The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Getting Useful Feedback

Asking for feedback can sometimes feel like this:

And getting feedback generally feels like this:

… Or like this:

Having first worked at a growth-obsessed startup, and then fending for myself as a freelancer for 3 years, I’ve learned some valuable lessons about gathering useful feedback.

If you don’t read any further, then here’s the secret: If you don’t get the feedback you want, you’re probably not asking for it in the right way.

As the business leader, it's your role to extract actionable insights — it's not solely on your clients to provide them.

Encourage Thoughtful Responses

Avoid vague requests for feedback. It’s akin to handing someone a bag of groceries and asking, “What do you think?”

Instead, pose guiding questions that elicit detailed responses, avoiding simple yes/no answers:

Rather than:

• Do you like this?

• Is this what you envisioned?

• How well does this align with our goals?

• Should we modify this?

Ask:

• What improvements would make this 50% better?

• What elements would you add or remove?

• How does this integrate with our current business strategy? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

• How do you think our customers will respond to this?

Focus the Feedback

Working in iterative cycles not only allows for early corrections but also narrows the scope of feedback to manageable segments.

For instance:

• Highlight recent additions: “I introduced X — how do you think it complements our existing strategy?”

• Prioritize immediate concerns: “Perfecting this aspect is crucial as it will guide our next steps. Let’s concentrate here for now.”

• Temporarily sideline certain aspects: “Let’s put X and Y aside for the moment, and focus on Z.”

• Seek precise guidance: “I need specific feedback on X — could you review this and provide insights on Y?”

Set a Clear Timeline

Simply ask: “Can you ensure to provide feedback by Friday at noon?”

This approach:

• Prepares them for your follow-up, which won’t seem overbearing.

• Clarifies the likelihood of receiving feedback by the set deadline.

• Establishes a commitment from them to prepare in advance.

• Keeps the project advancing on schedule.

Utilize Written and Discussed Feedback

I always like asking clients to make written notes of their feedback, and then offering them a call to chat through it.

It’s the difference between a meeting with and without an agenda:

• Just a call tends to result in unstructured and stream-of-consciousness rambling that hasn’t been sorted, clarified, or critiqued by the client. It’s an easy way for clients to dump a bunch of thoughts on you, and hope you turn it into something useful.

• Just written notes tends to always leave me with at least one or two clarifying questions that I need to follow up on anyway.

• But written notes that are followed by a call means clients have to put effort into collecting their thoughts enough to pre-verbalise them while giving us a chance to unpack those thoughts a little more in a structured way.

Ask “Why”, Until You Can Answer

Asking “why” is a superpower in life generally. So, naturally, it helps with getting more useful feedback as well.

For example, here’s why asking “why” helps:

• “Can you change this CTA button to black, please.”

• Why do you say that?

• “It looks strange in grey.”

• Why do you think that?

• “The rest of the page is black and white, so grey looks odd.”

• Why does it feel odd?

• “My brand is more cohesive and minimal, so sticking to monochromatic themes feels more like what my business is about.”

… A-ha! There it is. The black button doesn’t feel like it aligns with this person’s brand. That’s the “why.” And that’s the useful feedback I needed. Now we can have a more useful discussion:

• Does grey really pull away from mono-chromaticism?

• How else could we highlight the CTA, which is arguably important to draw attention to?

• What if we make this an accent colour for your evolving brand, as part of this new website launch?

In Conclusion

As an entrepreneur, it’s essential to guide your clients on providing feedback that enhances the strategic goals of your business. Engage them with specific, thought-provoking questions, set clear expectations, and delve deeper into their responses.

Happy strategic engagement! And as always, feel free to reach out ask any questions you still have! 😀