Feedback Without Fear

What if reviews felt collaborative instead of confrontational? In this episode, I walk through a practical, five-pour framework to collect and use feedback from peers, stakeholders, SMEs, QA and accessibility reviewers, and—most importantly—learners, so your projects move faster and land stronger. You’ll get short scripts, simple prompts, and a clear structure to keep conversations focused on outcomes instead of opinions.

If you want feedback to become fuel, not friction, this guide gives you the tools to make it happen. Subscribe for more practical instructional design tactics, share this episode with a teammate who reviews your work, and leave a quick review telling us which script you’ll try first.

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Please check out the resources mentioned in the episode. Enjoy!

Feedback Without Fear Playbook

Improving Instructional Design: Feedback and Iterative Refinement 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Episode Roadmap
• 0:52 The Five-Pour Framework
• 1:21 Peers: Build a Critique Culture
• 2:21 Stakeholders: Anchor to Outcomes
• 3:25 SMEs: Separate Facts from Flavor
• 4:26 QA & Accessibility: Make Quality Objective
• 5:34 Learners: Truth-Telling Pilot Feedback
• 6:31 The Three-Box Feedback Sort
• 7:16 Playbook, Resources & Closing Encouragement
• 8:19 Gratitude & Support Notes

Transcript

Jackie Pelegrin: 0:00

Hello, and welcome to the Designing with Love Podcast. I am your host, Jackie Pelegrin, where my goal is to bring you information, tips, and tricks as an instructional designer. Hello, instructional designers and educators. Welcome to episode 75 of the Designing with Love Podcast. Today we're diving into practical, low stress ways to receive and use feedback from your peers, stakeholders, subject matter experts, quality assurance and accessibility reviewers, and of course your learners. I'll give you simple prompts and quick scripts so reviews feel collaborative instead of confrontational. So grab your notebook, a cup of coffee, and settle in as we explore this topic together. Here's our tasting flight for today. Pour one is the peers, pore two is the stakeholders, pore three is the subject matter experts, por four is quality, assurance, and accessibility, and por five is the learners. Before we dive into stakeholders and subject matter experts, let's warm up where it's safest to practice. Right alongside our peers and instructional design teammates. Pour one, peers and instructional design teammates build a critique culture. Pour one is a friendly start, your immediate circle where quick, safe feedback builds momentum. Here are a few options to try. Share a 30-second brief before asking for notes, which can include the objective, audience, and what good looks like. Frame the ask to focus attention. You can say something like, I'm deciding between A and B, help me pick. Sort notes into three buckets, which include clarity, engagement, and feasibility, so you can spot patterns fast. For example, you might say, Could you give me one thing to keep, one thing to change, and one question you still have? If you had 10 more minutes to improve this, what's the next most valuable change you'd make? And finally, where exactly did confusion start for you? With that warm-up sip done, let's move to the folks who fund or approve the work. Poor two, stakeholders and clients, anchor to outcomes. Poor two is bold and business forward. Feedback gets smoother when we brew it with outcomes. Here are a few options to try. Begin every review with a one slide North Star, which includes the problem, audience, and success metric. Keep a simple decision log to include the following impact, effort, rationale, decision, and owner. Park visual preferences as nice to have unless they move the success metric. For example, you might say, to confirm, do you prefer option A because it better supports our fewer errors in one week metric? Or is it a visual preference? I hear the request to add more content. Since success equals faster call handling, can we trade that for guided practice that targets speed? Next up is a nuanced pour, accuracy first without overwhelming the learner. Pour three, subject matter experts. Separate facts from flavor. Pour three is precise and balanced. Subject matter experts give us the beans, we choose the grind. Here are a few options to try. Arrive with must know versus nice to know already drafted, then edit live together. Ask for sources or policy links for anything safety critical or testable. Use progressive disclosure to manage cognitive load. For example, expandable advanced steps. For example, you might say, what would be incorrect if we removed this? What error might a novice make without it? Could you share the source or policy link so we can reference it accurately? Or I've put advanced steps behind an expandable panel to reduce cognitive load. Does that stay accurate for day one learners? When content is right, we dial in craftsmanship so everyone can access it. Pour four. Quality assurance and accessibility. Make quality objective. Pour four is clean and structured. Quality assurance and accessibility keep the cup consistent and inclusive. Here are a few options to try. Treat quality assurance and accessibility as built-in checks, not end of line tasks. Build a pre-review checklist to include items such as contrast ratio, focus order, headings, purpose-driven alternative text, captions, and full keyboard only path. Keep versions and file names predictable to prevent lost comments. For example, you might say, thanks for the catches. I'll fix heading structure and alternative text language by the end of the day. If anything else blocks compliance with the web content accessibility guidelines, mark it critical so I can prioritize. Or which two screens would use stress test first for accessibility? And for our final pour, we taste test the real world results straight from learners. Pour five, learners and pilot groups. Pour five is the truth-telling finish, authentic feedback from actual users. Here are a few options to try. Watch time on task, error hotspots, abandoned screens, and hesitation points. Use miniature pulses over long surveys to include one or two focus questions after a module. Close the loop publicly so people see that their input matters. For example, you might say, Where did you pause? What did you try first that didn't work? On a scale of one to five, how confident do you feel doing the task now? And what would move you up one point? You can also use a release note format such as we heard, we changed, you'll see. Five pores complete. Now let's keep the notes organized and the work moving. Here's the three box feedback sort that you can use, which is your coaster map. Three boxes to sort every comment quickly. Box one, must fix. This includes accuracy, compliance, and blockers. These are non-negotiable. Box two, improves outcomes. These are tied to objectives and success metrics. They are usually worth it. And finally, box three, preference part, visual and style tweaks reserved for later sprints. Here you can say, I'll acknowledge every comment, but only box one and box two must ship in this release. Here's your call to action. Make sure to download the Feedback Without Fear playbook, which is a one-page sheet available in the show notes. It includes today's prompts, the three-box sort, and a tiny decision log template. Then tell me how it goes. Leave a quick voice message or fill out the listener connection survey on the podcast website. Your notes help me shape future episodes for you. You're also welcome to check out a great article by Joseph Ivanic at the eLearning Industry about how we can use feedback and iterative development to improve our instructional design projects. I have linked the article in the show notes. Here's one last sip of encouragement before we close. Great feedback isn't about perfection, it's about clarity, curiosity, and commitment to the goal. When you anchor to outcomes, ask precise questions, and sort what you receive, feedback becomes fuel, not friction. As I conclude this episode, here's an inspiring quote by Ken Blanchard. Feedback is the breakfast of champions. Thank you for taking some time to listen to this podcast episode today. Your support means the world to me. If you'd like to help keep the podcast going, you can share it with a friend or colleague, leave a heartfelt review, or offer a monetary contribution. Every act of support, big or small, makes a difference, and I'm truly thankful for you.