What is good feedback?

Feedback is most useful when:

  1. It is constructive. Instead of focusing on what went wrong, focus on ways to improve.

  2. It is specific. Vague comments like: “It was an interesting talk” or “It was hard to understand” are not helpful. You must explain specifically what in the talk was interesting and what bullet point on what slide was hard to understand.

Obviously, to write good feedback, it is mandatory you take notes during the talk!

Example of good feedback

Examples of positive reinforcing comments:

  • I liked how you motivated your project at the beginning of the talk.
  • Your explanation of technology X was clear and concise.
  • Your slides were well-focused and well-titled.
  • Figure X really helped me with understanding Y concept.
  • You were engaging with the audience and mixing in some humor helped.
  • I could feel your excitement with the work that you did which was infectious.
  • You made good eye contact with the entire room.

Examples of constructive improvement comments:

  • A high level overview would have helped since I had trouble grasping the big picture.
  • You used technical terms like X and Y that you did not explain.
  • You had Figure X that you did not refer to and it was hard to understand why it was there.
  • You didn’t mention a bullet point that said “X is Y” that looked interesting.
  • Fonts were too small for my eyes!
  • You gave a long verbal explanation for X and I think a diagram would have made sense.