Midpoint Review

Last Updated: August 3, 2026

The Midpoint Review helps your team design a solution that meets VA.gov Home Experience Standards and lowers the potential for launch-blocking issues at the final Staging Review. Teams usually schedule this touchpoint before doing research or moving to code. Follow these guidelines to get started or document a waiver justification.

This touchpoint is only for teams building products for Veterans, their caregivers, families, survivors, and representatives. Teams building products for organizations (e.g., VA employees, contractors, representatives working in an organizational capacity, etc) should not schedule this touchpoint.

Don’t have a GitHub ticket yet? You may need to start the Collab Cycle with a kickoff.

Generate a Collab Cycle Kickoff Ticket on GitHub

Watch this video for a quick, high-level overview of the Midpoint Review meeting. For complete details, read the article below.

What's the purpose of Midpoint Review?

The goal of the Midpoint Review touchpoint is to ensure your product aligns with VA.gov standards as you finalize your design. This touchpoint should be scheduled when a team has a prototype or mockup ready to put in front of users for research.

Preparing for the Midpoint Review

Format: Asynchronous or synchronous

You may schedule a Midpoint Review in either of these formats:

• Synchronous: Live, 30-minute Microsoft Teams meeting with Governance team, or

• Asynchronous: Review is scheduled, but no meeting is held. Governance team members review your research and design artifacts on their own, and append their feedback to your Midpoint Review GitHub ticket.

We recommend a synchronous meeting if this is the first time you’re introducing Platform to your product, or if there have been significant changes since your Design Intent.

When should the Midpoint Review be scheduled?

Schedule this meeting when:

• You have developed an idea for how to solve your problem statement

• You have drafted a user workflow

• You have drafted a wireframe or prototype

• You are preparing to do user research

Synchronous and asynchronous reviews are scheduled using the same process. Follow the instructions in your Collaboration Cycle ticket to schedule.

The Governance Team will need at least 2 business days to review your materials. Ensure you provide enough lead time, otherwise the meeting may need to be rescheduled.

What artifacts will be needed?

Artifacts are anything that will help us understand your product and provide the most helpful feedback, such as user flows and Figma files.

The following artifacts should be ready and linked in your VFS team’s GitHub ticket at least 2 business days before the scheduled meeting.

Required artifacts

• Up to date user flow. This is the most important artifact to help us understand your intended user experience and provide meaningful feedback.

  • Guidance on user flows. We’re looking for a visual representation of the interaction points and decisions your user will encounter. They can be as simple as a flowchart of arrows and shapes.

  • For help with user flows, reach out to the Content and Information Architecture team through the #content-ia-centralized-team channel on Slack.

Not required, but nice to have artifacts

You're welcome to join a design touchpoint at any stage of your work. Sharing your designs and other context like copy and research plans helps us understand your approach, answer questions, identify potential issues early, and offer feedback that's tailored to your product.

• Wireframes or prototype (at any stage)

  • Share all designs in a mobile viewport

• Accessibility annotations included as part of your design

• Research plan

• Any other artifacts you have so far

How to schedule a Midpoint Review

You can start scheduling a Midpoint Review in the Design review touchpoints (Optional) section of your Collab Cycle Kickoff GitHub ticket.

1. Create a Ticket: Use the “Initiate a Midpoint Review” link to generate a Midpoint Review GitHub ticket. The Governance Team will reach out within a business day via Slack to confirm that your touchpoint has been scheduled.

2. Schedule: Follow the guidance in the Midpoint Review GitHub ticket to schedule the meeting via the Calendly Midpoint Review calendar.

3. Add artifacts: Link all artifacts in the VFS Team: Add links to artifacts at least 2 days before the meeting section of the Midpoint Review GitHub ticket.

Please request your Midpoint Review meeting and provide artifacts at least 2 business days ahead of time so the Governance and OCTO-DE Teams can review your artifacts.

Who should schedule the Midpoint Review?

No one specific role on the VFS team is required to schedule the Midpoint Review. However, whoever schedules the Midpoint Review in Calendly will be responsible for inviting the rest of their team to the scheduled Midpoint Review meeting.

Who should attend the Midpoint Review?

The VFS team’s designer(s) and product manager should attend the Midpoint Review. You’re also encouraged to invite relevant members of your team, such as content, IA, accessibility, QA specialists, and VA stakeholders who will be working on or advising the product.

The Governance team will ensure that the relevant Platform and OCTO-DE participants are invited.

What happens during the Midpoint Review?

Meeting format

• 30-minute synchronous Microsoft Teams meeting

• Hosted by the Governance Team

• Recorded for later reference

Agenda

Design review meetings often follow this format:

• The Governance Team welcomes everyone to the call.

• Your team has about 10 minutes to introduce or give updates on your initiative. We recommend using this time to:

  • Discuss the problem space you are trying to solve for, including any constraints you’re facing.

  • Present your artifacts and walk us through the user flow.

• OCTO-DE and the Governance Team will ask questions and provide feedback. (They'll also provide you with written feedback through Github after the meeting).

What sort of feedback can teams expect?

After you present your artifacts, OCTO-DE and the Governance Team will ask questions and provide feedback. They may:

• Recommend applicable Design System components and/or patterns

• Share relevant insights or flows from other VA.gov work

• Recommend changes to the user flow or page structure to meet Accessibility and IA standards.

• Make suggestions for your research plan.

Remember, this is more of a discussion than a formal presentation. If you have questions you want answered or have questions about the feedback, ask!

After the Midpoint Review meeting

After the meeting, the Governance Team will add the link to the recording of the meeting to the Midpoint Review GitHub ticket.

Governance team design, accessibility, content, and IA reviewers will document their feedback with GitHub tickets following the Must, Should, and Consider Framework. Feedback tickets will be linked to the Midpoint Review GitHub ticket and can be found through the associated Milestone. Feedback tickets will be available no later than the end of the next business day following the meeting.

Once the Feedback is provided, you can update your plan & design to conform to relevant Platform standards. You can then move on to the next design touchpoint: the Staging Review.

How to document a waiver justification for a Design touchpoint

Although rare, some work may not require a Design Intent, Midpoint Review, and Research Review. We recommend first discussing this at Gov Leads Sync.

If you believe your team should skip one of these touchpoints, please comment on your Collaboration Cycle Github Ticket and briefly provide a justification, for example:

• Experienced team that already has expertise in VA.gov accessibility, design, content, and information architecture standards and design system components and pattern updates

• Existing product that has already been researched, tested, and is making minor or no user experience changes or interactions

• Team already attended one design touchpoint and we discussed not needing another

• Team accepts the risks of more delays, compliance documentation, and launch-blocking findings at Staging Review

Once you comment, we will respond via your Collab Cycle Github Ticket to confirm or request additional details.

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