Feedback series part 1: Asking for 360 feedback
This will be the first deep dive post in the feedback series, and we’re here to look into asking for 360 feedback. In many companies, it’s common practice to have performance reviews once or twice a year. In preparation of this performance review it is also common to ask for written feedback, often known as 360 feedback, from your colleagues. So basically, you will be asking your colleagues for feedback, and they will ask you. Make sure to use this opportunity wisely!
So how do you go about asking for 360 feedback?
You need to decide who to ask for feedback and decide which questions to ask. I prefer to ask for feedback via an email or putting together a simple survey. It feels more personal that way and I can tailor the questions as I see fit.
Deciding who to ask for feedback
I advise you to pick 3–6 people you’ve worked closely with over the past time period, perhaps the last six months. Try to get a range of perspectives from people with different roles. For example, if you’re an engineer on a team you may want to ask a few of your fellow team members, your Product Manager, and perhaps someone else that you have interacted with in some capacity.
Do yourself a service and don’t only pick people who you get along well with! The idea is to get constructive feedback on how you can improve so make sure to ask some people who challenge you and who tend to do things differently than you, etc.
Deciding which questions to ask
It all depends on what you want to know. In general, it’s best to keep this simple to not overwhelm people with too many questions. Feedback takes time to write. If you ask for too much you risk people not responding. I would suggest no more than 4 or 5 questions total.
There are a few more general questions you could use, for example:
- How do I provide value to you in our work together?
- What are some things I do well?
- Where do you see areas for improvement?
- What is it like to work with me?
- What skills should I improve in order to be better at what I do?
- Which of my behaviors would you like to see more or less of?
Alternatively, you can ask more specific questions if they are relevant to what you want to learn about yourself. The more specific questions can be very powerful and provide a lot of value.
- How approachable am I when you’re looking for help? Do you feel comfortable asking me questions when you don’t understand things?
- Do you feel comfortable to contribute in meetings where I am present?
- How would you rate my ability to solicit your and others’ opinions and feedback?
- Do you feel safe describing your ideas to me?
- How would you describe my ability to explain concepts and ideas? What can I improve?
- How would you say I handle situations when people have different perspectives? How can I do it differently?
- What do you think of my level of participation during meetings and how much value do I add to them? How do you think I could be more constructive in meetings?
- Which of my working behaviors have changed over the last six months?
- When we work together, do you feel I approach problems in a sane way? Where could I improve?
- How do you feel my communication skills are?
- How would you rate my level of feedback during peer software reviews?
- What technical areas do you feel I am not adding much value to but could with some improvements?
Some additional thoughts
How you ask for feedback can make a huge difference. Here are some of the methods that are proven to increase your chances of receiving quality feedback:
- Ask for it in person in addition to sending an email
- Limit who you ask to those people you’ve worked closely with (quality over quantity)
- Limit the number of questions you ask so you don’t overwhelm people
- Give a deadline for the feedback, and remember to send a friendly reminderHopefully, this should give you valuable feedback that you can dig into further (more on that in a later post!).
And one very important last thing! Don’t forget to thank the people who’ve taken the time to give you feedback. Let them know that you appreciate it and tell them what value you took from their feedback. In some cases it might make sense to also tell them what you plan to do next to improve.
How did you find this post? Was this helpful to you? Let me know what you think! ❤
