George: So, it's almost like scaffolding for a way to give critique, because if you ask people, what do you think?
Usually, two things happen: They want to be nice, so they just give positive things that actually doesn't help. They’re trying to be careful with the other human to not be too offensive. So, you just get nice things and you don't really know what doesn't work. Or they really go straight to the jugular like, "Well, this doesn't work, and that's stupid." And then, all of a sudden you get to the truth, but you can't receive it because it's not human.
And so, we found, how do we actually create a safe place where you can get the real feedback? And so, we scaffolded that with a ritual of “I like, I wish.”
We do something similar at Coda with “sentence starters.” (Try typing /sentence starters or /i like in your docs)
In the example below, fill in a list of sentence starters (currently pre-filled with George’s “I like, I wish”) and ask everyone to add their ideas. Uncheck the box to allow everyone to focus on their own feedback first, and to resist groupthink. When your team is ready to discuss, check the box to show everyone's. Give everyone a chance to clap to provide further affirmation for everyone’s feedback.
Check to view all answers once everyone is finished adding feedback