Getting feedback is excellent. Getting the feedback you are looking for is a blessing. Feedback is a broad spectrum; assuming that everybody understands what you need without telling them is a highly optimistic way of treating such a necessary process.
To take a great example I noticed online:
You take your car to the mechanic and one of them says: “we noticed all your doors have rusted out, you should fix those”. Another one says: “LOVE THE RUSTED DOORS, have you considered adding a flamethrower”. The third one says: “it is not a horse”
Is this helpful feedback? It depends on what you were looking for. You got some feedback if you just wanted to ensure it was not a horse. If you wanted to know if the yellow and red colour scheme was a good idea, you still do not understand (even though the flamethrower could add some vibrant red to it).
Make it explicit
Be explicit about what you want to have feedback on. It doesn’t mean you will assume you are 100% right on the elements you do not ask for feedback on. If you do not narrow your scope of input needed, people will give you their best efforts to help you without knowing what you need help with. And that could result in getting feedback on exactly the things you did not need.
Therefore, narrowing it down when asking for feedback and explaining why you do this will help create relevance for you to move on. If you want to, and you feel people want to give more feedback, you can always open some more doors, but be clear that this is not your focus and that you might not address this feedback immediately.
And keep in mind, be careful to open pandora’s box. Only ask for feedback if you are willing to handle it.
