How To Receive Feedback

A simple step by step approach to get better at receiving feedback

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

A lot of research has gone into identifying ways of giving feedback. And logically, it makes sense… giving feedback is a general activity — everyone is bound to provide feedback sometime or the other to someone — whether it is family, friend, or colleague. However, receiving feedback is a personal activity — one that happens generally, but is consumed personally.

Processing feedback is a deeply personal activity and a tough one at that. Especially when you receive negative feedback. As product managers, our livelihoods revolve around feedback. Feedback is what makes our product (and us) grow. Despite that, most PMs (and general individuals) suck at receiving and processing feedback. We’re taught to give feedback, but very little is spoken about receiving.

In this article, I’m going to highlight some of the mistakes you might be making, and in some way, help you empathize with the feedback giver — no matter their motive, the time & place of the feedback itself, or even the nature of the feedback. Towards the end, I’ll also show you how I process and incorporate feedback into my working life.

Note: I will not allude to the nature of the feedback. Both positive and negative feedback can be processed using the same steps outlined below. The only thing that changes is what you do with it — positive feedback demands more of the action, while negative one demands less or none. The steps outlined below do not change with the nature of the feedback.

Let’s begin by understanding what causes feedback to be shared.

Sources of feedback

Simply put, there are 3 types of feedback sources:

3 Types of feedback sources

Type 1: Stemming from a Generalization of a specific action

This accounts for an understanding from the sender (the feedback giver) that a similar action (done by you) might occur in the future. This action here can be a new behavior adopted by you or a twist to existing behavior. They…