The art of Analysing Feedback
Feedback and critique are perhaps the pillars of any piece of valuable work. It goes without saying that without receiving feedback, not only would a person not be able to look at work from another person’s point of view, but they would almost certainly not be able to realise true potentials for improvement.
Personally, the science of proper critiquing and the art of giving and receiving effective feedback is a practice that I’m very passionate about. There’s been an episode before where you learnt the finer details of design-centred critique.
But, there are some other angles that we have not considered yet.
Through this piece, we’ll be learning the art of analysing feedback.
You may be wondering, isn’t this exactly the same as what we saw in properly giving and receiving feedback? Well, what we learnt there was how to give constructive feedback, and how in return you should be receiving critique.
But — we did not go into, what to do with that feedback — how you should analyse that feedback.
And that, is exactly what we’ll see here.
That said, there are two aspects to this — the first one is straightforward — analysing feedback received from others. The second one, is something you probably haven’t ever thought of — its about analysing your own work and giving yourself feedback.
So, let’s study the first aspect first. What you need to do when you receive any feedback is to ask yourself — what can I do with this criticism?
The answer to this question will show you what you need to change in your work because it’s not good enough; and what does not need to change because it is already good enough.
But that’s not all — this aspect is also about deciding whether and how you should react to the piece of feedback. So how do you do it? Well, you basically classify all feedback you receive into four categories — advice, criticism, compliment and suggestion. Then, if it was a suggestion or a compliment, but you’re happy with the present work, you should not make any changes. If it was an advice, you might want to look into the necessary changes. But, it is a criticism, most definitely you need to make the changes.
So, that was how to analyse feedback received from others. Now, aspect number two — how to analyse your own work, and give yourself feedback.
The premise of this method lies in the fact, that you probably think you know what you’re good at — but in reality, you’re probably wrong. And how do you analyse your work to critique yourself? Well, whenever you realise that you have an important decision to make, make a note of what you expect to happen as a consequence of that decision. Keep that note safe for a year.
At the end of the year, compare your expectations with the actual outcome of that decision. You might just be surprised how far off you are, from what you had expected.
And the reason, we all should be doing this, is that — over time you learn to give yourself feedback, and you start to recognise, where and what kind of improvement is necessary.
Done properly, this is more empowering than any other kind of feedback that you could possibly get from an outsider.
So — there you have it — feedback analysis.
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