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Feedback

Feedback to balena​

We value feedback and we are working on making it an intuitive part of how we work at balena. Feedback can help us learn and improve, so we encourage all balenistas to use every opportunity to give candid feedback to teammates. We do not use very rigid and formal processes at the moment but have avenues to give and receive feedback. Feedback should be a two-way communication and you should feel comfortable asking for it when you feel you are not receiving enough. We want to hear your feedback about your experience as a balenista and look at ways to improve this experience! You can use #teamfeedback when you want to post any feedback about a structure or process. We want to know what is working well, what is not working well, and what we can improve, so let us know! You can choose the relevant Jellyfish thread to post your feedback using #teamfeedback but remember to ensure that Hubot is added in that flow so your team feedback can be sent to the right place.

Your onboarding feedback​

We are always working on improving our onboarding process and this handbook, so we highly value your feedback while you are completing your onboarding journey! We would like to encourage you to share any onboarding feedback, thoughts and suggestions in Jellyfish, using #teamfeedback during your first few days and while your experience is still fresh in your mind! Anything can be helpful, from what you thought was missing, what might have been confusing, what you would like to know more about as part of your onboarding, anything you have found particularly helpful, or anything outside the normal onboarding information and process that you discovered and found useful. Anything really can help make the experience better for the next balenista joining our team. Feel free to make changes or raise issues on the handbook if you spot any inconsistencies or mistakes, or just raise these using #teamfeedback

A bit about TINYpulse​

We're also using TINYPulse as one way to receive and ask for feedback about how we are doing, how things are going for you, and to provide a place to bring up anything you want to. While we are a small team we think it's important that we have an anonymous way you can share your unfiltered thoughts, feedback, and suggestions because it’s important to be able to raise problems you see. Sometimes we ask questions to check how everyone is doing. Other questions are related to what we are working on at the time to ensure we have the team's input and pick up any concerns and gaps we should be focusing on, or check what the team's understanding and needs are around a particular area. We want to hear about what we are doing well and what we are missing! Every individual experience can be different and we want to know more.

Onboarding questions & check-in calls​

When new balenistas start and for the first few weeks, they receive a few (clearly labeled!) non-anonymous survey questions about how their onboarding is going. The non-anonymous onboarding questions are sent on week 1, 2, 4 & 12. We want to hear how your first weeks are going and how you have been settling in! We will also have some onboarding calls with more senior people to welcome you to the team and discuss the work you will be focusing on. After your first few months and once you feel more settled, you will have some check-in calls with people guiding your work and someone from the TeamOS team to discuss how you are getting on, any challenges you are facing, support you require and to get some feedback about your experience so far so we can continue improving our processes and support.

As always, this is an experiment -- we'll adjust how we're using TINYpulse as we figure out how it's useful to us and adjust check-ins to see what works best and helps balenistas receive and give more feedback.

TINYpulse features​

If a feature has other options for how we use/share the feedback, it's noted in this documentation.

Surveys​

Bi-weekly surveys show up in your inbox on Wednesday by 11am GMT. There's only one question, and there's a text box for optional elaboration (which is always super helpful to hear). We've set up TINYpulse to publish the aggregate, anonymous results graph for each question, so you will see this after you respond and can come back later once more teammates have responded -- though you cannot see the text box responses.

Feel free to add the TINYpulse Gmail add-on, so you can just respond to the TINYpulse questions without leaving your inbox!

Here are ways you can help make balena feedback successful:

  • Participate: commit to responding to the TINYpulse question (it takes less than 1 minute!) -- the more balenistas answer, the better idea we have of the state of our team. If you don't tell us, we can't know!
  • Lead with solutions: be constructive with your comments and suggestions. Express your frustrations and concerns, and try to consider tangible solutions that would improve things. We want to hear your ideas and suggestions!
  • Respond to private messages: If you receive private messages from administrators, it is because they truly want to address your feedback, but they need more information, context, and discussion to properly proceed. You remain anonymous throughout the entire private message conversation.

Suggestions​

These are anonymous messages you can send containing any feedback, thoughts, and ideas you'd like to share. This is a free text box you can always access (log into TinyPulse to find it). The suggestions will usually be transferred to the AMA section of the upcoming All Hands call to be addressed.

Cheers for Peers​

Since we don't have a way to mention "hey, good job with that project" while passing each other in the hallway, Cheers for Peers are a way to provide a way to give kudos to each other. We have a section in the all-hands call agenda where you can add your kudos and cheers. Alternatively, cheers for peers is also a default feature of TinyPulse, however, only the person who sent or received a Cheers will see it. You can start by sending cheers and kudos to balenistas that have supported you through your first few weeks.

Notes​

Some of this information is straight-up taken from TinyPulse's intro slide deck for employees, which you can read all of here.

How TinyPulse is anonymous​

Both your survey responses and suggestions are completely anonymous. Only admins have access to see the text you add to your survey response, and can private message you in response to your comments/suggestions. They do not know who you are, and you remain anonymous if you decide to respond back.

  • Your responses in one week are not associated to those in other weeks
  • Filters can be created associated with attributes about you, but results won’t show up until at least 5 people of the same filter have responded (we can't figure out who you are by filters)

The mission team can access the results, including all responses and suggestions from balenistas that remain anonymous.