Stop waiting for feedback — Ask for it
One of the most underrated growth hacks
Hello there 👋
Quite some time here, but happy to be writing today. Before diving into today’s writing, let me share a personal update - I joined, M-KOPA, sometime last year as a Senior Product Manager. The experience has been thrilling! There are very few companies on the continent, that gives you opportunity to work with globally distributed team, while still solving deep-rooted last mile problem on the continent. M-KOPA is one of them. We have also been named as one of the fastest growing companies in Africa by Financial Times for the fourth consecutive year. Glad to be contributing to unlocking digital and financial inclusion for over 6 million customers across Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. We are hiring for a few roles.
Now, let’s get into today’s piece...
Stop waiting for feedback — Ask for it
One of the most overlooked habits that accelerates personal and professional growth is proactively seeking feedback.
Most of us are conditioned to wait for it—through performance reviews, sprint retrospectives, or informal comments in a meeting. We treat feedback like something that just happens to us, rather than something we can actively invite. But here's the truth: waiting for feedback is a passive strategy in a fast-moving world.
If you want to grow faster, deliver better, and build stronger relationships at work, you need to ask for feedback early, often, specifically and intentionally.
Why wait when you can learn now?
When you wait for feedback, you delay your opportunity to improve. Worse, you risk delivering something that misses the mark because you didn’t check in along the way. On the other hand, asking for feedback puts you in control of your development. It turns “I hope this is okay” into “How can I make this better?”
Instead of guessing whether your work meets expectations, you can simply ask:
“Is this aligned with what you envisioned?
“Are there other ways you would suggest analyzing the data?”
“How can I communicate the problem clearer next time to executives?”
“How better can I structure this document to drive the key point”
These small questions spark big insights—and build stronger connections.
The benefits go beyond your work
When you ask for feedback, you’re not just improving the output. You’re also:
✅ Showing initiative and ownership — You care enough to ask, refine, and grow.
✅ Creating space for collaboration — It signals that you value your colleagues’ or manager’s perspectives.
✅ Avoiding rework and misalignment — Early feedback prevents later fixes.
✅ Building trust — Especially with stakeholders, this shows you want to get it right, not just get it done.
It’s not about being perfect—It’s about getting better
You don’t need to wait until your work is polished or “done” to ask for input. In fact, the best time to ask is before final delivery, when there’s still time to pivot. This mindset shift—from perfection to progress—can unlock new levels of learning.
See examples of ways you can ask for feedback from your peers, senior colleagues or line manager.
“Here’s the draft of the feature rollout plan. Can you take a look and tell me if anything’s missing or unclear from a stakeholder perspective?”
“I’m sharing this deck for next week’s strategy session. Can you let me know if the key message is clear and if the story flows logically?”
“Are the action items and next steps clear enough at the end of the doc?”
“I’d like to get feedback on how I contributed to the project’s collaboration especially on managing stakeholder expectations — How could I have done it better?”
“How could I have better communicated this XYZ acceptance criteria in the user story to prevent confusion next time?
Finally, feedback isn’t a threat. It’s a gift.
It’s natural to feel vulnerable when someone critiques your work. After all, you’ve invested time, thought, and energy into it. The best way to get ahead of this fear or vulnerability, is to proactively seek for feedback. It puts you in control, rather than the person giving you the feedback. Also, when you get feedback early, you would rarely see surprises during performance reviews.
Feedback isn't an attack on your effort—it’s a mirror. It shows you what others see, what you might have missed, and where you can improve. You might be surprised by what you hear—and grateful you asked. And the best gifts are the ones you don’t have to wait for.
Your future self—and your team—will thank you for making feedback a habit, not a hope.
If you find this helpful, forward to a friend. Have a great week ahead!
Olumide ✌️