This gem, from DSGN+DVLP, the designer’s guide for getting good feedback. Their points, I feel, are very much on the mark and apply to many contexts, including even within large corporations like Adobe. The point is, not everyone is a designer, and/or thinks like one. And yes, as designers, we need to help guide the conversation. So here are the dos and dont’s useful for a design to communicate to their client when showing work (listed as if emailed from a design firm to a client, and directly paraphrased from the original post):

DO
› Give feedback as if through the eyes of the person whom you’re targeting.
› Let us know how the tone feels (colors, wording)
› Tell us how the flow feels (layout, navigation, eye movement - does your eye move gracefully or fixate on a specific spot).
› Let us know if we’ve missed anything essential to the design.
› Most importantly, have fun and show it off (this is custom made for you, so go ahead and feel good about it!).

DON’T
› Get too focused on colors or fonts (these can be changed rather quickly).
› Let us know how “Harold the janitor” disliked the type on the website if “Harold the janitor” is not the target audience.
› Take this design to committee (you know what they say, everyone has an opinion).
› Tell us we’ve got it all wrong (there has to be some gold in there!).