Stopping, Starting, and Continuing

a small rant on feedback

It’s always feedback season somewhere. The time of year when everyone who knows someone is asked to respond to an email or fill out a form to provide feedback on what someone else has done for the past twelve months.

And it makes me ill.

Stop

For as long as I can remember (which is probably only about ten years), the Start/Stop/Continue format has been the most used feedback request I’ve seen. S/S/C has been a staple of feedback discussions in organizational development and Agile retrospectives for decades due to its simplicity and structure.

Please tell me three things Weasel should Start doing.

Then tell me three things Weasel should Stop doing.

And now, tell me three things Weasel should continue doing.

If you work with me, and you’ve sent me questions like these, I promise I’m not attacking you. This format can work, and it can be effective. But it’s also lazy and mechanical.

Let me elaborate.

S/S/C FTW

I’ve used start/stop/continue feedback many times before. It can be useful and helpful for sure. First, everyone knows the format, so it’s easy to understand, it’s clear, and it’s simple. It helps a manager put together a growth roadmap, and it provides balanced feedback. I think the “Continue” feedback, especially is great for reinforcing strengths and leveraging those for continued growth.

S/S/C WTF?

On the other hand, it’s suuuuper mechanical and shallow.

Weasel should start writing better blog posts
Weasel should stop writing bad blog posts
Weasel should continue to improve their blog posts

Not very awesome.

S/S/C can inspire low-effort shallow feedback that isn’t at all helpful. When I’ve sent these (and I have sent these before), the insightful answers are paired with flavors of “I can’t think of anything Weasel should stop doing”. It can help…but often not enough.

For full disclosure, I’ve sent a good number of requests for S/S/C feedback in my career, but most often in cases where I was getting to know a new employee, and in those cases, I found the broad general feedback (paired with my own initial hunches) to help me hit the ground running in our relationship.

Then What?

There are no magic questions to replace start/stop/continue. The best feedback questions are contextual to role and career growth. You should think about what kind of feedback you really want to hear and relay before blindly asking a question you saw on a website (or pasted from your HR team).

Some examples may be helpful.

Bobby

Bobby graduated from university 9 months ago. This is is his first full-time job, and he’s learning quickly - but is still green. I already know that Bobby needs to start taking on bigger challenges, stop waiting to be told what to do, and continue to focus on learning.

For feedback on Bobby, I may ask things like:

• What is at least one way you think we can use Bobby more effectively

• What are some ways you think Bobby can take more initiative on the team?

• What are the three most important things you think Bobby can learn?

The potential list is endless - but by contextualizing the feedback, and asking more specific questions, we will have a better chance at helping Bobby find the opportunities he needs to grow.

Cindy

Cindy is a strong developer who has moved into a manager position six months ago. Her team is executing well, but she can do better at delegating and representing her team when needed. Note - if you are Cindy’s manager, you shouldn’t need feedback to notice these things. You should have already given Cindy this feedback - when requesting feedback from others, you are looking for additional anecdotes, or areas you may have missed in order to give her better feedback. As a reminder, if you are a manager and you are not giving your employees feedback, you should rethink your career choices.

Some questions I may ask Cindy’s peers or team in order to give her feedback are:

• What are at least two things you love about Cindy’s management style?

• What’s something Cindy can do differently to be more effective? (note - the first question is a “Continue” question, and this one is just the “Start” question phrased in a way that - for me - gets better answers).

Jan

Jan just transferred to our team. We don’t know a lot about her, but she has worked elsewhere in the company. This is a case where I could ask for start/stop/continue from her former co-workers, but I’ve found more specific versions of those questions will give me even better context to get started. For example:

• What are Jan’s biggest strengths? What examples can you share?

• What are Jan’s biggest areas of growth?

• What can I do to help Jan be effective in her role?

In fact, I have often used these three questions (or similar) instead of S/S/C dozens of times, and in every case I’ve been able to get more usable, and more effective feedback.

It requires more effort, but isn’t putting effort into your employees growth the main reason people become managers???

A Final Plea

For managers out there who request feedback about your employees, I’m asking three things.

• Start trying new things in order to get more effective feedback

• Stop using boilerplate templates and thinking that they give you actionable information

• Continue to invest in employee growth - it’s your job.

Feedback isn’t just a box to check—it’s the foundation of growth. By stepping away from templates and investing in more thoughtful questions, you’re not just helping your employees succeed; you’re building stronger, more dynamic teams.

Be Better.

-A