How to Give 360 Peer Feedback
Managers have a lot of practice giving people feedback. Most other engineers are only asked to give formal peer feedback once or twice a year. These are known as 360 reviews. From a management perspective, the free text feedback portion is the most important part. But, often the content in that section could be much more valuable with a little more context.
Make Sure You Have Context
If someone nominates you to give them feedback, they think you have something to add. If you’ve worked with them on anything substantial, you probably do have pertinent feedback, even if you have to spend time thinking about it.
If you really do not have enough experience working with someone, don’t be afraid to decline giving feedback. It will give the other party a chance to find someone else. But in most cases, you should be spending the time to come up with valuable feedback.
Generating Feedback Ideas
Feedback has a half-life. It’s most relevant right when you think of it - in the moment. That’s also when it’s most effectively received. You should always try to give people feedback as quickly as possible after the positive or negative issue occurred. But, negative feedback should be given privately.
Managers already know it’s a good idea to write down feedback as it comes. It helps tremendously when reviews come around. This is good practice for anyone! You can write down feedback in a shared document that you use for one on one notes. It will help you remember specific examples later. More on that in a bit.
What else can you do to generate feedback? Here are some things that might jog your memory.
- Email history to and from this person.
- Chat history.
- Code they have written, or code reviews they have done.
- Stories they have worked on.
- Documentation they have written.
- Retrospective notes.
Be Specific, Give an Example, Cite Impact
Good feedback is specific and explains the impact. It contains a mix of positive and negative feedback. It’s been written in a thoughtful way. There are three critical components:
- Be specific - say what was good or bad about something they did.
- Give at least one concrete example.
- Explain the impact.
These rules go for both positive and negative feedback. The recipient will be much more likely to internalize the feedback if you’re specific, give an example and explain the impact. It will also be much more actionable for their manager.
Don’t be afraid to give it to the individual yourself. This is especially true for positive feedback; it’s very powerful for team health to call out praise in a public setting. You could mention it in a team meeting, email, or via your company’s peer recognition program.
Feedback Anti-Patterns
Often feedback is too generic. For example, “I like working with this person”. I call it feel good feedback. It’s not specific. Giving an example and citing the impact can transform your feedback into actual data.
Research has shown that you give the best feedback after getting to know someone, but before forming a semi-permanent opinion of them. It turns out that the window for the best feedback is one to three years of exposure.
If you’ve worked with someone for less time than that, or more, be aware of your own biases. It might make sense to bow out of giving them feedback, especially if you’re trying to choose between too many requests.