Digesting the bitter pill : feedback from SQL Bits

Hello Aaron,

I didn't attend your sessions because our timings clashed, unfortunately. I was one of the other speakers.

For me, I think that the takeaway points is that your positive feedback was very positive, and has the hallmarks of an mature speaker.

From your abstract, it's clear to me that you were specific about the direction you were taking. It sounds to me as if you have done all you can to align people's expectations to your session. It sounds unfortunate to me that, for some unknown reason, some individuals didn't pick up that the session had a different direction than being oriented specifically towards business intelligence.

The positive comments are worth noting! I'm sure that you'll see there are different positive messages given to you by those who benefitted from your session. It sounds to me as if you did well and I'll look forward to being able to attending one of your sessions in the future.

Kind Regards,

Jen

I didn't catch your session at SqlBits, but I was in the audience at the Kent UG meeting where you presented from the US over video conference - and thought it was a very well balanced & informative session and I enjoyed your presentation style a lot.

Perhaps you should take the median rather than the average ;-)

Best wishes

James

Think you might need to take that "Trying to be objective" tag off the post, because you clearly are not. Frankly, I'm surprised by the tone of this post. You knew you mentioned that BI wasn't in it, so why did you need to spend 50% of your commentary on that person? They were misguided, let it go.

As for the rest, your take is (paraphrased) "Thanks for the good marks, and the rest of you suck. I'll be giving you bad marks out of vengeance when you next present"?

I've been reading your blog for a while now, and know you're better than that.

Aaron, maybe your next presentation should include one of those densely packed words outlining everything you won't cover. Make it ridiculous, use Wordle, whatever. If you said you wouldn't cover something on the 1st major slide, that's a silly comment. Haven't seen your presentation, but hope it becomes available online soon.

Ah, incomplete information. You should have mentioned that they did not tell you why in your post. As written, it sounded like you were out to get the people who gave you bad marks, simply because they were bad marks. I stand corrected, and relieved. ;)

The problem with statements that contain "...had better..." is that there's an implied "...or else".  The implied consequence in this case is that you're itching to give them bad marks on their next presentation.  There's a Chinese proverb "He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves.".  I agree with Jon.  The question is: are you receptive enough to listen to the criticism and just let it go?

What criticism?  The criticism that at least two people now have said that your statements here imply premeditated revenge.  I'm not saying anything about how you should take the initial speaker reviews, only that what you've said here doesn't do anything to win friends and influence people in a positive way.  Of course, I may be in the minority here in which case you're free to ignore me.  My feelings won't be hurt any.

I feel your pain, sir. I had pretty much exactly the same - apart from the fact that I didn't have huge numbers of people (last thing on a sunny Friday next to the beach at the same time as some awesome speakers) - so it really hurt my ratings.

Interestingly enough, the abstract in the book for my session was different to the one one the site / posters - so I think I messed up when submitting my session.

But yeah, I don't really feel like there is much I can do with the 'no name no feedback but have a 3' kind of people...

So, you consider a 'drive by 3' to be rude?

Seems odd to ask for a metric, then feel narked that the metric is filled with a value you don't want.

Sure, it's nice to get constructive feedback, but this attitude just stinks to me. Can't criticise if you can't suggest a better way to do it?

Might as well say you can't vote if you aren't a paid up party member.

I imagine that, while it must be great to get mostly good ratings, it's the comments (positive or critical) that you really want as a speaker. What did I do well? What did I do poorly? The comments are gold dust. Otherwise it's like trying to tune a query without being able to see the execution plan.

At least you got to top up your tan under those lights. They were fairly bright.

I received a lot of grief at SQLRally when it was revealed that I have never submitted to speak at the

I enjoyed your session at SQLBits very much, especially the quip about Microsoft changing the HADRON terminology because of typo's :-)

It was great to have an insight into what is coming up next version of SQL. One of the problems may be that SQLBits has gone from paperbased feedback forms that you used to fill in during the session to online which people will fill in when they arrive home.

It can make it difficult to remember exactly why you are critiquing unless there was something that you really disagreed with. Most people will just go by the feeling they remember rather than specifics.

Rich

p.s. I didn't give you a 3

Repeat all you want, I did not miss your point at all, but you bypassed mine - fair enough it's your blog spot.  

If it is such a drama to receive metricised but uncommented criticism, why add a metric at all?  I guess all the good marks were water off a ducks back.

There are a lot of people who do not feel comfortable, or willing to put the time into, expressing written feedback, many who fear the confrontation even in an anonymous poll.  They are usually much more comfortable with leaving a grade rather than expressing an opinion.  I guess this entire post explains why.  Would you rather silence?

I'm guessing the fact that you've made a note of who indicates they are on 'the circuit' too, possibly friends or colleagues, in which case the tone of this post is able to be read one way.  On the other hand, if these are effectively strangers, it is a pretty unpleasant sentiment to express to the world on the internet, especially from someone who usually has interesting things to say.

Aaron

I attended your session and I found it to a done to a high standard of presenting (Packed room mostly) & in-line with the abstract and slides, I was also a fellow speaker @ the last SQLBits I have received my feedback (practically a mirror or yours) and had one feedback with low scores all 4,5's but no name or comments..

Frankly all I can gain from that is they were not impressed for one reason or another..not much else I can do with it and frankly I don't expect to always get high scores across the board and THE MOST USEFUL feedback I find is actually the comments not the score itself

Finally I don't think anyone is probably more critical of my session than myself

I think we just need to ask for better feedback from our audiences, if taking a few seconds to explain why that is of benefit to us and them in return

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Here's some constructive feedback: Why are you sharing your feedback with the world? Just so that you can have a nice pity party now, then brag when or if you do better? Feedback is something for you to learn from, not something to publicly air. That's why it's given to you privately by conference organisers.

Honestly I'd rather receive the 3 than not know.  Sure some explanation would be good, but it isn't necessary, a bit of self inspection based on the fact that someone feels that way should give one an opportunity to improve if their ego and self belief allows it.  It seems genuinely strange to me that someone would rather not know.

Your conitinued aggressively defensive attitude fully backs my reading of it, and Bens, Johns and RichDs points fits in quite well with my concerns.

If you prefer silence to a poor metric, then with luck that is what you will get from anyone who has read this thread, as I truly doubt that it will lever more complex feedback out of those who don't like to leave it for whatever reason.  

But please, do let us know if it was left by someone on your circuit - a friend/colleague/competitor or just a visitor.  It colours the whole thing, which has clearly aroused interest in several commentors :)

R

I too thought it was a little odd to get so grumpy about the people who gave negative feedback without a comment. I bet you weren't worried about people who gave you a high mark who didn't explain why.

People are entitled to put what they want on a feedback form- it may frustrating not to know what you could have done better, but it doesn't deserve all that wrath and anger, as if they've done it to bring your marks down.

Where do you Riches see "all that wrath and anger"? I don't see any of that, I just see disappointment, and I think you folks are over-reacting a bit here. Just like a couple of folks are free to put whatever unhelpful information they want on a feedback form, so is Aaron allowed to express his opinion about that information. Which I took as, come on guys, put yourself in the presenter's shoes: would /you/ like to get a 3/10 with no comment?

Fair enough to express an opinion "I've made a mental note of your names, and you better wow me when you present and I'm in the room" is a bit objectionable.

It's the internet, and someone was wrong... ;)

A different Rich, maybe you find that objectionable, the same way Aaron found the low rating with no comment objectionable. Sometimes not saying something can come across as lazy or offensive the same way saying something can. And maybe you're reading too much into it anyway. The way I interpreted it: people who live in glass houses...

Here's the thing - the fact that there's even a hint of retribution in Aaron's comments means to me that he's not mature and introspective enough to be dealing with this kind of feedback.

Getting a bit discouraged by a low score without feedback is fine.  Using a blog to publicly air that discouragement, with a promise that you'll harshly judge the people providing it is just childish, and highly unprofessional.

One thing I have definitely learned from this thread: If I do attend a session of yours in the future, I'll be damned sure not to rate you one way or another unless it's anonymous.

Hi Aaron

I would ignore the low marks with no comments to be honest - it really doesn't matter how much information you give to the audience, you will still end up with people who think that a talk doesn't give the right content.

Also, sometimes the people who complain about a particular topic being missed out weren't in their seats for the slide that says "No BI".  maybe repeat again after ten minutes (or watermark your presentation =)  ).

Really enjoyed your Bad Habits talk and catching up with you at the stand, honestly Sharepoint database monitoring would be a great idea !!!

cheers

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