Async Critiques Without Slack Drift

Async design critiques fail when feedback lives only in chat. We coach teams to embed critique prompts directly beside the artifact, with principle tags and explicit decision fields. Principle tags force reviewers to name which guideline they invoke. That small friction reduces drive-by opinions and keeps the critique legible a month later. Decision fields are blunt: approve, revise, or escalate—with one sentence of rationale. Escalations must include who owns the next step. We still use chat for logistics, but the authoritative record stays with the file. Product trios told us this cut duplicate meetings without making reviews feel colder—just more legible.