See Feedback as a Gift
A Sprint Review is an opportunity to inspect the Product Increment and to alter the course of your journey to make high-value products. A stakeholder may come with feedback that you don’t expect, that you find unpleasant even. This article shines a light on how an individual perceives feedback as disruptive, failing to see it as a gift.
![Man hides in dispair Man hides in dispair](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F48fc5bc2-febb-4d5f-865d-acb6e4fedf60_800x529.jpeg)
The Scrum Team has meticulously prepared the Sprint Review. Jessica is the Product Owner. She created a solid plan for the event. They will run an experiment, a hands-on demonstration. Henry and Joan are developers who have prepared a walk-through that will cover everything they built. They underlined the parts where they expect feedback. Sarah is the Scrum Master. Her self-organizing team had a great idea and is executing it very well so far.
Henry paces around the room with a big smile. It was his idea to change the format of the Sprint Review, because, “It’s important to show off our product.” When everyone has arrived at the scene, he takes a deep breath and says, “Let’s start people!”
The first 10 minutes are awesome with many oh’s and ah’s and smiling faces. There’s great feedback including brilliant ideas on how to expand on the functionality. Henry is all over the place, absorbing every observation, discussing future options. He is gleaming.
Then Eric — department lead of the internal user group — points his finger to the centre of the screen saying, “I’m unhappy with how the numbers are displayed. I like them to the right of the screen.” Henry looks at the ceiling, sighs and says, “But this just isn’t part of the new functionality. We discussed the placing of these numbers long ago.” Eric closes his eyes and then says, “Sorry, I can’t recall that.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Henry answers, “You had the opportunity then. Now we should discuss the new functionality.” Jessica interrupts the discussion, “I don’t agree with Henry. I value any feedback from this session and I already made a mental note.” Henry clenches his fists. The other attendants are blissfully ignorant of his state of mind.
Things return to normal. For a while. Then Eric remarks, “When I try to change the status of the payment, I get a message ‘You’re not allowed to do this!’ This line is unprofessional.” Jessica nods. “That’s another unknown feature. Great catch! It should be altered.” Henry’s face turns red. Then he storms out of the room. No-one seems to notice or care about it. Everyone is too busy with the review.
Five minutes later he returns. He takes a seat in the corner of the room, grinding his teeth. He just sits there. Meanwhile, Eric keeps on asking questions and Jessica continues to cheerfully respond to what he says. Whenever this happens, Henry fixates on Eric. Besides that, he just sits there.
But then, suddenly, the Sprint Review ends. Milliseconds after Jessica thanks everyone for their active participation, Henry storms out of the room. He misses Eric’s declaration that he enjoyed the session, how helpful it was. At the coffee machine, Sarah and Jessica give each other a high five. “Nailed It!”, Sarah says. Jessica is all smiles. Henry’s idea proofed to be a winner.
When Sarah returns to her office space, she sees Henry fuming with anger. “This was the worst Sprint Review ever! This Eric guy, I swear!” Sarah frowns, “What did offend you so much, Henry?” Henry pulls his hair, or what’s left of it. It’s awkwardly silent for a while. Then Henry responds, “Are you for real Sarah? Didn’t you notice? He only commented on functionality that has been there for months. This shows that he never saw it before, right? This shows contempt for what we have built!”
Sarah looks at her coffee cup, taking a sip before sharing her thoughts on the matter, “Eric is the manager of the operations department. He simply doesn’t have to use the application daily. He worked with it for the first time during the Sprint Review, you see?” Henry stares at Sarah. “Ok. But then he should have kept his mouth shut and let the people that use the application speak. Am I right?” Henry expected that the Sprint Review would only be about the parts they added during the Sprint. He didn’t foresee observations about long-existing functionality. What’s more: he believes that Eric wasn’t in his right to discuss these things.
Sarah’s takes another sip from her coffee, scratches her chin while thinking. Then, “Were you disagreeing with his observations?” Henry emits a long, deep audible breath before he responds, “No. But that’s not the point, right? He simply should have known that he commented on old code. He was at the earlier Sprint Review when we showed the screenshots, wasn’t he?” Sarah lets these words sink in. Then she asks, “You attend Sprint Reviews from other teams. Can you recall a screenshot shown at the most recent one you visited?”
Henry’s forehead wrinkles as if he is processing the new information. After a long minute, he says, “No. But I wasn’t attending to inspect the Increment. I was there to learn from them, how they conducted a Sprint Review.” Then he processes information for a few seconds more, “So, Eric joins to see how the Increment is received by the team. Not necessarily to inspect the Increment himself.”
Sarah is helping Henry to see that stakeholders have different reasons to attend a Sprint Review. Some of them wish to inspect the Product Increment. Others wish to share their vision of the product or share the latest insights on the market or customer demands.
Henry tilts his head while he resumes the conversation, “But why did he join the hands-on demo?” Sarah answers, “Why wouldn’t he? It is a very accessible way to demonstrate a product. You sparked Eric’s curiosity. Do you know what this Sprint Review showed us? We have to do it more often. It engages our stakeholders and we get valuable feedback. By doing it more often, we will also reduce the chances that people will comment on old functionality.”
Henry nods, “I’m going to think about it. I see that the Sprint Review was effective and it also proved that our previous Sprint Reviews weren’t. I’m still not convinced about this Eric guy though.” Sarah answers, “Your Sprint Review format idea was awesome, Henry. You should be proud. If we want to raise the transparency of what we built, we really should continue to do these hands-on sessions. And regarding Eric, just remember what we discussed now. I’m sure you will see it in a broader context next time.”
Takeaway
Feedback is at the core of Scrum. Because “in complex environments, where what will happen is unknown” — Scrum Guide 2017. With Scrum, you inspect and adapt. Feedback is the result of Inspection. Feedback is a gift.
A Scrum Team should be open to feedback and expect the unexpected. Being in a complex product environment, you should not aim to predict feedback. Instead, optimise Transparency, involve stakeholders and create an environment where feedback can flourish.
In complex environments, feedback is your closest friend.