Importance of Feedback in Developer Experience

Feedback: When Growth Becomes the Norm A culture that embraces feedback at its core, is unstoppable. Feedback is the foundation of growth, trust, and high performance. When done right it supports stronger teams, sharper decisions and better results. In the wrong culture it can have devastating impact, breeding silence, fear, and disengagement. The difference? Psychological safety. When people trust that feedback is constructive, honest, and given with the intent to help and not harm, they lean in rather than pull away. They take action rather than retreat in fear. Research shows that when feedback includes specifics, is in the moment and focuses on improvement, it leads to better performance and higher engagement. ✅A study from Gallup found that employees who receive meaningful feedback at least once a week are 3.2 times more likely to be engaged at work. ✅Another study from Harvard Business Review revealed that 57% of employees prefer corrective feedback over praise when it’s delivered with care and clarity. ✅ People crave feedback as shown in this HBR statistic that 92% of employees agree that when negative feedback is delivered appropriately, it improves performance. When feedback is real, kind, and actionable, it helps us expand beyond our current limits. Reflection to Action Are we creating a culture where feedback is welcomed, valued, and acted upon? Do our teams feel safe to give and receive honest feedback without fear of retaliation? It starts with each of us. Model the behavior. Ask for feedback. Give it with care. And most importantly—act on it. Growth happens when feedback moves from a conversation to real change.

Have you noticed how some feedback changes performance while other feedback seems to go nowhere? One of my beliefs is that most people usually want to do good work. When someone repeatedly misses the mark, I don’t assume it’s because they aren’t trying. More often, I think they believe they’re already doing what you’ve asked. Early in my career at McKinsey, I spent countless hours building slides to communicate analyses and recommendations. The feedback often sounded familiar: make it tighter, find a better way to visualize this, strengthen the synthesis. Perfectly reasonable feedback. Slightly less helpful at 11:30 p.m. when you’re staring at PowerPoint wondering what “tighter” actually looks like. I could usually address the specific comments. But I was getting better at fixing that slide, not necessarily at making the next one. The managers who accelerated my development did something different. Before a presentation went to a client, they’d pull up my version of the slide next to the version they had edited. Then we’d walk through the differences. Not just what changed. Why it changed. Why this insight became the headline. Why that chart told the story more clearly. Why one sentence stayed and another disappeared. Over time, I stopped memorizing edits and started seeing the work differently. Once I could see the patterns they saw, I began making different decisions before anyone gave me feedback. That experience has shaped how I think about development. Organizations often describe capabilities like strategic thinking, executive presence, judgment, or strong communication. But people don’t learn those capabilities simply by hearing them repeated. They learn when someone helps them see the gap between what they’re doing and what good looks like. Tactical, specific feedback is important, of course. But to help someone build a capability like strategic thinking, you have to help them see the work differently.

"Feedback is a gift. It's an opportunity to learn and grow" At Google, we believe in the power of feedback to drive improvement. Sometimes feedback can be tough to hear. But taking the time to unpack it, understand the perspective, and reflect on it is crucial. Why feedback matters: - It reveals blind spots we cannot see ourselves - It accelerates learning by shortcutting trial and error - It demonstrates that others are invested in your success - It creates alignment between perception and reality How to receive feedback effectively: 1. Approach with curiosity, not defensiveness When receiving feedback, your first reaction might be to justify or explain. Instead, listen deeply and ask clarifying questions: "Can you give me a specific example?" or "What would success look like to you?" 2. Separate intention from impact Remember that well-intentioned actions can still have unintended consequences. Focus on understanding the impact rather than defending your intentions. 3. Look for patterns across multiple sources Individual feedback may reflect personal preferences, but patterns across multiple sources often reveal genuine opportunities for growth. 4. Prioritize actionable insights Not all feedback requires action. Evaluate which points will have the greatest impact on your effectiveness and focus your energy there. 5. Follow up and close the loop Demonstrate your commitment by acknowledging the feedback, sharing your action plan, and following up on your progress. Creating a feedback-rich environment: - Model vulnerability by asking for feedback yourself - Recognize and celebrate when people implement feedback successfully - Make it routine through structured check-ins rather than waiting for formal reviews At Google, we've learned that organizations with robust feedback cultures innovate faster, adapt more quickly to market changes, and build more inclusive workplaces. Let's commit to seeing feedback not as criticism but as a valuable investment in our collective future. The discomfort is temporary, but the growth is lasting. #motivation #productivity #mindset

99% of high-performing software engineers I’ve worked with share one belief: → Speed of feedback decides the speed of growth. 🔁 Shorter loops always win: ∟ 20-line PRs > 200-line PRs   You ship faster, get reviewed quicker, and avoid the “merge paralysis” trap. ∟ “Push & test” > “Think & overthink”   Most bugs are in your assumptions. Push early, learn faster. ∟ Staging traffic > Unit test coverage   Tests are helpful. But watching a real request hit your endpoint? Unmatched insight. ∟ Slack check-ins > Waiting for the weekly sync   Fast decisions move projects. “Let’s wait for the standup” kills momentum. ∟ A 10-minute spike > 3 days of planning   You don’t need perfect answers. You need fast signals. The best engineers know this: → The longer you wait for feedback, the more expensive your mistakes get. Tighten the loop. Feel the pain sooner. Get better faster. That’s how you grow. That’s how you win.

If the first time you get feedback is in your "Sprint Review" or "Demo," your Sprint has probably failed. Your goal is to deliver the most valuable thing. If the review feedback tells you that you need to make a change, then you have not delivered the most valuable thing. You don't want to build the wrong thing, then waste time turning that wrong thing into the right thing. It's better to build the right thing to begin with. You needed to learn about that change _during_ development, when the change is easy, not after. I should add that if the feedback you get in that "review" is from "stakeholders," not users or customers, then the failure window is multiple Sprints. You don't know if you're building the right thing until real users/customers see it. No customer surrogate will tell you that.

Imagine this: As a Top Manager, you send an important email to your team. The message is clear, the plan is well thought out, and you’re confident the changes you’ve proposed will make a big impact. Then, you hear nothing. For 10 weeks. Finally, a response lands in your inbox: “We tried to implement the changes as requested, but in day-to-day operations, they just don’t work.” By now, you’ve moved on. You’re deep into other priorities and decisions. You barely remember the specifics of your original plan. Now, you must reorient yourself, rethink your reasoning, and restart the discussion. A problem that could have been addressed in minutes has become a costly, time-consuming distraction. Absurd, right? Yet this is standard practice in automotive software development. A developer delivers software they believe works. But because integration happens only at the next planned milestone – often weeks or months later – the feedback arrives too late: “We tried, but in real-world operation, it doesn’t work.” By this time, the developer is already deep into other features. They have to stop, painfully reorient themselves, and recall decisions made weeks ago to fix a problem that could have been caught immediately through incremental integration. The problem? A milestone-driven, batch-oriented process that delays critical feedback until it’s too late. In today’s fast-paced business world, who would tolerate waiting 10 weeks to find out a plan doesn’t work? Why do we accept this for software integration?

“Feedback is a gift.” We’ve all heard it. But here’s the truth: sometimes that gift is the equivalent of socks at Christmas. Not bad, not wrong, just not always what you need. Often in your career, you’re told to treat feedback as gospel. Nod, thank them, implement it. That mindset gets you somewhere, but it doesn’t get you everywhere. Because the reality is: not all feedback is created equal. Feedback always comes through someone else’s lens. Their priorities. Their experiences. Their blind spots. And unless they have lived your full context, they cannot see the whole picture. That is not arrogance, that is reality. Here is the shift I have learned to make: 🤝 Take feedback in gratefully because even socks can be useful. 🥅 Filter it relentlessly by asking: does this move me forward in this situation with this set of variables, or does it reflect their world more than mine? 🎯 Act with discernment by applying what sharpens you and leaving the rest. The leaders who grow are not the ones who blindly accept every piece of feedback. They are the ones who can tell, quickly, what belongs in their toolbox and what does not. Feedback is not a silver bullet. It is raw material. And your job is to refine it. 🕵️♀️

The best feedback I’ve gotten wasn’t on my code. It was on how I talked about my code. “You hedge too much.” “You have the right answer — just say it like it matters.” “You wait for someone else to validate it. You don’t need to.” That feedback changed more than my performance reviews. It changed my posture. My confidence. My voice in meetings. Code matters. But how you carry it into the room? That’s what makes you trusted.

I heard Jason Fried, CEO at 37signals give feedback to a designer once, and it blew me away. Here’s what he said: “I like how you designed the save icon. It makes it clear that the work is being saved.” “I wish there was a way to show when the saving is done. “What if the icon turned green when it was finished saving?” Simple, right? But there’s some powerful psychology at work here. 1. Affirmation first. Jason starts with what’s working. This creates a sense of safety and keeps the designer open to feedback. People are more likely to listen when they feel valued. 2. Make it collaborative. Instead of saying, “This is wrong” or “You need to fix this,” Jason says, “I wish…” and “What if…” These phrases invite problem-solving rather than defensiveness. 3. Be specific. The feedback isn’t vague, like “Make it better.” It’s actionable: “What if the icon turned green?” Clarity reduces friction and makes the next step obvious. This isn’t just about design. It’s about leadership. Sales. Relationships. People respond better to feedback when it’s thoughtful, collaborative, and clear. So next time you give feedback, try Jason’s approach: I like. I wish. What if.