The other day, a friend told me a funny story. He was asked by a colleague to review their work before merging it into the main development sandbox.
The colleague started by explaining the purpose of the feature they designed and built. Then they quickly ran through the demo. Like super fast.
My friend tried to interrupt the demo to ask questions or jot down notes but the colleague wouldn’t have it. They just kept going and going.
By the end, my friend realized his colleague didn’t want any actual feedback. They simply wanted validation that what they built was perfect.
It was as though they needed to check the box “peer reviewed”, without actually perofming a real review.
This not only wasted both of their time, it also drew attention to a flawed process.
The takeaway
Peer reviews can be extremely helpful, when they are actually performed sincerely. Sometimes you can be too close to something, that someone else can notice. This helps improve the quality of your work.
But if you’re just going through the motions, no one benefits.