“Ben, you are impossible.... You know so much that no man can tell you anything. Indeed, no man is going to try, for the effort would lead only to discomfort and hard work. So you are not likely ever to know any more than you do now, which is very little.”
About Nodd.
Lessons learned and the inspiration for Nodd.
As a team leader I found that no matter how often I emphasized the importance of feedback, it didn’t always flow the way it should. I assumed that announcing “I really want to hear what you think,” would be enough. Everyone would just volunteer their inner thoughts and criticisms. Surely one-on-ones and coffee walks were a comfortable enough environment for candid conversation.
So when I'd ask “How are things going?” and people said “Oh, yeah, everything’s great,” I would just accept it at face value.
It turns out that’s not always wise. I learned this one rough afternoon through a painful game of telephone with my manager. “A few people on your team have serious concerns. They don’t feel comfortable talking with you, so they asked me to discuss it with you.”
Asking the questions doesn’t always mean you’re getting the answers.
It turns out that getting constructive, critical feedback is hard. Especially so for people in leadership positions. Sometimes it’s because of interpersonal issues. Or it might be company culture. Or shady office politics. But there are also very legitimate reasons why candor breaks down, even for the most well-intentioned teams. Based on extensive conversations with other product managers, people managers, design directors, tech leads, sales execs, and startup founders, at companies of all shapes and sizes, it became clear that feedback is something all teams struggle with.
Nodd is an attempt to solve that. Nodd is a feedback system designed to be flexible enough to cover any topic a team might be interested in, lightweight enough that it’s not painful to use, and psychologically safe enough for people to honestly share what they’re really thinking.
If you’re a team leader of any sort and you care about their feedback, I’d love for you to give Nodd a try. You can sign up here: Signup Link. And if you're feeling frank, I'd love to hear your feedback at hi+feedback@nodd.co.
Candidly,
Eli