Something to doFeedback
Match your feedback questions to the right people
A simple exercise to get feedback from the people who actually know your work
Why it’s worth your time
Feedback is only as good as the view behind it, and the people who happen to review you aren't always the ones who see the work you care about. Matching each question to someone who does that work well, has seen yours up close, or depends on it gets you answers worth acting on. Asking several people the same question lets you see what comes up more than once.
How to choose who to ask for feedback
You’ll come away with a short list of who to ask about what, and the one question you'll ask each of them.
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- List the two or three things you most want feedback on.
Make each one a question someone could answer. Am I good at presentations? is hard to answer. Do my project updates give leadership what they need to decide? is much easier.
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Tip: A line or two per box is plenty. Fill in the first box now; the others follow the steps below, and the last one waits until the answers are in.
- Name the people who actually know each piece of work.
For each question, think of three kinds of people: someone who does that work well, someone who has seen yours up close, and someone who depends on it. A designer on another team can judge your layouts; the sales lead who uses them in pitches can judge whether they work. Different questions, different people.
- Add at least one person with no say over your job.
Your manager's view matters, and you'll hear it anyway. A peer on another team, a former colleague, or someone in the same role at another company has nothing riding on your rating, which often makes it easier for them to be plain with you.
- Ask each of them the same question.
Use the same words for everyone, so the answers can be compared. Tell each person why you picked them; it makes the ask specific and the answer better.
To: each person you pickedI'm asking a few people who know the kind of work the same question, and you came to mind because why you picked them.
your question
A few lines whenever suits you this week would be great. And if you haven't seen enough of my work to say, that's a useful answer too.
Swap the highlighted parts for your thing. Works on Slack, in email, or said out loud. - Look for what comes up more than once.
Read each answer on its own first. Then look across them. A point from one person may be about the two of you; the same point from three people who don't talk to each other is probably about you.
Tip: Write down what repeated, and what surprised you, before you decide what to do about any of it.
Good moments for this: before your reviewwhen you start something newa few times a year
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- Truest asks for youFor more voices, Truest asks the people you name and shows each answer next to your own.
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Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
A senior leader who saw one of your presentations knows less about your presenting than the peer who has sat through twenty of them.
What might make this harder
Ask the people who receive it, such as the team downstream or a client, and someone outside who does the same work and can look at a sample.
Questions people ask
Who should I ask for feedback at work?
People who know the specific work you're asking about: someone who does it well, someone who's seen yours up close, or someone who depends on it. It also helps to ask someone whose answer can't affect your rating.
Should I ask my peers or my manager for feedback?
Both, for different things. Your manager can speak to priorities and how your work is seen above you. Peers often see more of the day-to-day work and can be more candid.
How many people should I ask for feedback?
Three to five per question is usually enough to see whether a point repeats. One answer is a view; a few answers that agree are worth acting on.
Is it okay to ask people outside my company for feedback?
Yes, especially on craft. People who do your kind of work at other companies can look at a sample and speak freely, though they won't know what your team needed.
Why this works, and where it comes from
A lot of feedback comes from whoever is closest to hand: your manager, the reviewers a form assigns, the colleague you sit beside. The people nearest to you and the people who can judge your work are often not the same people. A product manager can tell you a great deal about how you communicate a deadline and very little about whether your code is well built. Both views are real. They just answer different questions.
So the move is to start from the question and work back to the person. Someone who does the work well can judge the craft. Someone who has watched you do it can judge how you actually go about it, not how you describe it. Someone who depends on it can say whether it gives them what they need. People with no hand in your rating can often say the plain thing, not because your manager is dishonest, but because the stakes are different for everyone else.
Asking the same question of several people is where it gets useful. One person's view is shaped by your history with them, their taste, and the week they had. When the same point comes from people who don't compare notes, you can trust it in a way you can't trust any single answer. A 360 review aims at something similar, with one difference worth keeping: instead of everyone rating everything, each question goes to the people best placed to answer it, and finding the pattern is your job.
When the question is small and urgent, skip all this. If you need to know by Friday whether one deck works, ask the one person who'll be in the room. Matching questions to people is worth the fifteen minutes for the bigger things, the ones you'd like to still be getting better at a year from now.
Other simple things to consider
More in Feedback
See allRead this alongside your role page
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An exercise written by Truest, based on our experience. Last updated October 29, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.