Understanding Constituent Experience In Order To Improve It

Madison McDaniel, Feedback Labs | April 14th, 2022

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A key purpose of feedback is to understand an individual’s experience in order to improve that experience. It’s important to have tools in place to make it possible to collect feedback in a way that is easy for the communities at the heart of an organization’s work to share their experiences. This LabStorm explored how we can create ways to better measure and acknowledge the challenges and experiences of people around the world.

Keystone Accountability is an organization that works to help others understand and improve their social performance by harnessing feedback from the people they serve. In this LabStorm, the feedback community explored Keystone Accountability’s tool – the Feedback Commons – and discussed ways to demystify data and ensure that data is easily shareable.

The Feedback Commons is a complete learning loop operating system. Through survey building, reviewing findings, discussing and acting on the feedback received, this system is able to better listen and respond to the communities that Keystone Accountability seeks to serve. Users can gain insightful metrics with the help of Feedback Commons’ Dashboard and Explorer Tool. In the LabStorm presentation of this tool, the main goal was to address broader philosophical topics such as discussing concerns about reliance on technical services that may not be sustainable. With the intention of the Feedback Commons tool becoming a sustainable resource for feedback that organizations can rely on, Keystone Accountability shared its story in hopes of fostering a better overall constituent experience and playing its part in creating a more equitable future.

During Keystone Accountability’s presentation of Feedback Commons, participants were able to test a demo of the feedback tool before opening up a discussion. Here were some of the recommendations that came out of the discussion:

Key Takeaways:

Demystify data and support people to feel empowered to interpret feedback themselves. To make feedback data easier to understand, Feedback Commons must have a function to help people learn about the data being collected rather than just collect information from those individuals. LabStorm attendees agreed that when asking questions about experience, allow room for open-ended answers where respondees can explicate why they gave a specific score/answer. This would allow more explanation surrounding specific metrics and allow people to grasp a better understanding of the garnered feedback.
Ensure that the information collected is easily and ethically shareable. Ensuring that Feedback Commons has a tracker where insights can be recorded and actions can be organized would allow for easily understandable and shareable data. Furthermore, a feedback loop dashboard would be beneficial to share data with an organization and help them see where they are in the feedback process. It’s more about just collecting data, but rather what kinds of conversations to have with organizations and communities about that data.
Remain transparent in every step of the feedback process. It’s important to ensure that surveys aren’t just being sent out; constituents need to have an understanding of how that data is going to be used. LabStorm attendees agreed that survey questions would be best if structured in a way that people know their privacy is being valued and protected. Clients should be encouraged to explain to respondents that they will avoid revealing information that would make them identifiable. Taking these measures will further maintain a trusting relationship between organizations and their communities.
Develop Feedback Commons to be more accessible. Attendees raised important questions and requests around the topic of accessibility through suggestions such as providing a mobile-friendly version and an SMS survey interface. These design strategies support the goal of designing the tool to be resilient through the continued evolution of technology and communication.

After reflecting on the key takeaways from this LabStorm discussion, attendees highlighted the importance of creating conversations surrounding the information that’s being collected in order to effect change. Turning lived experiences into data and conducting surveys that are simple and easily shareable is necessary to benefit the communities you seek to serve. It’s refreshing to gather new perspectives and reflections, and Feedback Commons intends to do just that.

Learn More About LabStorms

LabStorms are collaborative problem-solving sessions designed to help organizations tackle feedback-related challenges or share what’s working well in their practice.