tech·nic·al·ly agile

What should you do if your Sprint Review delivers harsh, scathing feedback?

Master Sprint reviews with confidence! Learn to turn harsh feedback into actionable insights and align with stakeholders for product success. 🚀

Published on
3 minute read
Image
https://nkdagility.com/resources/LpiLOBG7WgI

In the Agile world, Sprint reviews are pivotal events where feedback can be a gold mine… or a minefield.  

What happens when this feedback is not just critical but harsh or non-existent?  

How should Agile teams, especially Product Owners and Scrum Masters, navigate this challenging terrain? 

In this post, we’ll delve into understanding and managing harsh feedback during Sprint reviews.   

Understanding the Gravity of Feedback 🤔 

When your Sprint review brings in harsh or scathing feedback, or worse, a deafening silence, it’s a red flag that needs immediate attention. But, as John says, this isn’t the time to retreat – it’s an opportunity for introspection and action. 

Key points to ponder: 

  • Are we building something our stakeholders genuinely care about? 

  • Is there a disconnect between stakeholder expectations and the product’s trajectory? 

  • How do we bridge the gap between what we’ve produced and what our stakeholders need? 

Turning Negative Feedback into a Strategic Tool ⚒️ 

  • Embrace the Negative: Negative feedback, though tough to swallow, is an invaluable indicator. It shows that your path might need adjusting. 

  • Investigate the Root Cause: Don’t just note the negative feedback; dive deep. Why are stakeholders dissatisfied? What did they expect, and what did they receive instead? 

  • Stakeholder Engagement: Enhance engagement levels. If stakeholders are apathetic, find ways to make these reviews more relevant and engaging for them. 

Possible Outcomes from a Sprint Review 🔄 

John outlines three potential outcomes from a Sprint review that’s laden with harsh feedback: 

  • Halt: The feedback might indicate that it’s time to stop. If your product isn’t hitting the mark and there’s no viable path forward, halting can save resources and redirect efforts to more fruitful avenues. 

  • Pivot: Agile loves this term! Pivoting means altering your course. Maybe a slight tweak or a major overhaul is needed based on the feedback received. 

  • Persevere: Sometimes, despite the feedback, your team might need to stick to the plan. This is usually the case when you have strong convictions about your strategy and anticipate future success. 

How to Effectively Implement These Strategies 🛠️ 

  • Open Communication: Encourage honest and transparent communication within the team and with stakeholders. 

  • Collaborative Analysis: Work together to analyse feedback and decide the best course of action. 

  • Flexibility: Be prepared to adapt your plans based on feedback. 

  • Stakeholder Mapping: Understand your stakeholders’ interests and concerns to tailor your approach effectively. 

Conclusion 

Remember, harsh feedback in a Sprint review isn’t the end of the world – it’s a pivotal moment for learning and growth. As John aptly puts it, the key is in how you respond to it. Either halt, pivot, or persevere, but do it with strategic intent and a clear understanding of your stakeholders’ needs. 

And remember, Agile is all about flexibility and adaptation. Use every Sprint review as a stepping stone towards creating a product that not only meets but exceeds stakeholder expectations. 

Takeaways 

  • 👂 Listen to Feedback: Embrace all forms of feedback, even the harsh ones. 

  • 🤔 Reflect and Analyse: Understand the ‘why’ behind negative feedback. 

  • 🔄 Be Prepared to Change: Don’t be afraid to pivot your strategy. 

  • 💡 Persevere When Necessary: Stick to your guns when you believe in your product’s potential. 

  • 🗣️ Engage Stakeholders: Make your reviews more engaging and relevant. 

Agile practices like Sprint reviews are about more than just ticking boxes; they’re about creating a dynamic, responsive environment for product development.  

So, take that harsh feedback and turn it into your most valuable asset! 🚀

So what should you do if the Sprint review delivers harsh, scathing feedback? I feel like it’s more likely that you get no feedback at all. That’s as scathing as you can get. We don’t care enough to give you any feedback, right?

But perhaps you should consider what it is you’re building and what the direction it is that you’re taking the product in. So thinking about, are we building the right thing? Right? Are we building stuff that our stakeholders care about? If we’re not building stuff our stakeholders care about, why would you expect them to turn up and give you feedback?

If they’re forced to turn up, right? Like they’ve been told it’s mandatory, they turn up and they don’t say anything, it’s because they have to turn up and they don’t care. You want your stakeholders to want to turn up and want to give you that feedback.

And if you get a bunch of negative feedback, that’s awesome! Right? That’s our indicator that we’re going in the wrong direction, that we’re maybe doing something wrong, or maybe we’re doing something right. We were deliberately trying to ruffle feathers and generate some more ideation in the product.

But the product owner and the whole Scrum team needs to really focus on what’s next. If we get horrible feedback, they hate our products. Are we even building the right product? Is it even worth continuing the product? Is it worth investing in this? Do we need to change tactical direction? Do we need to change strategic direction? Have we got the right product?

These are all questions that you can ask during that Sprint review. And don’t, in a Sprint review, just go, “We got bad feedback,” and stop the Sprint review. You need to dive into why you’re getting negative feedback. What do the stakeholders think? What’s the difference between what the stakeholders expected and what they got, so that you can try and close that gap?

If you don’t know what that gap is, if you don’t know where they thought you would be, you don’t know how to get there. And it could be that we just cancel the product. That’s a perfectly valid outcome from a Sprint review. We decide that, you know, somebody had a great idea, somebody thought it was worth spending some money on, we tried to spend some money on it, and we didn’t have any good outcomes. So stop wasting money and go after the next idea, something different, right? That’s entirely possible.

So the kind of three, I guess, three outcomes from a Sprint review are: stop doing what you’re doing, that’s one outcome; pivot. We love that word, don’t we? We pivot and change direction, right? We need to do something slightly different or even a lot different. Or perhaps perseverance, right? We know we’re on the right track. It’s not yet resonating with the customer base, but we have a firm conviction and belief that this is the right way forward and that we’ll be able to get there.

And that’s your three choices at the end of the Sprint review. Make them well.

Thanks for watching the video! If you enjoyed it, please like, follow, and subscribe. I always reply to comments, and if you want to have a chat about this or anything else Agile, Scrum, or DevOps, then please book a coffee with me through Naked Agility.

Scrum Product Development Sprint Review Agile Project Management Pragmatic Thinking Software Development Agile Planning Agile Transformation People and Process Agile Frameworks Agile Product Management
Comments

Connect with Martin Hinshelwood

If you've made it this far, it's worth connecting with our principal consultant and coach, Martin Hinshelwood, for a 30-minute 'ask me anything' call.

Our Happy Clients​

We partner with businesses across diverse industries, including finance, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, technology, engineering, transportation, hospitality, entertainment, legal, government, and military sectors.​

Bistech Logo
Boeing Logo
Brandes Investment Partners L.P. Logo
Philips Logo
Lockheed Martin Logo
Freadom Logo
DFDS Logo
Genus Breeding Ltd Logo
Hubtel Ghana Logo
Akaditi Logo

NIT A/S

Graham & Brown Logo
Microsoft Logo
YearUp.org Logo
Kongsberg Maritime Logo
Emerson Process Management Logo
Trayport Logo
Epic Games Logo
New Hampshire Supreme Court Logo
Washington Department of Enterprise Services Logo
Washington Department of Transport Logo
Department of Work and Pensions (UK) Logo
Nottingham County Council Logo
Royal Air Force Logo
Jack Links Logo
ALS Life Sciences Logo
Trayport Logo
Hubtel Ghana Logo
Big Data for Humans Logo
Higher Education Statistics Agency Logo