Feedback

Feedback is the place for continuous feedback between colleagues, outside review cycles: anyone with access to the space gives a colleague feedback or asks for theirs, in a few seconds, and each person keeps the history of what they received and gave.

It is a space module in the Planning & HR tab of Add Space. A community can have several Feedback spaces, for example one per team or per area, each with its own audience.

#Who reads what

Only the giver and the recipient read a feedback. Nobody else reads the text: not the owner, not the admin, not the person's manager, not Memberfy support. The same goes for requests: only the requester and the person asked see them.

• The team (owner and admin) sees numbers only: how many feedbacks, requests and answers, with no text, author or recipient.
• Feedback is not anonymous: the recipient always knows who gave it.
• The themes and behaviors of a feedback or request follow the same rule: only the two people see them; the team sees only the count by theme, in the Numbers.
• None of the text goes to the Feed, to search, to exports or to e-mail.
• When Memberfy support enters the community as the owner (the Enter button), it can't read or act on feedback and requests either: it only sees the Numbers. See SuperAdmin.
• The exception is feedback about another person: the Internal feedback is read by the author, the requester and the person's direct leader; the person reads only the Message to the person, if there is one. There too, the team sees only numbers.

#How it works

#The three boxes

Each feedback lives in the space where it was given. With several Feedback spaces, the boxes of a space show only that space's feedback and requests, and each person sees their own in the spaces they have access to. Losing access to a space hides what was given in it. The e-mail buttons open the feedback or the request in its own space.

#Themes and behaviors

Themes give a guide for asking for and writing feedback. Each theme (for example, Communication) carries a list of behaviors ("Listens attentively", "Keeps people informed"). Everything is optional: without a theme, asking and giving work as before, in free text.

• The catalog belongs to the community: it applies to all of its Feedback spaces.
• Every community starts with 5 themes, each with 6 behaviors: Team impact, Communication, Delivery, Analysis and decision-making and People management. The set is created in the community language the first time the catalog is opened; after that the text belongs to the community, and changing the language doesn't translate it.
• The owner and the admin manage it in Themes and behaviors, on the management bar of the Feedback space: New theme (name up to 80 characters and Description (optional) up to 300), New behavior (up to 160), rename, reorder by dragging, Deactivate and Activate. Up to 30 active themes and 20 active behaviors per theme.
• Nothing is deleted. Deactivating takes the theme or behavior out of the choice in new requests and feedback; older feedback keeps showing what was written, and the numbers keep counting it.
• Moderator, finance and member see only the active themes, when asking for and giving feedback.

#Give feedback

In Give feedback, pick To whom (one person per feedback, with access to the space; nobody gives feedback to themself) and write the Feedback, with formatting, up to 5,000 characters. The recipient sees it in Received, you in Sent.

By theme: instead of free text, pick one or more themes under Or write by theme, with a guide (optional), up to 10. Each theme becomes a section with three prompts, What did you observe, What was the impact and What do you suggest, plus the theme's behaviors to tick under Behaviors you observed (optional). Write in at least one prompt: a blank prompt doesn't show in the text, and a section with no text at all is left out. You can remove a section or Add another theme; removing them all goes back to free text. How the person will read it shows the assembled text, with the theme name and the prompts as headings.

#Ask for feedback

In Ask for feedback, pick the person and, if you want, a Message (up to 1,000 characters). The request goes to both people's Requests and stays Pending. The person asked can:

• Answer: writes the feedback, which arrives linked to the request. The request becomes Answered.
• Decline: the request becomes Declined, with no e-mail, and can no longer be answered.

The requester can Cancel request while it is pending (it becomes Canceled, with no e-mail). Answered, declined or canceled, a request doesn't change anymore. There is one pending request at a time between the same two people in each space; the answer goes into the request's space.

#Feedback about another person

The leader hears colleagues about someone on their team, and a colleague tells the leader something about a person. Both paths have two parts:

• The person never reads the internal feedback, and isn't told they were nominated or that someone wrote about them: they're notified only when there's a message.
• A new leader doesn't inherit it: if the person's leader changes later, the feedback stays with whoever read it when it was written.
• It's not anonymous: the leader sees the author of the internal part, and the person sees the author of the message.
• The owner and the admin who didn't ask, the other nominees and Memberfy support read neither part.

Ask about a direct report. In Requests, click Ask about a direct report (or, in Ask for feedback, pick About a direct report in Who the request is about): pick About whom and, in Who you want to hear from, the colleagues, with the optional Message and themes. The person's direct leader (set in the org chart) can ask, and so can the owner or the admin, about anyone; the indirect leader can't. Nominees need access to the space and can't be the person or their leader. Each nominee gets their own request, sees "Fulano asked for your feedback about Beltrano" and doesn't know who else was nominated.

• Nominee limit: the counter shows "3 of 5 nominees". The owner and the admin set the limit in Maximum nominees per request, when creating and editing the space: 1 to 20; empty goes back to the default, 5.
• The request card ("You asked for feedback about Beltrano") shows "2 of 5 answered" and each nominee's status (Pending, Answered, Declined, Canceled); the requester cancels a pending nominee without touching the others, with no e-mail.
• The nominee answers with both parts (the internal one with the guide of the requested themes, if any; the message, optional) or declines. A decline is recorded and never deleted.
• There's one pending request at a time from the same leader, about the same person, to the same colleague.

Give feedback about someone. In Received or Sent, click About someone (or, in Give feedback, pick About someone in Who the feedback is for): pick About whom, write the Internal feedback and, if you like, the Message to the person. Anyone with access to the space can, about a colleague who also has it; the internal part goes to the colleague's direct leader, who reads it in Received and can Say thanks.

• Colleague with no leader set: the feedback doesn't go out, with the message "Fulana has no leader set; give the feedback directly to this person or ask the owner or an admin to set the leader". If the leader has no access to the space, it doesn't go out either: "Fulana's leader has no access to this Feedbacks space".
• If you are the leader, give the feedback directly to the person. Nobody gives feedback about themselves.

On cards and lists. The feedback carries the About Beltrano tag. The leader and the requester read the internal part ("Fulano gave you feedback about Beltrano"); the person sees only "Fulano left you a message". Received, Sent and Requests filter by All, Direct and About other people. The author deletes what they gave, and both parts disappear for everyone.

#Themes in requests and on cards

When asking, pick up to 10 themes, and behaviors within them, under What would you like to hear about (optional): the person asked sees Themes asked about on the request. When they Answer, the feedback opens with one section per theme asked, and the behaviors asked are marked asked; they can remove sections, add other themes or go back to free text.

The feedback card shows Themes, with the behaviors ticked, and the request card shows Themes asked about. Like the feedback itself, only the author and the recipient see these cards. The e-mails don't list the themes either.

#Thank and delete

• The recipient clicks Say thanks once; the author sees that the recipient thanked them.
• Only the author deletes their own feedback (Delete feedback); it is gone for both. The recipient doesn't delete the other person's.

#The e-mails

The e-mails never carry the text, only who sent it and the button to read it in the app (an e-mail can be forwarded; the text stays in the app, with the rule of who reads it).

The e-mails never carry the name of the person the feedback is about (the name stays in the app), and the person is notified only when there's a message. Declining and canceling send no e-mail. All are in the Feedback category, on by default; whoever turned it off in E-mails from this community doesn't get them, and the footer turns off only that category in one click. They go out 10 minutes later, through the queue, in the recipient's language.

#The numbers

The Manage feedback bar, for the owner and the admin, shows the feedback of the last 30 days, adoption and pending requests, and opens Numbers: by period (up to 366 days, in the community's time zone) and by group, Feedback given (spontaneous and answers to requests), Requests, Pending, Answered, Declined, Canceled and Adoption (how many of the people with access gave at least one). No text, author or recipient. Moderator, finance and member don't see the numbers. With several spaces, the bar and the numbers show the open space, and adoption counts the people with access to it.

By theme: how many feedbacks and requests mentioned each theme and each behavior, in the period. To protect whoever receives feedback:

• a count of 1 or 2 shows as < 3; and when only one number in a set would be hidden, the smallest of the others also shows as < 3, so the hidden one can't be worked out by subtraction;
• with a group selected, the block doesn't show: the numbers by theme are only for the whole space (or the community), in the period, never by group or by person.

Direct and about another person: the numbers split into Direct and About another person: Feedback given (Spontaneous and Answers to requests), With a message to the person and Without a message, Requests, Nominees, Pending, Answered, Declined and Canceled. In requests about another person, the statuses count each nominee. With a group selected, feedback about a person in the group also counts. Never text, never per person.

#Export the numbers

In the Numbers window, the owner and the admin download what's on screen with Download CSV or Download Excel, with the chosen period and group. The file has numbers only: the filters, the totals, the adoption, direct and about another person, and the numbers by theme and by behavior, with the same protection as the screen (a count of 1 or 2 shows as < 3; with a group, no by-theme block). Never text, author or recipient. The labels come in the language of whoever downloads. Moderator, finance and member don't download. Above 2,000 rows, the file is prepared in the background and a download link, valid for 72 hours, arrives by email to whoever exported it; the screen says "Your file is being prepared; the link will arrive by email at …". The link in the email opens the app and asks you to log in: only the person who requested the export, and who still has the role for it, can download it. The file is available for 72 hours and then deleted. Up to 2,000 rows, the download is immediate, as before.

#Step by step

#Create the space

1. In the menu, open Add Space and pick the Planning & HR tab.
2. Pick Feedback and click Next. There is no "one or several" question.
3. Give it a name, an icon and who has access. Whoever has access to the space is who can give and receive feedback.

#Ask and answer

1. Ana opens the space, clicks Ask for feedback, picks Bruno and writes "About yesterday's presentation".
2. Bruno gets the e-mail, opens Requests › Asked of me and clicks Answer.
3. Ana gets the notice, reads the feedback in Received and clicks Say thanks.

#Hear colleagues about a direct report

1. Carla, Bruno's leader, opens Requests › Ask about a direct report, picks Bruno in About whom and nominates Ana and Diego in Who you want to hear from.
2. Ana and Diego get "Carla asked for your feedback about someone on the team". Ana answers with the internal feedback and leaves Bruno a message; Diego declines.
3. Carla reads Ana's feedback in Received, tagged About Bruno; the request card shows "1 of 2 answered". Bruno gets only Ana's message, with her name.

#Through the assistant (MCP)

There are 23 tools: list received and sent, open a feedback, search the person, give feedback (create_feedback, with dry_run to see first who gets the notice), say thanks, list and open requests, ask for feedback, answer, decline, and, with confirmation, delete your own feedback and cancel your own request. The owner and the admin check the numbers (get_feedback_dashboard). The assistant only reads the connected person's own feedback, and the text never goes into the log of what it does. See Tools · Members › Feedback. With more than one Feedback space, the assistant asks which one (space_id) when giving, requesting and searching people; lists without space_id gather the spaces the person opens, and the numbers without space_id add them all up.

Anyone who opens the space lists the themes (list_feedback_themes); the owner and the admin create, edit, reorder and deactivate themes and behaviors (6 tools). create_feedback_request takes themes and behaviors; create_feedback and answer_feedback_request take sections (one per theme, with the three prompts in Markdown and the behaviors observed), and dry_run shows the assembled text (body_preview). get_feedback_dashboard brings the numbers by theme.

About another person: create_feedback_about_request asks about a direct report (the person and the nominees, with dry_run to see who gets the notice and the limit); create_feedback takes about (instead of the person who receives) and message_to_person, and answer_feedback_request takes message_to_person; lists filter with about; get_feedback_settings reads the limit and update_feedback_settings (owner and admin) changes it. The message, like the text, never goes into the log. See Tools · Members › Feedback.

get_feedback_dashboard with format: "csv" returns the same numbers as CSV (Excel stays in the app). See the recipe Download the feedback numbers as CSV. Above 2,000 rows, the file does not come back in the conversation: the answer carries status: "queued", rows and email, and the assistant tells you which address the email with the link (valid for 72 hours) goes to.

#Common errors and how to fix them

#In the API

The space is module: "feedbacks", and the community can have several. The routes live under /api/feedbacks, with X-CommunityId: GET /api/feedbacks?box=received|sent, POST /api/feedbacks, GET and DELETE /api/feedbacks/{id}, POST /api/feedbacks/{id}/thank, GET /api/feedbacks/people, requests at GET and POST /api/feedbacks/requests (box, status), GET /api/feedbacks/requests/{id} and POST /api/feedbacks/requests/{id}/answer, /decline and /cancel, and the numbers at GET /api/feedbacks/dashboard (from, to, groupId, spaceId). A feedback or request that isn't yours returns 404, for the owner and the admin too.

Several spaces: GET and POST /api/feedbacks, /people, GET and POST /api/feedbacks/requests and /dashboard accept spaceId. With a single space it is optional and nothing changes; with several, giving, requesting and searching people without it returns 422 (spaceRequired). Lists without spaceId gather the spaces the person opens; the numbers without spaceId add them all up and return spaceId: null. Feedback and requests carry spaceId, and the by-id routes check the item's own space: whoever doesn't open that space gets 403.

Themes and behaviors: GET /api/feedbacks/themes (whoever opens a Feedback space; includeInactive for the owner and the admin), POST /api/feedbacks/themes, PUT /api/feedbacks/themes/order, PUT /api/feedbacks/themes/{themeId}, POST /api/feedbacks/themes/{themeId}/behaviors, PUT /api/feedbacks/themes/{themeId}/behaviors/order and PUT /api/feedbacks/themes/{themeId}/behaviors/{behaviorId} (writing only for the owner and the admin; other roles get 403). POST /api/feedbacks/requests takes themeIds and behaviorIds; POST /api/feedbacks and POST /api/feedbacks/requests/{id}/answer take sections[] (themeId, observed, impact, suggestion, behaviorIds) instead of body, and the API assembles the text; POST /api/feedbacks/preview assembles it without saving. Feedback and requests carry themes (and feedback, requestThemes), only for the two people; the dashboard carries byTheme, with null in place of counts of 1 and 2, and byTheme: null with groupId. body and sections together return 422 (bodyAndSections); all sections empty, 422 (sectionsEmpty); an inactive theme or one from another community, 422.

About another person: POST /api/feedbacks/requests takes subjectId + giverIds[] and creates one request per nominee, with the same roundId, all or nothing; POST /api/feedbacks takes subjectId instead of recipientId (it goes to the direct leader) and messageToSubject (the message to the person), which POST /api/feedbacks/requests/{id}/answer also takes. GET /api/feedbacks/settings reads and PUT /api/feedbacks/settings (owner and admin) changes maxNominees (1 to 20, default 5). Feedback carries about, subject, subjectLeader, messageToSubject and viewerRole (for the person: subject, with a null body); requests, about, subject and roundId; lists take about=true|false; the dashboard brings byKind (direct, about). Asking without being the direct leader or on the team: 403 (aboutDenied); too many, repeated nominees, the person or their leader, about yourself, or a person with no leader: 422 (tooManyNominees, nomineeRepeated, nomineeIsSubject, nomineeIsLeader, aboutSelf, subjectNoLeader, leaderNoAccess, subjectIsYourReport); a nominee with a pending request from the same leader about the same person: 409 (aboutPending). The person, another nominee, a new leader and the team that didn't ask get 404 on the internal part.

Export: GET /api/feedbacks/dashboard/export?format=csv|xlsx, with the dashboard's same from, to, groupId and spaceId, only for the owner and the admin (403 for everyone else). The file is named feedbacks-YYYY-MM-DD_YYYY-MM-DD.

#Related

• Recognition
• Modules
• E-mails from this community
• Groups and org chart