Feedback Loops That Keep Projects on Track

Start. Stop. Continue. Sometimes, simple ideas are the best. Several years ago, I read about a feedback framework called Start, Stop, Continue. I have since applied it hundreds of times and it is one of the most effective ways as a manager and leader to keep your ear close to the ground. Here’s how it works. Ask people on your team or across your organization to schedule a 20 minute feedback session. Spend most or all of the time listening. Your question prompt that you give in advance for the session is: What should we start doing that we are not doing? What should we stop doing? What should we continue doing? Start, Stop, Continue works because it provides a simple structure for the giver and receiver. And it gives permission to be candid about what is working and what is not. It is like magic. Some people will come with a long list of topics, while others will come with just one or two. Either way, people feel heard, you will build trust and gain insights into what is most important to people, and get some great ideas. When I was running organizations with hundreds of people, I tried to schedule at least one Start, Stop, Continue every day. I recommend doing it with people on your team at least twice a year and maybe even quarterly. I also encourage the senior executive team to all participate. It helps to the entire team better understand what the rest of the org is thinking. And if you are the CEO or senior executive, pair the Start, Stop, Continue discussion framework with bi-annual skip-level conversations. The combination is like magic. I will help you understand how to coach your team when you better understand what their direct reports are thinking, seeing, and feeling. If you Google “Rockefeller Habits Checklist,” you will see this is #5 on the list. What simple frameworks do you use?

99% of high-performing software engineers I’ve worked with share one belief: → Speed of feedback decides the speed of growth. 🔁 Shorter loops always win: ∟ 20-line PRs > 200-line PRs   You ship faster, get reviewed quicker, and avoid the “merge paralysis” trap. ∟ “Push & test” > “Think & overthink”   Most bugs are in your assumptions. Push early, learn faster. ∟ Staging traffic > Unit test coverage   Tests are helpful. But watching a real request hit your endpoint? Unmatched insight. ∟ Slack check-ins > Waiting for the weekly sync   Fast decisions move projects. “Let’s wait for the standup” kills momentum. ∟ A 10-minute spike > 3 days of planning   You don’t need perfect answers. You need fast signals. The best engineers know this: → The longer you wait for feedback, the more expensive your mistakes get. Tighten the loop. Feel the pain sooner. Get better faster. That’s how you grow. That’s how you win.

Obsess over the feedback loop. All the learning you need is in the feedback loop. Most people don’t fail because they lack talent. They fail because they lack a system for learning from failure. Every success story rests on a foundation of failures that were properly ↳ Analyzed ↳ Iterated On ↳ And Improved Most of us don’t hit these important marks. We move move past failure too quickly, avoiding the embarrassing discomfort of reflection. We take failures personally instead of treating them scientifically. We assume trying harder is the answer when we need to try harder to design a better approach. I focus on one core truth: Learning more from failure is how we ultimately win. Failure is a feedback loop, and if yours is broken, you won’t just fail, you’ll repeat your failures over and over. Here’s how to fix that. 👇🏼 1️⃣ Pause & Reflect ↳ Before you move forward, stop. ↳ What went wrong? ↳ What did you assume? ↳ What was unexpected? 2️⃣Capture Data ↳ Write everything down. Future-you needs this information. 3️⃣ Remove Your Ego ↳ This isn’t about you, it’s about the process. ↳ Failures are feedback, not character judgments. 4️⃣ Get External Input ↳ Find people ahead of you who will tell you the truth. ↳ No sugarcoating. ↳ No yes-people allowed. 5️⃣ Identify the Root Cause ↳ Surface-level problems aren’t the real issue. Dig deeper. ↳ What’s the pattern behind your failures? 6️⃣ Make One Small Change ↳ Not everything needs an overhaul. ↳ Start with one adjustment and test the impact. 7️⃣ Test & Observe ↳ Don’t make assumptions. Run your new approach. ↳ Measure the results, and see what actually works. 8️⃣ Iterate with Consistency ↳ One correction doesn’t fix everything. ↳ Keep adjusting, keep improving, keep refining. 9️⃣ Build a Culture of Learning ↳ Winners review their losses more than they celebrate their wins. Every failure contains data. Every mistake contains insight. Are you learning? If you’re not, you’re setting yourself up to fail the same way again. DO. FAIL. LEARN. GROW. WIN. REPEAT. FOREVER. What do your feedback loops like? Which of these ideas might be most helpful to your work? Drop a comment below to share your experience. 👇🏼 _____ 🔗 Subscribe to The Failure Blog via the link in my profile (💯🙏🏼) ➕ Follow me, John Brewton, for content that Helps (💯🙏🏼) ♻️ Repost to your networks, colleagues, and friends if you think this would help them (💯🙏🏼)