How to Develop Better Products Using Radical Candor
The best teams care personally about each other and challenge each other directly so that their focus can be on achieving results and delivering high-quality products.
On January 25, 2022, Crafted hosted an event with Colorado Product to discuss how Radical Candor is essential for product development teams to deliver good products. Read on for a recap of the content.
How to Develop Better Products Using Radical Candor
Kim Scott’s theory of Radical Candor is a secret weapon for any high-performing team and is especially essential for product development teams. Teams who master giving direct and effective feedback are able to focus more of their energy on achieving results and less on distractions such as team politics. We believe that teams who operate within this framework will produce and ship better products because they are pushing boundaries and challenging both each other and their product to their fullest potential.
The Theory
Kim Scott defines Radical Candor as “a straightforward and deeply human way of giving and receiving feedback.” Two vital components are necessary for such feedback to be effective.
First, the participants must build a genuine and trusting relationship with each other. This involves getting to know each other’s whole selves: their goals, interests, fears, and motivations. In doing so, they are able to understand each other’s behaviors as it relates to their needs at work.
Second, once the relationship is established, the feedback must be direct and intended to push the recipient toward their full potential. The giver has an idea of the recipient's full potential because they have taken the time to get to know them on a personal level. The feedback is challenging and direct but comes across as well-intended and genuine because a trusting relationship has been established. When giving such direct feedback, the relationship must be strong enough so that neither party is afraid of ruining the relationship but both parties know that if given in the right way, it comes from a good place.
The intersection between these two components, Caring Personally and Challenging Directly, is Radical Candor.
Why Radical Candor Is Important
While Kim Scott wrote Radical Candor for the manager/direct report relationship, this framework is essential for any relationship, regardless of authority. Balanced Product Development Teams must negotiate complex sets of inputs at all times. In order to develop the best products, these teams are constantly balancing business requirements, user needs, and technical feasibility. Team members must build trusting relationships so that these constant negotiations on direction are not taken personally and feedback can be applied to improve the products. We at Crafted believe in “Strong opinions, loosely held.” Diversity of thought and different perspectives on products always make decisions and directions richer. Where companies can have open, candid discussions about their products, the outcomes are more thoughtful and encompass what the needs of the user are.
How to Implement It
The Agile Manifesto states, “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.” In order to reflect on how to be more effective, direct and candid feedback must be given and received in order to improve. Teams that know how to give and receive feedback from each other will only improve themselves and as a result, their products. Weekly retrospective meetings are a forum where candid feedback is welcomed and are a great space for teams to become comfortable with giving and receiving Radical Candor.
Design critiques are another place where Radical Candor is easily implemented. Designs at any fidelity require feedback from product teams to make sure they are meeting the needs of the user and the business while also being technically feasible. While designers are stewards of these designs, they must be able to accept constructive criticism for the betterment of the product.
Radical Candor & Crafted
Here at Crafted, everything we do is rooted in Radical Candor.
Our relationships with our clients. We must build deep relationships with our clients so that we can be trusted advisors of the products. We utilize Radical Candor to surface risks and assumptions to help make the right decisions for businesses and users.
Constant collaboration within product development teams: Radical Candor is essential for the constant collaboration that we practice with our product development teams. We must lessen the friction between ourselves so that the products can improve.
Leadership roles: We believe that it is as important to give feedback up the chain as it is down the chain. Managers are expected to ask for feedback from their direct reports as often as direct reports receive feedback from their managers. By eliminating a hierarchy of feedback, we are all able to improve.
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