I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
Feedback is a gift
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Hey Reader, Last week, a customer reached out to let us know they were pretty unhappy. Kit has over 100,000 active users who are quite happy with the platform, so this one stood out. When we pulled up their account and checked the numbers, we saw they were getting four times the results they'd had before switching to Kit. But they told us they felt sold, not served. What they said clearly spoke to their experience. I'm grateful they didn't cancel their account and move to a different platform. Instead, they chose to tell us exactly how they were feeling which meant they wanted things to be better and believed they could be. It would be so easy to focus on the results and not the feeling, but the feeling is what mattered. The team listened and dove into the original conversation we had with them about goals and the deliverables we promised, but also asked them to tell us what success looks like to them and what it would look like to really feel served. When someone tells you what isn't working, even when it's uncomfortable to say, they're giving you something. That's what feedback is—and it's one of the most valuable things you can get in product development and in life. If you aspire to be great, feedback is the key ingredient. Without it, you're mostly guessing at the gap between where you are and where you want to go. That's why you should go out of your way to invite it. The best books weren't written by someone holed up in a cabin. Great authors share early drafts with people willing to say, "This isn't working," and those conversations often take the work somewhere the author couldn't have reached on their own. Elite athletes have coaches pointing out what's off even when they're competing at the top of their sport, and they don't stop seeking that feedback once they've made it. Consistent input and refinement is what separates those who are best in their class. Giving feedback is also an act of investment in a relationship. When you take the time to tell someone what could be better, you're saying you believe they're capable of more. It's certainly a lot easier to just move on and say nothing, because it can be awkward. But speaking up shows that you believe in the other person. That said, it doesn't mean going around telling everyone what you think. How you share your feedback changes whether the other person can hear it. Unsolicited feedback is harder to receive than feedback someone asked for, so if there's an opening to ask permission first, take it. Something as simple as "can I share something I noticed?" shows you're there to help. When you do share it, be specific, and focus on what you want to see happen for them. Receiving honest feedback is hard. The natural response when someone criticizes something you've built or done is to get defensive. You want to question how they could possibly be unhappy and tell yourself some version of why they're wrong. But when you understand that feedback comes from a place of investment in you and the relationship, it gets easier to hear. Most people who bother to tell you something critical cared enough to say it instead of disappearing. This is true even if they don't word it eloquently. The person willing to tell you the uncomfortable truth is investing in you, even if it doesn't feel that way when you first read the message. Feedback also comes in different forms. Performance is the obvious one, but feedback about a relationship or an experience is just as worth receiving. A colleague telling you something works technically but doesn't feel right is giving you something just as valuable as strong numbers in a report. If you've been sitting on feedback you've wanted to share, go ahead and share it. Be kind when you do. If someone tells you something isn't working, take a deep breath before you get defensive. The people willing to tell you the truth are usually the ones who care the most. PODCASTHow James Clear and Madeline McIntosh are Transforming the Publishing IndustryI had two legends of publishing on the show. James Clear sold 30 million copies of Atomic Habits, and Madeline McIntosh spent three decades running Penguin Random House US, helping bring more than 1,000 books to market. Together they co-founded Authors Equity to invert the traditional publishing model. We dig into why the traditional model rewards authors who sell fewer books, how Authors Equity flips royalties so authors keep most of the upside, and what it takes to build a book that sells more in year two than year one. Watch or listen to episode » KIT FEATUREYour email list is about to get a lot more valuableDid you see we teased our newest feature? The biggest product release in Kit history is coming June 11th. Craft + Commerce is sold out, but you can watch live. Grab your free spot now: EVENTPersonal IPO SummitAI has made building products faster and cheaper than ever, which means your audience and the trust you've built are now your biggest advantage. The Personal IPO Summit is a free, two-day virtual event on June 2nd and 3rd built around that idea. The lineup includes Sam Parr, Justin Welsh, Chenell Basilio, Lara Acosta, Dickie Bush, and Jay Clouse, among others. I'm also speaking. It's free to attend and everyone who registers gets access to the replays. Have a great week! —Nathan |
Nathan Barry
I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
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