How to Maximize Success through Team-based Feedback

Recommendations and tips for team feedback

Develop team goals to ensure expectations are clear

Create a safe environment for sharing positive and constructive feedback and conduct check-ins weekly (at a minimum)
Follow the SMART goals approach and spend sufficient time identifying the strategies for achieving each goal at the individual and team level.
Make sure relevant individual goals are aligned with critical team outcomes, and team goals are aligned with organizational outcomes.

Communicate feedback expectations and timing

At the beginning of the project or sprint, communicate that informal feedback is highly encouraged throughout the cycle and that a more structured feedback process is going to take place after the midpoint or at project completion
If the project or team life cycle is no more than 2 months, launch Team-Based Feedback at the end to help guide individual development and inform the retrospective.
If the project or team life cycle is longer than 2 months, consider launching a Team Effectiveness survey around the 2-month mark to identify what’s working well at the team level and where opportunities exist for improvements. As the project wraps up, launch Team-Based Feedback.
Of course, it’s critical that teams have frequent (e.g., weekly) check-ins on progress, reflect on goal achievement strategies, recognize significant contributions or milestones, and provide feedback on what’s not working.

Managers should use this multi-source feedback programs to:

Recognize and reward their direct reports’ contributions
Guide future 1x1 discussion topics
Help highlight and focus developmental and training opportunities
Re-evaluate strategies for individual goal attainment, if necessary

Understanding the effectiveness and contributions of individuals helps us understand, in part, what drives the effectiveness of teams, yet the tools used to do so are separate. Different feedback programs can be setup in our solution to help produce feedback for individuals from their fellow team members, while team effectiveness program is designed to measure the efficacy of the team as a whole based on feedback from the members of that team.