Status: LIVE

Feedback System

• We follow the Kaizen approach.

• Practice blameless problem solving.

• At the end of every Activity, do a "lessons learnt session" with the entire Product Team. The AL is responsible for organising and facilitating these.

• When reflecting on what went well, and what didn't go so well with a project, follow the proportional investment principle towards fixing problems. That means, that you should never ignore problems. But neither should you go crazy with immediately addressing that problem at all levels for all time. That might be great in theory, but the problem might be infrequent enough that it's better to occasionally suffer the problem, than it is to invest a huge amount of resources into fixing it – the full fix may be more expensive than just living with the problem.

• We aim to give lots of positive feedback; a good ratio is 5 positive interactions to 1 negative interaction, even in the midst of a conflict.

• We praise effort and we also praise ability.

• It's great to offer some positive feedback, then stop there.

• Ask for feedback often.

• Leaders need to explicitly lead great feedback culture.

• Don't punish.

• Make it easy.

• Make it open and transparent.

• Create a regular system for feedback.

• Implement feedback culture as normal.

• We have a variety of feedback channels that work well for a variety of personalities, use the one that you prefer:

  • your 1::1s

  • townhall

  • the company wide feedback questionnaire

  • the Core Team Slack channel

  • talk to your superior

  • talk to the CEO

• Foster both positive feedback and negative feedback.

• Explain measures behind decisions regarding feedback.

• Explain the benefits of feedback.

• Focus on transparency, so everyone understands how the feedback system works and its purpose.

• Talk explicitly with your colleagues about the feedback culture you want to create.

• Create feedback norms.

• Value relationship-building.

• Emphasise "What is going well" and "What could go better".

• We value increasing people's strengths over trying to fix people's weaknesses.

• We value feedback that is timely, and comes early and often.

• Specific feedback is better than general feedback.

• Measurable feedback is better than qualitative feedback.

• Actionable feedback is better than unactionable feedback.

• Relevant feedback is better than irrelevant feedback.

• Timely feedback is better than late feedback.

• To give and receive truly candid feedback, people must truly feel a sense of safety and trust.

• To create safety and trust, we get to know each other, and we talk about emotions.

• Create safe places for feedback.

• It's OK to say no to giving feedback or receiving feedback.

• Give sincere feedback to your colleagues. If it's constructive do it privately. If it's praise do it publicly.

• Be brave, and settle differences privately. Practice non-violent communication, crash course: "I feel X, because Y happened. Can we consider doing Z?". As opposed to: "You did Y, and you should do Z instead...". Here's a secret: maybe it's you who made a mistake, allow for that possibility. See Conflict Resolution Protocol.

• Everyone is encouraged to give feedback. It's on you to speak up.