Taking the Fear Out of Feedback

“So, what do you think?”? It takes a bit of courage to ask the question.? Many of us have had a negative experience with feedback in the past.? You put hours of effort into an idea and eagerly sought feedback, only to receive dismissive criticism.

As a response, we can become scared to seek feedback in the future. Believing our next idea is not ready to share, we continually polish it, never actually sharing it with others. However, we should not be afraid of feedback. Of course, our initial ideas have flaws; we are human! That's why we need a process and the courage to invite others to help make them better.

Design thinking is built on the idea that building solutions is never a completely linear process. You have to explore human problems through empathetic research, and as ideas develop, you prototype, test, and return to your research, exploring new insights. It is the opposite of concealing an idea from users until it's finished. Instead, in design thinking, you go to users first to explore their needs in order to learn and observe insights in a real-world environment.

We can apply these principles from design thinking to take the scare out of seeking feedback. Here are four principles for feedback in your work, problem-solving, and personal life. ? ?

1. Seek Feedback Early, Not Later?

One common mistake many companies make in launching new products is that they wait far too long to get end-user feedback.? Once they have invested a lot of money and time into an idea, it doesn’t matter what kind of feedback they receive; managers will likely resist it because of the sunk cost.? It’s the same way with our own ideas; when we over-polish an idea or concept, we become attached to it and resistant to feedback.? Seeking feedback early can help you avoid that sunk feeling and help you inspect the foundation of your idea before you build on it.? ?

2. Find the Right People to Answer Specific Questions

Once you have decided to seek feedback, the next question is, who should I seek it from?? It’s common to seek the opinion of someone we admire.? However, if not careful, the question, "What do you think of my idea?" can quickly turn into “What do you think of me?”? When this happens, the respect of the person becomes more important to the recipient than the feedback itself.?

To avoid this trap, seek the feedback of several stakeholders. Look for stakeholders who can be insightful with specific questions.? Rather than asking one person, what do you think of my small business idea, you could go to several potential customers and say, “I'd love to know how important you find each of the value propositions of my product. Can you help me rank them in order of importance to you?"? By seeking multiple sources of feedback, your idea no longer rides on a single person's opinion, and you can gain the wisdom of multiple perspectives.? ? ? ?

3. Break the Feedback Process into Stages

Design thinking uses iterative processes to solve problems, from empathetic research, problem framing, ideating, and prototyping to testing and scaling.? The process is dynamic and continually learning and adjusting to new insights and discoveries.? It is helpful when seeking feedback to use iterative stages. Here are five stages to go beyond simply asking, "What do you think?" ?

I. Clarify the Details of the Project, Idea, or Concept?

Invite clarifying questions to ensure understanding. You never want to skip the clarification step. ?At first hearing, your sounding board may have an entirely different perspective of your idea than what you intended. It helps to start by explaining your thought process and how your idea came to be.? Walking someone through your thought process can help them understand and offer better feedback. Sharing the story behind your problem will improve feedback and invite others to journey towards a solution with you.

II. Positive Reflection

Everyone wants to hear positive feedback.? However, sometimes, people push past this important stage in an attempt to get to "constructive criticism."?It's not wrong to want to know the positives of an idea. It is actually very helpful to identify and sort the strengths of an idea. One way to enhance the usefulness of positive feedback on your idea is to invite the contributor to rank what they like about it. You don’t simply want a list of equally positive responses; you want them to distinguish the strongest elements from the weaker elements. Ranking the positive aspects will help you distinguish the icing on the cake from the actual cake.

III. Create a Problem List

What are the potential problems in your idea that need to be addressed?? If you sense that the feedback contributor is struggling to offer positive feedback, or you believe they are holding back their true thoughts, it can be helpful to create a problem list before conducting positive reflection.? Get the log jam of problems out of the way by listing problems to solve and then asking, what needs to be true for this to work? ? Sometimes, addressing the elephant in the room can help your feedback contributor move from a critic to a creative problem-solver.? ??

IV. Build up the Idea

Even if the problem list is long, invite your feedback contributor to build on your ideas and offer suggestions for improvement.? This can be the most exciting stage in the process and lead to breakthroughs.? Overall, you want the process to move in a positive direction, so having two positive phases in your process, reflecting and building up the idea, can go a long way. ? ?

V. Evolve the Idea

Lastly, you have to be willing to take the results from your feedback and rethink your assumptions in order to improve it.? Resist the urge to polish your newly evolved idea.? It's better in raw form. When finished, go back to your feedback contributors and confirm the changes have addressed their concerns.? If you haven’t already sought users, customers, or stakeholders, do so now.

4. Clarify and Repeat

The key to great feedback is to clarify what stage or type of feedback you are looking for from your contributor. ? Are you looking for positive reflection, problem identification, or help with evolving the idea?? If you are on different pages about the type or stage of feedback you are seeking, it will be a frustrating experience for all involved.? ?

Remember, this is an iterative process, meaning it is dynamic, and at times, you will feel like you are moving backward.? However, the more you make feedback a central part of your ideation, the more you will experience its value, improve your ideas, and solve meaningful problems. Seeking feedback should not be scary; rather, it should remind you that you are not alone and that ideas are best shared and built together with others. ? ? ? ?