You want to innovate your business, but how can you improve your skills with feedback?

1 Choose your feedback sources

Not all feedback is equally useful. You want to get feedback from people who have relevant expertise, experience, or perspective. For example, you can ask your customers, mentors, peers, or experts in your field for their opinions and suggestions. You can also use online platforms, surveys, or focus groups to gather feedback from a larger or more diverse audience. Depending on your goals and stage of innovation, you may need different types of feedback sources.

3 Listen and learn

Feedback is only valuable if you listen and learn from it. Don't take feedback personally or defensively. Instead, appreciate the feedback giver's time and effort, and acknowledge their points and perspectives. Try to understand the reasons behind their feedback, and ask for clarification or examples if needed. Don't argue or justify your decisions, but be open to different opinions and perspectives. Remember that feedback is not a judgment, but an opportunity to learn and improve.

4 Evaluate and apply

Feedback is not a directive, but a data point. You don't have to follow every piece of feedback blindly, but you need to evaluate and apply it wisely. To evaluate feedback, you can use criteria such as relevance, validity, consistency, and actionability. You can also compare and contrast feedback from different sources, and look for patterns and trends. To apply feedback, you can use methods such as prioritization, experimentation, iteration, or prototyping. You can also track and measure the results of your changes, and seek more feedback as you progress.

5 Give feedback to others

One of the best ways to improve your skills with feedback is to give feedback to others. Giving feedback can help you develop your critical thinking, communication, and empathy skills. It can also help you build trust and rapport with your feedback partners, and create a culture of learning and innovation in your business. To give feedback effectively, you need to follow some principles such as being timely, specific, constructive, respectful, and supportive.

Feedback is a powerful tool for innovation. By seeking and using feedback from various sources, you can improve your skills in generating, testing, and implementing new ideas. You can also give feedback to others, and create a positive feedback loop that fosters learning and improvement. How do you use feedback to innovate your business? Share your tips and experiences with us.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?