I promise I’ll keep this short.

When the Agile Manifesto dropped like the hottest single of 2001, it created an entire industry of consultants who all said some variation of “you’re doing it wrong”. But the secret sauce that makes agile work is pretty simple: faster feedback loops make everything better. The once-bold assertion that spending half the year planning then rigidly adhering to that plan might not be the best way to do things seems pretty obvious in hindsight. This fundamental principle of creating faster feedback loops should be applied across the entire software development lifecycle.

In Engineering: TDD

If your feedback loop involves writing code, pushing it to a remote repository, and then waiting for CI to run, you’re likely missing the mark. You should know as soon as possible if your code works. In front-end development, this should be as seamless as glancing at the Testing tab in VS Code, where the Jest Runner can execute tests every time you modify a file. IntelliJ similarly has the “Rerun Automatically” toggle when running tests. Features like “Format on save” should save you from lint failures in CI. Sometimes a little bit of extra work up front setting up your testing environment can save you a lot of work down the line.

In Product: MVP

So obvious caveat for these next two sections–I am not a Product Manager, nor a People Manager (anymore), but I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Once upon a time I worked at a company that rebuilt a feature from scratch once a year for three years in a row because they kept getting it wrong.

But building the Minimum Viable Product helps you get signal on a lot things early. From a product perspective, you can get an idea on if you’re building the right thing. From an engineering perspective, you can get a feel for if you’re building it in the right way. Designers get to try things out and see how they feel. What’s incredibly cool is you don’t even need to ship it to anyone! Sometimes the MVP can just be an internal engineering milestone.

In Management: The 1:1

Are you doing a good job? You should have a good idea because your manager should be telling you—ideally within the last seven days. Quarterly or yearly reviews are excellent for gathering 360-degree feedback, taking stock of accomplishments, and setting future goals, but they don’t happen frequently enough to establish a truly actionable feedback loop. Regular 1:1 meetings are crucial. Both giving and receiving feedback are skills that improve with practice, and consistent, timely communication ensures that everyone stays aligned and can course-correct as needed.

By integrating faster feedback loops into every aspect of your work—whether it’s in code, product development, or management—you can significantly improve outcomes and adapt more swiftly to change.

Header image “Two loops” by coofdy is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.