Feedback problem 1: the power and authority dynamics of the hierarchical organizations we work for (and the schools we attended), so (e.g.,) when the VP/manager/boss says jump, there's a reluctance to ask "why?" or "how high?" and just immediately attaching "this is very important!!!" to whatever was shared, regardless of how important it actually is.
Feedback problem 2: new team, or new working relationship, or new team member joins established team with a mature operating vibe and a similar flavor of the same problem above emerges, so that individuals receiving feedback are left to prioritize it.
Feedback problem 3: no ongoing calibration on either side of the feedback exchange to help the business build a muscle for 1) prioritizing and 2) assessing feedback.
Lane Shackleton, Chief Product Officer at Coda, shared Dharmesh Shah's (Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Hubspot) FlashTags for calibrating feedback on Lenny's Podcast (38:00 or so) and described Feedback problem 3: "It's good hygiene. Otherwise, every bit of feedback is taken the same, the impact of that is it slows everything down."
FlashTags emerged as a solution to the problem of under- or over-interpreting feedback (though it emerged in a product-feedback capacity, I believe this practice to be helpful in any setting) by simply attaching a FlashTag to provide context of how strongly the feedback-giver feels about the feedback being delivered.
FlashTags use the idiom of dying on a hill—as in, is this a hill I'm worthy dying on? ... here's how Lane describes the four FlashTags:
- #fyi — had a thought, no real hill to die on.
- #suggestion — there’s a hill, I’m not going to die on it. But this is what I would do if I were you.
- #recommendation — I’m climbing the hill, I won’t die on it. But I’ve thought about this a lot, and don’t ignore the feedback.
- #plea — I don’t like dying on hills and that’s not really what we do, but this is a good candidate for it. You should trust me on this one, the same way I trust you on many other ones.
Dharmesh writes in his original blog post explaining the idea: "That's it. With just a few extra characters in that email or Slack, you can quickly convey how strongly you feel about something." There's no reason to think it wouldn't work in meetings, too.
