Insights | Feedback

Read how you can use criteria to ensure critical feedback.

If you have tried to get feedback from customers, users, or colleagues on a project or solution you have worked on, you may have experienced getting something completely different than what you expected.

One of the reasons could be that you have used a comment-based feedback model. Most of us think that if we show what we have created to those who will use it and ask them for comments, we will find out what is missing or needs to be changed to make everything perfect. However, the reality is that the feedback you receive when you simply ask, "Do you have any comments?" is highly random.

This is because such a question encourages people to share their personal tastes and immediate impressions rather than providing targeted feedback. And people's impressions are influenced by all sorts of things that have nothing to do with the matter or the solution at hand. It includes everything they happen to be preoccupied with at the moment. That's why you may have also experienced receiving different comments from the same individuals on different days.

Furthermore, most people will have an opinion if you ask for a comment. However, that opinion may not be relevant to their expertise or the specific feedback you are seeking. So, when you ask for comments, you risk receiving noisy and random feedback. And you risk missing out on or overlooking the most valuable feedback.

If you want to ensure useful and relevant feedback, you need to replace the comment-based feedback model with a criteria-based feedback model. Criteria-based feedback is built upon a set of criteria that different stakeholders should confirm or refute. These criteria capture critical errors and deficiencies and ensure that the solution you are working on will be effective and successful.

Benelizer's cloud solution makes it easy for you to work with criteria-based feedback. You can also learn more about the method in one of our master classes.