait for feedback, or approval.

Submitter Side

Addressing Feedback

You’ve successfully submitted something for review and a reviewer has made comments on your submission. Now’s the time to address their feedback.

When you receive feedback, you can access it in the project channel within the review, or in the Slash Reviews App (below DMs).
Make sure to read comments carefully and address each piece of feedback. If you have questions, tag the reviewer in the channel and ask for further clarification. If you still need more direction, schedule some time to meet with them and chat through their feedback.
Don’t respond to feedback in /review threads! These threads are incredibly hard to access and often get buried in channels. Reach out to reviewers directly.

After you’ve addressed the reviewer’s feedback, the next step is to submit the file with their changes back to them, unless they say it’s okay to move forward in the process. At that point, submit it to the next person in the review chain.

When to Poke Reviewers

Your submission is making its way through the review process. Except… it’s been stuck at a staff member for more than 24 hours. Hopefully, cases like this aren’t common. If your review is stuck at a staff or team member for more than 24 hours, let your project PM or JPM know, and they’ll remind the reviewer to get to your submission.

Your submission moves on and on… and it completes the review chain! Great job. You’ve successfully completed a review.

Expedited Reviews

On some projects, certain submissions need to be prioritized. This is when expedited reviews come into play. Expedited reviews are pushed to the front of a reviewers’ pool of current reviews. You should only submit something as an expedited review if specified by a PM team member. These are only used for special cases.

Reviewer Side

How to Leave Proper Feedback

When a review comes to you for feedback, it’s important to keep these things in mind:

Be clear and direct with feedback.
Be confident in your ideas, thoughts, and opinions – don’t hope someone else will catch something you noticed.
Address ALL of the issues you see within a review. This allows for team members to fix everything at once.
Try to offer solutions if your feedback is vague.
If you’re looking for something specific, make sure to mention it so team members can address it.
Review things in a timely manner.
If the feedback is more than a few short paragraphs, schedule time to talk in person about the details of the review.

Review Clutter

With multiple people on projects submitting reviews simultaneously, project channels have the potential to get cluttered. Some projects that experience this issue frequently have dedicated review channels. Reference Guides and The Loading Zone are two of the most prominent projects with this feature. If you’re on a project with a dedicated review channel, be sure to submit your reviews exclusively in the review channel! If you’re on a project that you think could benefit from a dedicated review channel, reach out to your PM team member and they’ll discuss it with staff.

That’s a brief summary of the review process. With these tips in mind, you should be able to successfully submit, review, and edit content.