Don't Fight the Feedback

CHORUS BUSINESS UPDATE

It’s awkward. Satya Nadella hasn’t called. Maybe I should be the one to get in touch. We’ve joined the Microsoft Partner Network in order to get early access to releases of key products. Mostly for the sexy Power BI features as we continue to add interactive dashboards to our offering. Meanwhile we’ve also become a Snap Surveys Research Partner and are looking forward to collaboration using their software to create slick survey experiences. ?

In other news, we now have some outward legitimacy in the eyes of the Internet: our website is live and we have a brand identity (thank you realityhouse). You can check out our rather vibrant appearance here: www.chorusinsight.com. If you spot any typos, tell me and I’ll credit you with a free pint or coffee of your choice.

Since my last update, we have one new face in the form of Jaakko Miettinen who has joined us to run our data analysis function. Jaakko is our data scientist with a PhD in Economics and a passion for beautiful data visualisations. He’s based up in Glasgow. If you want to know anything statistics related, he’s your man. He can explain numbers in English, Finnish and Glaswegian.

Meanwhile, we’re recruiting a new Executive Interviewer so if you know anyone particularly bright and enquiring, send them our way. We’ll also be looking for a part-time junior researcher in the very near future – a good opportunity for someone new to market research, keen to learn the ropes.

Our hiring drive is due to new growth to support the extra client work we’re undertaking but it’s also to pick up the slack as sadly Nancy will be departing at the end of the month. She’s been pried away by a former client of ours (please, nobody else get any ideas!) All the best to Nancy and a big thank you for helping get us launched and off to a flying start.

NEW FEEDBACK KNOW-HOW WORTH KNOWING

The FT’s F*ck you Guide to Feedback

The FT published an interesting long read on The Science of Criticism That Actually Works discussing whether it is possible to get better at giving and receiving criticism. My main takeaways:

According to one model, there are three stages to receiving negative feedback: 1. F*ck you. 2. I suck. 3. Let’s make it better. They’re something akin to the stages of grief. Initially you deny it, then you feel awful and need to grieve. Then you confront reality, come to terms with it and emerge a stronger person.

The article teaches us to be realists about feedback and it cautions against over-optimism:

We overestimate the capacity of our colleagues to calibrate their comments to our individual emotional states. We underestimate how bruising it is to hear that we are not meeting expectations, even when the issues are minor. And we can be surprised by critiques that do not line up with our sense of who we are. If you believe you’re a great listener and your 360-degree feedback comes back with complaints that you monopolise meetings, that may not feel like being known so much as feeling alien to yourself.

There’s also a good introduction to the Dunning-Kruger effect which is well worth reading about – highlighting why we need external support to know our blind spots since we’re never quite as self-aware as we’d hope.

In a nutshell, there are people who are crap at things who are so crap, they can’t begin to gauge how crap they are compared to top performers and as a result will be able to convince you they’re actually highly competent. They have the confidence without the confidence. It also works the other way, whereby you undervalue your expertise, assuming that others must know what you know.

Google’s Simplicity Sprint Starts with a Staff Survey

Google is worried that their productivity is waning. They came to the conclusion by comparing their earnings per share ($1.21 vs $1.28 expected) alongside their 21% expansion in headcount. Part of their solution is an internal feedback survey among staff (all 174,014 of them) to remove barriers and find efficiencies. ?

The questions are of course top secret. But they’re also widely leaked, so here you go:

1.????What would help you work with greater clarity and efficiency to serve our users and customers?

2.????Where should we remove speed bumps to get better results faster?

3.????How do we eliminate waste and stay entrepreneurial and focused as we grow?

Besides using ‘and’ too often, what stands out to me is that they’ve kept the exercise very simple and focused on the customer experience. If Google is asking, why not your firm?

The Bottom Line: Online Reviews

You might also like a recent episode of The Bottom Line, presented by Evan Davis which asks, Can we trust the wisdom of the crowd on online review platforms? One of the guests is from Trustpilot and they discuss how businesses can use online reviews to their advantage as well as deal with public criticism. It’s more chip shops and wellies than professional services but has some interesting insights if you sell to consumers. There’s a fairly balanced account of the flaws in this type of reviewing where the feedback is public and vulnerable to people gaming the system.

Revenue Coverage, Sankey Charts and Spotify

Meanwhile, back in the B2B research world, I’ve considered a few feedback topics:

• Why Revenue Coverage Matters More Than Representative Sampling in B2B research.
• How the Sankey chart can work as a new means of Visualising Net Promoter Score.
• And here’s our chart-topping "If Spotify was a Request for Feedback Playlist". No really – check it out for your afternoon listening.

Thank you for reading – please do share any feedback!

Graham