The Specific 009: Give Feedback in Video Format

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Photo by William Bayreuther on Unsplash

The past week, I did something out of the blue.

Instead of giving feedback in the comments section in Google docs to my fellow members of the Newsletter Launchpad community as per normal, I decided to try giving feedback using Loom on top of some written comments.

Here are three examples and the specific conditions that led me to choose video feedback.

When I need to navigate between webpages

Google docs commenting only works inside Google docs. Obvious, I know. So, when I needed to navigate between webpages, a video recording can help to capture the jumping back and forth. Especially when it adds to the feedback.

Hard to comment when need to toggle between Google docs and other webpages

And it was helpful for Janahan as well!

When I’m suggesting dramatic changes to structure or have a highly nuanced point

Google docs commenting system is great when you want to focus on specific lines and words. It’s less useful when you want to suggest structural changes that are more "felt" than "seen". Especially when looking at the essay as a whole. This was the case here.

Also, it’s easier to verbalize any nuances through video when it captures your voice and facial expression.

I did ramble for like 12 mins, and jump up and down the piece. I also added a few Google docs comments as I recorded myself.

Which made me very happy that the Loom helped :)

When it was easier to think and talk

Ultimately, it was easier for me to think and talk. Compared with thinking and writing out the feedback.

This was unfortunately a long one. I could have made the same point faster. But had to think.

Oops! Maybe I can try Descript next 🤷🏻‍♂️

Overall, I like how the experiment went and will continue to use Loom to give feedback for my fellow Newsletter Launchpad friends.

If you like this article, you may also like the one where I talked about async work. Will Schmidt, an agency owner, even commented in that article about how he was going to try using video to solicit client feedback like I did for work-in-progress.

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I want to thank Chris Wong, and Janahan Sivaraman for agreeing to let me use screencaps of our conversation. Louie Bacaj didn’t respond at the time of this publication when I asked him 8 days ago, but I think he should be cool with it. 😊