Most of us were taught to work like this:
-
Disappear into a cave
-
Build the “perfect” thing
-
Toss it over the wall to the client, your boss, or your team
-
Hope they like it
That “over the wall” approach feels productive, and I know I often feel the pressure to deliver something done and polished. The challenge is, I often get stuck polishing, or perfecting, instead of improving. We protect our work instead of stress-testing it. And often times the last 10% of perfecting takes way too long.
The alternative is simple: build feedback into everything you do. Feedback is part of the process.
A good feedback loop is simple, fast, and repeatable. Not a giant post-mortem once a quarter.
What a Real Feedback Loop Looks Like
1. Shorten the distance between action and feedback
- Don’t wait 30 days, or until it’s “done”.
2. Get feedback from all levels, not just the top
- Your best ideas often come from the people closest to the work.
- When someone says, “This is annoying,” don’t dismiss it—dig in.
-
This is the difference between a culture of “do what you’re told” and a culture of “we build this together.”
3. Make feedback specific and actionable
- Vague: “We need better marketing.”
- Useful: “Every flyer should answer these three questions in the first 10 seconds.”
- Ask questions like:
-
“What should we stop doing next week?”
-
“What’s one thing we can say ‘no’ to, so we can say ‘yes’ to this?”
-
“If you were the client, what would annoy you about this?”
-
4. Capture the loop in a system
- Conversations are great. Build them into your system.
-
Review changes and feedback regularly: are they actually helping?
Ask yourself:
-
Where am I throwing work over the wall and hoping it lands?
-
Where could I shorten the distance between action and feedback?
-
Who do I need to invite into the loop that I’ve been unintentionally leaving out?
We all could benefit from better feedback loops.
Charlie Coppola
