How to Give Productive Feedback, According to HubSpot Managers & Editors

Have you ever been in a situation where one piece of feedback changed your life? I have! For years, I worked as a full-time employee at startups and tech companies.

Then, one day, my boss discovered I did a few content marketing side gigs after hours (which wasn’t a secret). Initially, they were worried and asked me to choose between working for them or focusing on freelance work.

After giving it some thought, however, they told me that – from a career stance – it made sense to transition to a full-time content marketing freelancer, as many companies needed these kinds of services and had no one to work with.

This reassured me that moving to freelancing was right, and I haven’t looked back since.

What I heard that day was productive feedback at its finest. In this article, I’ll tell you what it is, how to share it, and provide examples from managers who offer constructive advice to employees daily.

What is productive feedback?

How to Give Productive Feedback

Productive Feedback Examples.

Giving a High-Performer Productive Feedback

What is productive feedback?

Productive feedback acts as constructive criticism. It’s given to support growth and improvement in a specific area. The productivity aspect suggests that the feedback should be useful, actionable, and motivating.

To ensure the feedback is productive, it should include the following elements.

Specificity

Feedback should focus on specific behaviors or areas. Explain to the feedback recipient exactly what they should do to improve and how they should do it. The comments cannot be vague.

Actionability

Feedback must include clear guidelines, such as practical advice, resources, or examples of the next steps that the person should take to boost their performance.

Positivity

Feedback should be given positively to motivate someone to act rather than bring them down. Make sure to balance suggestions for improvement with someone’s strengths and achievements.

Timelines

Not all types of feedback can wait until an upcoming employee evaluation. ‘Timeliness’ means that the person you’re speaking to can recall the exact situation with details, so they can refer to it or present their perspective.

Relevance

Your feedback should relate to an aspect of their work – goal completion, work quality, or team communication. The employee might be confused if the link between your feedback and their work isn’t unclear.

Openness

Productive feedback isn’t a monologue; it’s a two-way street. Once you share your perspective, it’s important to hear the employee out and discuss how to proceed next.

Constructiveness

When the manager and employee end the discussion, they should feel that the feedback session was constructive and the goal was for the employee to improve their work, not to point out their shortcomings.

How to Give Productive Feedback

Step 1. Be clear on the intent.

While sometimes spontaneous feedback is a good thing, most of the time, it’s better to plan it. Before you approach someone to give them feedback, you must know its purpose. Here are a few questions that you can ask yourself to figure it out:

Does your team or company suffer from the behaviors or actions of a specific employee?
What mood are you in? Do you feel calm or stressed and angry?
Are you in a place where you can give feedback privately so both of you can feel comfortable?
Do you know exactly what you’d like to communicate?

Remember that productive feedback should always be helpful and given with empathy and respect. If you’re unsure of your intentions or feeling edgy, it’s best to keep whatever you want to say to yourself.

Step 2. Pick the right time and place.

Timing is crucial when offering productive feedback, as the employee needs to be in the right state of mind and have enough time to hear what you’re saying.

If possible, you should always schedule a meeting. Laura Grant, marketing manager at BlueSky Solutions, suggests having a semi-formal setting. That means the tone should be inclusive but on the formal side.

“You should set aside time for a proper discussion and allow all parties to plan and set objectives,” she says.

Katharina Larikka, performance marketer at Droppe, agrees and adds, “We have seen that most feedback is most productive when the recipient is open to it. In practice, this means sharing it in our quarterly review meetings, when everyone aims to give and receive feedback.”

If feedback needs to be more ad hoc, Larikka’s team asks if it’s a good moment to give feedback before doing so.

“If you want a colleague to improve, the first step is to make sure they hear you, and it’s not going to happen if they are in back-to-back meetings for a day and read your message in between,” Larikka says.

Step 3. Avoid accusations and calmly describe the situation.

The golden rule for offering productive feedback is to come into the meeting with “good faith.” While this applies to the manager and the employee, the former usually runs the meeting and sets the tone.

Since not all feedback meetings come with an agenda, remember that the person receiving feedback might be surprised and might be emotional.

“It is almost impossible to foresee how the recipient will reply. You should attentively observe and listen to their response to comprehend what they heard and how they felt about it,” says John Butterworth, CEO and founder at 10kschools.

If they become emotional, Butterworth says notice it, address it, and let it go before returning to the feedback discussion.

“If they aren’t answering or you feel a deeper issue is at play, ask open-ended questions to clarify,” Butterworth says.

He also points to an important aspect — acknowledging the time employees need to apply improvements.

“Changing behaviors is difficult. Give the receiver ample time, attention, and support. If you notice an improvement, provide positive feedback,” he says. “If there’s no progress, ask them how the action plan is doing and see what else you can do to assist.”

Butterworth does, however, also say that the tone of your feedback should change over time if the performance issues persist.

Step 4. Pause and give them a chance to respond.

After saying everything you wanted, you should give your employee a chance to present their point of view or version of events. You can ask: “What has it been like for you?” or “What do you think happened?”

Mark Damsgaard, founder of Global Residence Index, says constructive criticism becomes productive if you’re coming from a place of concern and genuinely want your employees to be better.

“Listening to their side of the story can help once you have already given the feedback. What was the reason for their errors? Why were they always late recently? Then, actively listening to their side and knowing where they’re coming from would allow you to provide help and suggestions,” Damsgaard says.

Damsgaard notes that these suggestions could make them feel more supported and that your workplace is a safe place.

Damsgaard adds that such an approach makes employees better moving forward. Being able to feel that they’re in a team that supports them encourages them to work harder and better.

You can also allow them to share upward feedback — you might learn about issues that you haven’t been aware of, which addressing will make your collaboration better.

Step 5. Discuss the next steps.

I mentioned that productive feedback should be actionable. That’s why before you end your meeting, you should give your employees a few suggestions on how to improve.

Alternatively, you can ask them if they have any ideas on changing their behaviors or enhancing their performance.

Productive Feedback Examples

Let’s take a look at some real-life examples to get a better understanding of what productive feedback is.

A Personal Story Shared on Quora

The first productive feedback example comes from a Life Coach, Sara Rosseel, who shared her experience on Quora.

In her story, she describes a job working for an international company where she managed several projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. She was the youngest person on the team and was happy to work 50-60 hours a week.

Rosseel says her boss was a “tough-as-nails, no-nonsense woman.”

During her performance review, Rosseel’s manager was concerned that Rosseel wasn’t challenged. Rosseel says she took on routine tasks the project managers didn’t want to handle.

“So, she asked me what kind of work I was most interested in and encouraged me to ask the project managers to get me involved. She explained that the experience would be not only valuable for my future career but also more fulfilling for me,” Rosseel writes.

The manager gave Rosseel her support and a six-month timeline to spread her wings.

“Not every manager in that organization — especially those in senior positions — takes an interest in young junior staff. I consider myself fortunate and since then have had the opportunity to pass on the same advice to others,” Rosseel writes.

What made this productive feedback?

First of all, it came from a senior person who had a lot of authority. She took an interest in a junior employee and clearly communicated to Rosseel that she saw a lot of potential in her and wanted to help her spread her wings.
The manager used the stick-and-carrot approach – she said that she would help Rosseel in her career development provided that she would give it her best. The manager also proposed a rough deadline (i.e., six months), by which Rosseel had to demonstrate significant improvement. Also, she told her exactly what she should do.
Additionally, instead of orchestrating Rosseel’s career, the manager made sure that her advice and career plans were in line with Rosseel’s objectives and aspirations.

Lastly, but most importantly, the feedback recipient considered the advice useful and valuable. Following it allowed Rosseel to progress in her work.

Receiving Productive Feedback – My Own Experience

In a past professional life, I worked as a project manager at a software consultancy. I came to the business with three years of experience in managing a digital product at a startup.

So, while I understood how project management tools like JIRA worked, I only used the tool’s basic functionalities.

However, when I joined the new company, I started managing about four or five projects simultaneously, with 20+ people involved. I quickly found that I needed to customize some of the project boards.

I asked a senior project manager for help, and they showed me how to use advanced rules to adjust the layout and functions to my needs.

The company puts a lot of emphasis on open, productive feedback. So, it wasn’t a surprise that I found a description of this situation in a spreadsheet my manager used to gather feedback for my monthly performance evaluation.

The senior PM mentioned that I wasn’t an experienced project manager yet, so I did not need to know advanced JIRA functionalities at this stage of my career.

But, if I wanted to make this my long-term career path, I would need to become proficient.

The reason why this was such a memorable piece of feedback is that the fellow PM underlined that they didn’t want me to feel like I was underperforming.

They brought this up to give me a heads-up for a skill I would be required to have in, say, six months.

This would give me plenty of time to start learning JIRA at my own pace.

They also made sure to provide a positive review of my ongoing work, which I saw as a nice pat on the back and encouragement to keep going.

Giving a High-Performer Productive Feedback

Know when to step away from the classic “sandwich method.”

In case you’re not familiar with it, the sandwich method is a technique where a piece of constructive criticism is offered between a positive start and an encouraging end of the feedback meeting.

While it’s very popular, some team managers have their own take, including Amit Raj, founder and CEO at The Links Guy.

“I find it effective to start and end the session with genuine appreciation and encouragement but to address areas of improvement in a separate, dedicated conversation. This separates positive reinforcement from constructive criticism, allowing team members to fully absorb both without feeling overwhelmed or confused,” he says.

For instance, Raj once had a team member who struggled with meeting deadlines.

Instead of sandwiching this critique between compliments, he scheduled a separate meeting to discuss time management strategies and provided actionable improvement steps.

“This method helped maintain a positive atmosphere while addressing performance issues constructively, leading to meaningful progress and growth for the individual and the team as a whole,” Raj says.

Choose the communication medium wisely.

Some of us learn from audio or images better, while others are best at synthesizing information in text form. Gary Gray, co-founder and CEO of CouponChief, says that we should also remember this while providing feedback.

In managing a remote team of over 30 employees, Gray found that dispersed team members respond a lot better to feedback when you switch up the mediums and consider their learning styles.

“Some of my team are audio-visual learners, yet others prefer text. So, I use ​​documents, emails, voice notes, and even asynchronous video messages to deliver feedback and give everyone time to digest the information at their own pace,” says Gray.

According to Gray, the company intentionally mixes up these communication mediums and chooses them depending on the context.

For example, he notes that voice notes in tandem with written feedback convey tone and emotion better than text alone. This is beneficial when dealing with sensitive topics or complex ideas.

“All this reduces the chances of misinterpretation while creating a useful reference that we can revisit to reflect on what worked and what didn’t,” Gray says.

Make sure your empathy shines through your conversation.

While managers are responsible for their department’s results, they must also advocate for their team members. This means that they should show empathy to the person they’re speaking to, even if they have a few sharp remarks to share.

Alex Freeburg, managing attorney and founder of Freeburg Law, says that, in his experience, empathy makes all the difference.

“I start by acknowledging an employee’s efforts and where they could use additional support. A simple sentence like, ‘I understand this project has been challenging, and I believe we can make it better together’ is much more powerful than jumping straight into criticism,” Freeburg says.

Through empathy, Freeburg says, you’re more mindful of how your feedback is being received — whether your employees are feeling overwhelmed and if they need some time to grasp what you’ve said.

“Revisiting the conversation allows for processing time and follow-up, helping the feedback process to have a meaningful impact,” Freeburg notes.

Provide the feedback privately.

Picking the right place to give feedback is as important as what you’re going to say. The feedback recipient must feel safe and comfortable; that’s why it’s not recommended to give it in public places.

James Wilkinson, CEO of Balance One Supplements, shares a story on how he gave feedback to an employee after a customer service failure.

Wilkinson recalls a customer service failure when the experience that the client was having was less than stellar.

“I chatted privately with a team member to give him feedback right away and in private,” says Wilkinson. “I shared what was working, broke down the miscommunications, and, together, identified strategies for how we could prevent these in the future.”

Wilkinson notes that the employee was not shamed publicly during the incident.

Instead, “I was also able to educate in more than just mistake-fixing: giving feedback shows your investment in their humanity and their development,” Wilkinson says.

Wilkinson mentioned that good feedback is never just a way to correct mistakes. It also makes the team believe in their potential and capacity to grow, as well as improves team collaboration.

Frame feedback from your own observations and experiences.

Avoid sounding like you are blaming them. You don’t want to antagonize your employees, but simply tell them they should do something different.

Lilia Tovbin, CEO and founder at BigMailer.io says, “Frame feedback from your observations and experiences, which you can achieve using the ‘I’ perspective. This avoids sounding accusatory and allows for a more constructive conversation.”

Tovbin says she recently used this technique while providing feedback to a team member who was constantly late to their virtual meetings.

“Instead of saying, ‘You‘re always late, and it’s disrespectful,’ I approached it by stating, ‘I’ve noticed that our meetings are starting a bit later than scheduled, and it sometimes affects our productivity. Can we discuss how we can ensure everyone is on time for our future meetings?’” she explains.

This approach opened up a dialogue without making the person defensive, allowing for a more positive and productive outcome.

Productive Feedback and Career Growth

Progress isn’t possible without feedback — whether it’s directed at the employee or the manager. The most important thing to remember is that your feedback needs to be actionable and empathetic.

Do the people you speak to know how to proceed? And do you feel that you’ve got their back if they need extra help?

Offering constructive feedback is what characterizes the best managers — those who know how to set expectations, all the while showing their readiness to support their staff in their career growth.

The Worst Super Bowl Ads — Avoid These Blunders

There’s a lot to be learned from the Super Bowl.

While athletes gather new motivation and coaches pick up a few more techniques, the Super Bowl is also an excellent place for marketers to gain tips.

How?

The ads, of course.

Between 80 and 100 ads run annually during the Super Bowl. Companies pay millions to have their commercials aired for 30 to 60 seconds.

While many companies see success from their ads, others end the game, facing some alarming results.

So, what makes a bad ad?

I’ll highlight the basics of bad advertising and walk you through ten of the worst Super Bowl ads ever. These lessons apply to all forms of marketing, too, so whether you’re a blogger or a scriptwriter, you’ll gain some takeaways.

What makes an ad flop?

Super Bowl ads are some of the year’s most widely discussed marketing materials. Some ads make a significant splash, while others are memorable for not-so-good reasons.

As a marketer and as a consumer, there are a few things that make an ad flop, including:

Offensiveness. While some argue that “all publicity is good publicity,” offensive ads can negatively impact a company’s bottom line. A reputation can affect between 3-7.5% of revenues annually.

Confusing messaging. Confusing ads don’t always face the public backlash that offensive ads do, but they aren’t very effective. If viewers don’t know what the ad is or who it’s advertising, it’s tough to take action.

Irritating. Annoying ads sometimes have jingles that get stuck in our heads, but it’s not always good. In fact, irritating ads can diminish a brand’s authority.

In my experience, ensuring clear and appropriate messaging should be a priority in all marketing areas, regardless of the ad format. When companies disregard clarity and appropriateness, they become vulnerable to a flop.

The Worst Super Bowl Ads of All Time

The Super Bowl has been a powerful platform for advertisers since its launch in 1968. Even in the very first year of the event, companies paid $150,000 for one minute of ad coverage.

With 58 years of commercials, there are some memorable Super Bowl ad flops. Let’s look at some of the worst Super Bowl ads ever and what made them a flop.

Pepsi x Kendall Jenner

This Pepsi ad, launched in 2017, featured supermodel Kendall Jenner giving a Pepsi to a police officer at a protest. After taking a sip of Pepsi, the officer smiled, and the protesters laughed and cheered in glee.

What Makes It a Blunder

This Super Bowl ad was criticized harshly for being “tone-deaf.” While the ad may have intended to bring awareness to social justice issues, viewers felt that the clip diminished activists’ struggles.

It wasn’t helped by the fact that the influencer they used had little to do with social justice and was a bit controversial herself. My experience as a marketer has taught me that you need to care about the message and the messenger.

Pepsi’s neglect of both created a guarantee that this ad would flop — and many took to Twitter to share their opinions.

Lifeminders

In 2000, Lifeminders.com paid for what is now known as the cheapest Super Bowl ad of all time. It starts with text on a yellow screen, reading, “This is the worst Super Bowl ad of all time.”

The ad goes on to describe the company, which offers personalized emails.

What Makes It a Blunder

While I think this ad was intended to be funny, it was somewhat off-putting. The ad confused audiences with unclear messaging because it didn’t provide much information about the company.

What it did say about the company also seemed in direct opposition to the ad’s style, which was exceedingly bland.

Despite the ad’s poor reception, Lifeminder said they saw 700,000 new customers in the weeks following their Super Bowl ad — so it wasn’t a total flop.

Sad Robot

The infamous GM Sad Robot ad aired in 2007. The ad begins with a robot being fired for making a mistake. Then, the robot tries to get a new job but fails. After failing a few new jobs, the robot leaps off a bridge, insinuating suicide.

Then viewers discover this is only a dream, and a message about GM’s 100,000-mile warranty appears.

What Makes It a Blunder

GM faced extreme backlash for this ad. At its surface, the ad is unsettling and disturbing, offending audiences. Super Bowl audiences vary in age; overwhelmingly, ads are lighthearted or positive.

This tone clash was jarring for viewers. As a marketer, I know the value of ensuring your tone aligns with your context.

GM’s ad was extremely poorly timed, as it was released amidst significant layoffs. The ad’s messaging spoke directly to this in an insensitive and offensive way.

5 to 9

In this 2021 Super Bowl ad for the website builder Squarespace, you can hear Dolly Parton singing a revamped version of her classic, “9 to 5.”

Instead of “9 to 5,” she’s singing “5 to 9,” highlighting side hustles that bring meaning to employees’ lives.

What Makes It a Blunder

Squarespace and Dolly Parton both received criticism for this Superbowl commercial. Many thought the ad was an offensive suggestion that individuals needed to be overworked to have value.

Additionally, the song isn’t catchy like the original, landing the ad in the irritating category.

Make Safe Happen

Nationwide’s 2015 Make Safe Happen ad featured a young child describing things they’d never do. They’d never get cooties or get married, for example.

At the end of the ad, the young child states that they wouldn’t get to do any of those things because they died in an accident. Then, it said that Nationwide cares about what matters.

What Makes It a Blunder

This ad is one of the most widely criticized ad campaigns ever. It’s a highly morbid ad, considered overly dark and unnerving. And the ad intended to sell insurance, which people found exploitative and offensive.

Overall, this ad flopped on more than a few marks.

Perfect Match

GoDaddy’s Perfect Match ad aired in 2013. It features a supermodel and a nerd, and the spokeswoman states that GoDaddy is both sexy and smart.

Then, as a representation of the fusion of those two attributes, the clip features 10 seconds of kissing — a third of the entire ad.

What Makes It a Blunder

This GoDaddy ad was criticized for making viewers extremely uncomfortable. While the intent was certainly playful, viewers felt the kiss lingered for far too long and became inappropriate for television.

Like many of the ads on this list, GoDaddy neglected to consider the context of its ad.

Ace Metrix, an ad ranking site, stated that this ad had the 2nd lowest rating for Super Bowl ads that year.

Sony Experia

Sony launched an ad for a new Android phone that contained gaming controls in 2011. The ad featured a man wandering through dark streets and ending up in a back room with surgery performed on an Android.

The Android received human thumbs and went out onto the streets, ready to game.

What Makes It a Blunder

The 2011 Sony ad made viewers extremely uncomfortable. The sight of human thumbs on the robot was visually jarring and, for some viewers, terrifying. Additionally, the messaging in the ad was fairly confusing.

While the end of the commercial clarified what was being advertised, there was little information about the product throughout the 60-second ad.

As a marketer, it’s vital to intentionally use all the space you’re given. Whether you’re writing an educational blog or a commercial script, you have to consider your goal: selling a product. Sony neglected to prioritize that goal in this ad.

MLK Dodge Ram

In 2018, Dodge Ram’s Super Bowl ad reinforced the brand’s motto, “Built to Serve.” The commercial featured powerful images of folks engaging in acts of community and service.

The ad was accompanied by an MLK sermon from precisely 50 years prior on servanthood.

What Makes It a Blunder

While some perceived the ad as powerful and inspirational, others found it a diminishing way to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Critics were outraged by the use of an MLK speech to sell trucks.

Overall, the commercial was thought by many to be an exploitative use of Martin Luther King’s words.

Temu’s 2024 Ad

If you watched the Superbowl this year, you certainly saw Temu’s advertisements, which aired not once but four times. This ad features animated visuals of people’s lives being improved by Temu, with low prices for each item Temu provides.

It’s accompanied by brand audio and concludes with Temu’s motto: Shop like a billionaire.

What Makes It a Blunder

The Temu ad didn’t offend (though there are many critics of the brand itself). Instead, the frequency of the ad annoyed viewers and resulted in a significantly negative perception.

Viewers took to social media to lament their irritation with the Temu ad that really did play four times.

The brand likely spent tens of millions on this campaign, as four 30-second ads is no cheap deal — and the frequency turned out to be an issue.

Groupon’s Tibet Ad

Finally, we’ll take a look at Groupon’s 2011 Super Bowl ad. The first half of the ad featured a narrative about the people of Tibet and how the culture is “in jeopardy.”

Then, the ad cuts to Timothy Hutton sitting in a restaurant being served Tibetan food by a Tibetan man. Finally, Timothy explains that he got this delicious meal for a deal, thanks to Groupon.

What Makes It a Blunder

Groupon’s ad faced an exceeding backlash for offensiveness. The ad was criticized for racism and diminishment of the struggles facing refugees of Tibet.

It was a poorly timed, poorly executed ad — and a major flop. The ad was pulled promptly from television after viewer response.

What We Can Learn From Ads That Flop

As we wrap up our look at some of the Super Bowl‘s biggest ad mishaps, let’s shift our focus to what we can learn and how we can innovate.

The key takeaway? Stay authentic, positive, and aligned with your audience‘s preferences. Those ads that didn’t hit the mark are perfect examples of what not to do, offering valuable insights into crafting effective marketing.

We have a golden chance to transform these missteps into major wins. Aim to create messages that resonate well — be engaging, considerate, and reflective of your audience’s interests, backed by solid data for relevance.

Remember to prioritize clarity and your brand’s integrity regardless of your company or ad format. Even with bold content, ensuring it’s received well should be a top concern.

Keep it casual yet professional, and let’s make marketing that truly stands out.