Level-up Engineering GitHub's Feedback Culture: Ryan Nystrom (Director of Engineering, GitHub)
GitHub versus Facebook feedback culture comparison with a breakdown of their key elements and cultural differences. Learn the secrets of a healthy feedback culture both on an organizational and personal level from Ryan Nystrom, Director of Engineering at GitHub.
In this interview we're covering:
- The essential elements of a big company's feedback culture
- GitHub vs Facebook feedback culture comparison
- Formal performance reviews at GitHub
- The benefits of a healthy feedback culture
- Crucial elements to build a feedback culture
- Keeping feedback useful
- Handling strong emotional reactions to feedback
- A leader's role in a good feedback culture
- Gathering feedback as an engineering leader
- When to avoid giving feedback face to face
- HR's involvement in GitHub's feedback culture
Excerpt from the interview:
"When I’m encouraging people to share feedback, I tell them to consider their feedback a data point. I used to be nervous about giving critical feedback about others, because I didn’t want to cause trouble for them.
As a director, if I hear one thing from one person, but I don’t hear it from anyone else, I consider it a small issue. I’ll look into it and ask around if others are observing the same thing. If I see more corroborating evidence, only then will I consider acting on it.
No one is exclusively responsible for the consequences coming from their feedback."