If you’re thinking about writing publicly, you probably know it’s a good idea to get feedback before you hit publish or send.
There’s a good chance you have the impulse to get feedback from people closest to you: your partner, family, or work wife.
Maybe you buttonhole one of them after a meeting and say, “I’m working on a piece and I’d love to have you take a look.” And because they’re in your corner, they gamely say, “ok, sure.”
Or, if you’re being more formal about it, you might email them the piece and say, “I’d really value your feedback on this.”
Then a week goes by and you don’t hear and you think, “well, I guess they hated it, which makes sense because my writing really is pretty terrible.” Or you think, “I was really hoping to publish it this week—should I nudge them?”
Or maybe your work wife sends a quick note saying, “looks good!” and suddenly you’re thinking, “is he just saying that to be nice?” Or your friend rips your piece to shreds and leaves you feeling slightly shredded inside. You decide not to publish the piece.
In this situation your people didn’t know what to give you because you didn’t know what to ask for. Following these steps will help you avoid these scenarios and get feedback that is valuable to your writing process.
Step 1. Ask the right people. Although it’s tempting to ask people in your your inner circle, this is not always the best idea. In most situations, the readers who will give you the most valuable feedback are those who best approximate your intended audience. Writing for PMs? Select 3 PMs and ask them for specific feedback. Think of them as beta testers and then refine based on their input.
Step 2. Ask for what you want. I’ve created the Phenomenal Feedback Form to help you get valuable feedback every time. This form enables you to identify and ask for exactly what you want so that your readers can provide feedback that is actually useful.
One of the things you need to be honest with yourself and your readers about is whether you’re looking for encouragement, feedback, or both. It’s ok to need any or all of these, but it’s your job to tell your reader. One of the options on the Phenomenal Feedback form says, “at this point, I’m mostly looking for encouragement. I’d love it if you would highlight whatever parts of this piece are working.” One of the reasons we turn to people we know for feedback is that it feels safer because, let’s face it, sharing our work feels vulnerable. That’s normal. But if you don’t communicate your real agenda, readers are likely to respond based on subtexts in your relationship rather than on the work itself.
Step 3. Tell the reader your audience and goal. Without this data, your reader doesn’t know what you’re actually trying to do or who you’re trying to speak to. For example, you might write a piece about user experience research very differently if it’s aimed at business leaders or engineers.
Step 5. Know when to ask. In the Leaders Write Pipeline the feedback stage shows up between iterating and polishing, but in fact, you can get feedback anywhere in the process.
Remember that what you ask for should relate to where you are in the process. If your piece is early days, don’t ask for grammar and punctuation feedback. Ask about whether the overall concepts are interesting or valuable.
Step 5. Just because you asked for feedback doesn’t mean you have to take it. Take every data point with a grain of salt. Not every reader will be highly perceptive or articulate at giving feedback. Readers are often most useful when you ask them to give you something they are uniquely qualified to give: either their own subjective impression or a response based on their SME.
You can access the Phenomenal Feedback Form as a subscriber to the Leaders Write Executive Community, one of the many tools I’m excited to share.