We have a highly active public Slack channel at Skill Struck titled #feedback. This channel serves as a hub for receiving feedback from various sources, including Skill Struck employees, current partners, and prospective partners. It is constantly buzzing with conversations, making it a pivotal source of information for Skill Struck’s future.

Every week a small group of Skill Struck leaders meet together to discuss and prioritize each bit of feedback received since their last meeting. These team leaders show great humility and growth mindsets as they learn how Skill Struck can be improved to better serve the teachers and the students who use our computer science and AI platforms.

Because our mission is to inspire creators, grow problem solvers, and strengthen communities, we put great emphasis and value into the feedback we receive. Listening to and implementing feedback is how we accomplish our mission. We understand that to positively impact the variety of schools and students that use or will use our platforms, we need to listen to our partners. We need to understand their perspective and their unique circumstances to make our products as impactful as possible. 

The Skill Struck Feedback Process

Who’s involved in analyzing submitted feedback: Skill Struck’s CEO, CTO, Director of Learning, Learning Experience Designer, and Senior Software Engineer. 

How frequently they meet: A standing weekly meeting lasting 60-90 minutes.

What happens during feedback meetings: The meeting starts with each department sharing important feedback they heard in the past week. After that, the team goes through all the feedback submitted since their last meeting. Generally, feedback that is submitted by our current partners gets priority.

All feedback submitted is responded to within seven days of submission and there are four different responses submitters may receive:

1. We will do this right away.
2. We will do this shortly.
3. This is a good idea but will wait to see if we hear it suggested more. We do this to gauge if it's something a lot of people want or need.
4. Sometimes we say we won't do something, and give a reason. Usually, it's because we have intentionally designed the product to be used differently.

Our team is very intentional as they listen to feedback. They are ask questions like: “What is the problem this idea is trying to solve?” From there, they brainstorm together to decide the best solution to tackle the problem.

Why feedback is valuable to Skill Struck

Marie Oblad, Learning Experience Designer at Skill Struck, shared, “From a UX perspective, feedback from users gives us valuable insights into how they think and what they want. This helps us to understand what they find easy to use, what confuses them, and what makes them happy when they use our products.”

Skill Struck CEO and Founder, Parker Gentry explained, “In business, you place bets through your time and energy. We specifically dedicate this time each week because we know it is how we can not only improve as a company, but it’s how we can help the most people. We break a lot of our assumptions when we genuinely hear the feedback of the people teaching computer science every day. These teachers and students deserve way more credit than they receive, and their voice will always have a platform in our organization.” 

In 2022 Skill Struck received 471 feedback submissions. This is a number we are extremely proud of because it shows that our customers feel listened to and know taking time out of their busy schedules to provide us with feedback is time well spent. 

We are grateful to all our partners and team members for aligning with us on our mission and being confident and comfortable submitting their ideas and suggestions to keep improving our products and services.

“As we have used the program, Skill Struck has been willing to listen to us, and change features that we feel would better fit our needs as a district. We have really appreciated knowing that our feedback is valued. We feel that we are part of this journey with them, and feel a part of their team. It has been a pleasure working with Skill Struck,” Elementary Teacher Lead for Math/Computer Science at Weber School District Melissa Hadley. 

Our partners are very much involved in Skill Struck’s journey and their contributions play a critical role in our continuous growth and success. We value their commitment and collaboration, and together, we are striving towards excellence.

If you want to learn more about how Skill Struck responds to feedback, schedule a time to talk with us at skillstruck.com/get-demo.