Code Reviews Are Broken. Here's How to Fix Them.

Every engineering team does code reviews. Most teams do them wrong. They focus on style and syntax, not design and architecture. They happen after code is written, not before. They become gatekeeping exercises, not learning opportunities. They slow teams down without improving code quality.

Code reviews should be learning opportunities, not gatekeeping exercises. They should improve code quality, not enforce personal preferences. They should happen early in the process, not after code is written. They should focus on design and architecture, not style and syntax. They should make teams better, not slower.

Most code reviews focus on the wrong things. They nitpick variable names, formatting, and style. They enforce personal preferences, not best practices. They catch syntax errors, not design problems. They review code, not solutions. They optimize for perfection, not improvement.

The best code reviews happen early. They review designs before implementation. They discuss architecture before coding. They align on approach before writing code. They catch problems when they're easy to fix, not when they're expensive to change. They improve solutions, not just code.

Code review culture determines whether reviews improve code or slow teams down. In healthy cultures, reviews are collaborative. Reviewers ask questions, suggest improvements, share knowledge. Authors learn from feedback, improve code, become better engineers. Reviews make teams better.

In unhealthy cultures, reviews are adversarial. Reviewers enforce preferences, catch mistakes, slow things down. Authors defend code, resist feedback, avoid reviews. Reviews become bottlenecks, not improvements. They slow teams down without improving code quality.

The organizations that succeed build review cultures that improve code quality and team capability. They focus on design and architecture, not style and syntax. They happen early, not after code is written. They're collaborative, not adversarial. They make teams better, not slower.

So if your code reviews are broken, fix the culture. Focus on design and architecture, not style and syntax. Review early, not after code is written. Make reviews collaborative, not adversarial. The question isn't whether code reviews matter. It's whether your code reviews actually improve code quality and team capability.