Developer Tea exists to help driven developers connect to their ultimate purpose and excel at their work so that they can positively impact the people they influence. With over 13 million downloads to date, Developer Tea is a short podcast hosted by Jonathan Cutrell (@jcutrell), co-founder of Spec and Director of Engineering at PBS. We hope you'll take the topics from this podcast and continue the conversation, either online or in person with your peers. Twitter: @developertea :: Email: developertea@gmail.com

Owning and Requesting Forward-Framed Feedback

March 05, 2025 00:09:12 8.83 MB Downloads: 0

This episode provides a tactical question to elicit useful feedback by taking responsibility for seeking it out and framing the request in a way that encourages advice rather than judgment.

  • Understand that your manager giving you feedback is your responsibility, which means you should actively seek it out rather than waiting.
  • Discover how a simple question can shift the dynamic with your manager to get better feedback, focusing on advice for the future rather than dwelling on past behaviours.
  • Learn the tactical question to ask your manager: "What do you think will hold me back from growing?" or a modified version like, "What do you think will hold me back from getting X promotion?".
  • Explore why framing your feedback request as seeking advice is more effective because managers generally enjoy giving advice and it focuses on future improvement.
  • Understand that the intent is not to analyze past behavior but to identify potential roadblocks to future success and growth.

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