It’s that time of year when the rain is in the air, days are finally getting warmer, and your manager calls you into a room to discuss performance feedback. As a mentor to a handful of wonderful engineers and a tech lead to more, I get asked a variation of a question every year: Why don’t I get more specific feedback?

Forte is Amazon’s performance feedback process. While it is not perfect, I believe it is well-intentioned. Feedback is grouped into “superpowers” - strengths and talents - and “growth areas” - weaknesses and opportunities for improvement. The process aims to reduce bias in feedback and make it non-confrontational. However, in doing so, it loses some of the meaningful details. If you’re a new engineer, you’ll likely get a lot of seemingly generic feedback, leaving you wondering, “What now?”

I won’t delve into different management styles or how managers navigate the Forte process. However, I want to address the issue of specific feedback. Realistically, the people who can provide engineers with meaningful feedback are their tech leads, peers, and reports (if they lead a team). If you wish to advance in your career, your tech lead’s input is particularly valuable. Those who work closely with me know that I provide direct, constructive, and candid feedback aimed at growth. Let me share a couple of illustrative examples (with fictional names, obviously).

Alice comes to me and requests feedback on a project she is working on. Its tangentially related to what I am working on, and I am considered if not an expert at least somewhat competent in the subject. I give Alice some specific feedback on how she can improve, go do X. She doesn’t sufficiently address X, its only half-heartedly addressed. When she tries to gain alignment with others, it falls apart because of X. I am upset because she wasted a bunch of my time and my teams time. She is upset because she isnt moving forward. And chaos ensues roping in our managers. In retrospect, I could have (and should have) handled the entire situation differently. But, I took time out of my busy schedule to give candid actionable feedback and what did I get in return?

Bob comes to me and requests feedback on a project he is working on. Bob says, I want to get better at X can you help me? I give Bob some specific feedback on how he can improve, go do A, B, C and come back to me after you have done this and we can iterate. Bob reads the feedback and never iterates. Bobs next project does not really improve on A, B, or C. I took time out of my busy schedule to give candid actionable feedback and what did I get in return?

Charlie comes to me and requests feedback on a project he is working on. I give Charlie some specific feedback on how he can improve X. Charlie takes my feedback, finds a couple of videos/trainings and absolutely crushes the feedback. X isn’t even a topic for consideration. Charlie comes to me on a second project, impressed by his handling of feedback X on the previous project, I point him at Y, Z for the next project. Charlie does the same, but this time he really struggles with Z. He knows it, I know it, but he tried. He shows me he is trying and I point him at a few other people who might be able to spend more time with him improving that skill, because while I show him the problem and provide a pointer - I dont walk him through to the solution. Charlie is a great engineer who I would pay to have back on my team. Honestly, at some point in the near future, he will probably surpass me as an engineer - he has already surpassed where I was when I was his age (which is great!!).

There are a couple of lessons here depending upon which lens you read this from. You should take this with a grain of salt, because while these are 3 real examples - they are obviously cherry picked to prove a point. But, the lesson I want you to take away is why specific feedback is difficult to come by. I, along with others in mentorship/leadership roles, have a finite amount of time. One of my primary goals is to make those I guide more effective, freeing up my own schedule. Yes, I care about you and I care about developing engineers. But, I am also selfish - I want to help myself as well. Why don’t people give you specific actionable feedback more often? The risk/reward ratio for providing meaningful, targeted feedback is often too low. It requires significant time and emotional investment. Yet as illustrated, the feedback may be ignored without improvement, may not be followed-through, or may blow back due to how it was provided. Over time, that lack of reciprocity chips away at motivation to keep advising and guiding.

Here’s a tip to help get around this challenge: Simply asking “Do you have any feedback for me?” likely won’t elicit detailed, meaningful responses. At best, you may get back something too generic to act on. Instead, request focused feedback tied to specific work. For example: “Hey, I’ve been working on improving skill X. How do you think I did with X on this recent project?” This question shows you care about a growth area and invites targeted advice. By framing inquiries around discrete efforts or deliverables, you’re more likely to get actionable suggestions. This gives the person context for where you want feedback rather than putting them on the spot. And it demonstrates you value their perspective enough to have identified area(s) in need of improvement.