The Power of Feedback

Happy Saturday!

This week, I came across some quotes from Elon Musk about the importance of feedback:

"I think it's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better.

I think that's the single best piece of advice―constantly think about you could be doing things better and question yourself." ― Elon Musk

While Musk's opinions can be controversial, his success in pushing technological boundaries is undeniable.

Watching what his companies do is breathtaking.

How many people are designing and building rockets that get to orbit and then land on their own (in unison) after falling out of the stratosphere?

Understanding what's true in the world allows us to operate more effectively.

This is why I love studying great investors and great engineers.

Those professions require that we understand reality at a deep level to be successful.

The leaders in those fields tend to also be world-class at understanding reality.

Learning a bit about their mental models and thinking processes will pay dividends for us (even if we have no interest in doing what they do).

"One of the biggest challenges is making sure you have a corrective feedback loop, and then maintaining that corrective feedback loop over time even when people want to tell you exactly what you want to hear..." ― Elon Musk

As Salesforce professionals, our ability to understand and adapt to user needs is crucial. Effective feedback mechanisms allow us to:

1. Improve user adoption rates
2. Enhance system efficiency
3. Stay aligned with business objectives
4. Continuously refine our skills

How can we get more feedback as Salesforce professionals?

• Build an auto-survey functionality for your end-users into every help desk request, Jira ticket, Asana card, or project task
• Schedule a task on your calendar to revisit any new feature you've built one month after launch and see if it's really providing value
• Spend some time each week writing about what you did well and what you could've done differently
• Actively seek constructive criticism from team leaders and peers 
• Review the Lightning Usage App regularly
• Run the Salesforce Optimizer once per quarter 

"I think it's very important to actively seek out and listen very carefully to negative feedback. This is something people to tend to avoid because it's painful, but I think this is a very common mistake―to not actively seek out and listen to negative feedback."  ― Elon Musk

Feedback isn't just about personal growth. It's about building better solutions.

Try a "feedback-first" approach on your next project:

• Gather input from stakeholders before you start building
• Use Chatter or Slack to create an open ideas forum
• Identify roadblocks early
• Align your solution with real business needs
• Boost user ownership and adoption

Early feedback saves time and headaches later.

So, if you like the idea of continous improvement, this upcoming week I challenge you to implement one new feedback strategy in your Salesforce work.

I bet it pays off somewhere down the road :)

Hope this helps!

Best,

Nick