Feedback

If you have ever had to remove a tree stump, you know just how much of a pain in the ass it is. It requires special tools, a lot of manual effort, and an obscene amount of cursing. It makes sense then that the word stubborn is derived from these stumpy eyesores.

While being stubborn can be a useful trait in founders, it nearly destroyed my first startup. As I was building my MVP, I would meet other developers to get some help on how to code certain functionality. It was clear that my coding chops were good enough to build out a scalable enterprise platform, so I floated the idea of hiring an outsourced dev shop.

Among my small circle of developer friends, the idea was universally panned. They said that what I would gain in time to market I would lose in flexibility and control later on. I pushed back that they did not understand enterprise software and how getting the product out sooner was more important to get revenue and build traction.

I was very mistaken. Turns out that relying completely on an outsourced provider that also happened to be our cloud provider gave away all of our leverage. We ended up becoming hostage to our supposed partner as every functionality request piled on more bills while slowing revenue while customers held out for requested features.

Just as my developer friends warned, we lost control. Eventually we had to prematurely sell when we could not get our financial ship in order. If I had been more open to considering their sound advice about owning our own tech and avoiding outside consultants, we might have had a much more lucrative exit.

We like to think that we are open to advice. The reality is that most of us dismiss feedback unless it is positive. First, we all have egos and find criticism hard to listen to. Second, our minds are wired to avoid any perceived threats like negative feedback. Third, we often overestimate our capabilities, known as overconfidence bias. Lastly, even if we accept the truth of the critiques, we simply attribute them to factors beyond our control.

I have gotten much better over the years at not just accepting feedback, but also actively soliciting it. I brushed off most criticism earlier in my career as others simply not understanding me and my situation. I had to recognize my own wiring and mental roadblocks that prevented me from realizing the power of feedback, which is an opportunity for learning and growing.

Even if we do manage to change our mindset on receiving feedback, much of it ends up not being actionable. Great feedback is direct, specific, and easily testable. Softball comments that bury critiques in polite language is as unhelpful as blanket statements that your effort is a dumpster fire. Take for example the saying “startups are a marathon, not a sprint”, which came up in a recent conversation with a founder. Maybe that’s true, but the whole advantage of startups is the ability to move faster so you learn, iterate, and get to product-market fit sooner. This is the type of flimsy, high-level advice that wastes time.

The last hurdle to overcome is that our approach to gathering feedback lacks structure and focus. Most people we ask for feedback from are too close to us personally, so they are reluctant to be overly critical. This results in advice delivered as a nicely wrapped “shit” sandwich, lukewarm generalities divorced from context, or a sledgehammer that is so blunt it gets ignored.

Bridgewater Associates is a good example of a company that embedded the soliciting and giving of feedback a core part of the culture. When Ray Dalio nearly tanked his firm early on because of bad investments, he realized the need for people willing to challenge decisions. No one, not even executives, are shielded from critical feedback, enabling Bridgewater to become the largest hedge fund in the world.

Adam Grant, well-known author and professor of organizational behavior, took this concept from Bridgewater and adapted it for this approach called a “Challenge Network”. Instead of a company, he has his own network from which he solicits feedback in two ways:

• Structured Feedback — Used for projects where iterative feedback is needed. He  schedules time with his network, then gives them some work to review and asks for candid criticisms, even if they fundamentally agree with the point he is making.

• Unstructured Feedback — Used for spontaneous feedback, like after a talk or a meeting. He will ask people that approach him, “what’s the one thing I could have done better?”. If the person is reticent to give feedback, Adam will suggest some areas he thinks he could have improved in order to prompt feedback.

The exact methods for collecting feedback may vary with situation and environment. The intention though is to proactively seek out opportunities to gather candid feedback. Then you can thoughtfully consider the feedback and act on valid suggestions as a mechanism for continuous improvement.

The other key to making a challenge network successful is to not focus on outcomes. The temptation is to drive towards a successful outcome. When something does not work as expected, we feel disappointment. Success and failure is not binary however, there are a range of results, each of which expands our knowledge. The value then is not to guarantee a result, but to accelerate learning during the creation process.

Can you build your own challenge network? It is easy for Adam as he has people willing to help because of his popularity and his university teaching. For the rest of us, we usually rely on our social networks, but these are noisy, public, and becoming increasingly toxic.

A better approach is to create a smaller and more focused network. This includes people having the relevant experience to offer useful feedback and advice on the things you care about. These are people that also have been directly involved and supportive of your work in the past and want you to succeed.

For me, my challenge network is something I created earlier this year called “The Fifty”, a subset of my broader network that helped with a specific need over the past year. This group has relevant experience, knows my work, and has been incredibly supportive. Over time, I will add more people that lend their support and show active interest in my work.

The bigger vision though is to not just build a network. All of these extraordinary humans that I am connected to could also help each other. This network of people with varying skills, experiences, and credentials has the brain power to allow all of us to make better decisions and create exponential impact. Then we can go beyond a “challenge network” and create a genuine, trust-building “opportunity community”!

What was some ways you proactively collect feedback today? Could building your own challenge network be helpful for yourself or for your startup?

Mark Birch

This week I got to attend the opening ceremony for Plug and Play Taiwan in Taoyuan (near Taipei) and meet the founders of the inaugural batch. This event marks two really interesting trends for the Taiwan startup ecosystem. One is that well-known, established, global accelerator programs like Plug and Play are considering Taiwan for launching new programs. Second is that cities in Taiwan other than Taipei are becoming more active in supporting local startup hubs as a way of attracting talent and investment. Congrats on the awesome launch and looking forward to more accelerators landing in Taiwan!

I had some time this week to explore and hike in the mountains surrounding Taipei, including Elephant Mountain which climbs up above Taipei to provide amazing views of Taipei 101 and the entire city. If you have a chance to visit Taiwan, I highly recommend spending some time to explore the various parks and hiking trails surrounding Taipei. Also, if yo uhave not done so yet, you should totally get a copy of my book, Community-in-a-Box!