Demand-Feedback-First (T3/B3)
Force your team to critique you before you critique them — then report back what you changed.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 94%
Most managers, especially new ones, avoid giving constructive feedback because they want to be liked. Yandell's inversion: build a structure where receiving critique is mandatory and comes first. He reserves one-on-one time to demand constructive feedback about himself, presses if none is offered, and only then gives his own. The structural ancestor is Uber's T3/B3 ritual, where every review required three positives and three constructive criticisms of your manager. The closing loop — reporting back what you actioned — is what stops it degrading into a survey.
Origin
The T3/B3 mechanism was learned by Yandell at Uber under Travis Kalanick, who personally rejected Yandell's first all-positive review of his manager as unacceptable. Yandell adapted it into a demand-feedback-first one-on-one structure at DoorDash.
Core principles
- 01Giving hard feedback is far easier once you have required it of yourself first — the space is already open.
- 02Critique must be mandatory, and enforced from above, or the power asymmetry suppresses it.
- 03Feedback with no visible action is demotivating — it teaches people their input is decorative.
- 04You must visibly thank people for feedback even while you're melting inside.
How to run it
- 1
Declare the expectation in writing
State in your how-to-work-with-me doc that you demand constructive feedback. Pre-declaring it removes the report's need to judge whether raising something is safe.
- 2
Reserve one-on-one time and take critique FIRST
Set aside a slot in the one-on-one for feedback on you, before you give any feedback of your own. Sequence is the mechanism — going second means your critique is now an exchange, not an ambush.
Pro tip New managers who hate giving hard feedback should adopt this purely for their own benefit: it makes their own feedback dramatically easier to deliver.
- 3
Press when you get nothing
If a report offers no constructive feedback, don't accept the pass — press them on it. Yandell explicitly says he expects it and will press if it isn't given.
Pro tip Asking about a specific recent decision of yours gives them a safe, concrete target rather than an open-ended attack.
Watch out One accepted 'no, everything's great' teaches the report that the invitation was rhetorical, and you'll never get real feedback again.
- 4
Enforce the norm from above (the T3/B3 structure)
Uber's T3/B3 required three positives (Top 3) and three constructive criticisms (Bottom 3) about your manager in every review or pulse check-in. Crucially, the CEO enforced it — meaning a report's manager couldn't retaliate, because the manager knew the CEO would come after the report for a soft review.
Pro tip The escalation is the whole point: it removes the report's fear by making critique a compliance obligation, not an act of courage.
Watch out Without top-down enforcement, direct reports will pad their reviews and the ritual becomes a compliment-collection exercise.
- 5
Receive it with visible gratitude
Thank people enthusiastically, even when it stings. If receiving feedback visibly costs the giver, they stop giving it.
- 6
Close the loop: report back what you changed
Come back and say: this was our lowest-scoring area, here are the three things we did about it. Yandell's rule is to treat internal feedback exactly as you'd treat customer or business-line feedback — heard it, here's what we're doing differently, here's how we'll track progress.
Pro tip Then re-check: 'I heard this from you — am I doing better? Here's what I changed.' The re-check is what makes the next round of feedback honest.
Watch out Companies that put pulse-survey results on a screen, say 'we're going to work on it', and stop there actively demotivate people. The no-action loop is worse than not asking.
In the wild
Under Uber's T3/B3 system, Yandell's first review of his manager — the General Counsel — listed only the top positives and no constructive criticism. Travis Kalanick came over and told him this was totally unacceptable and that he had to provide constructive feedback. Yandell found it extremely uncomfortable.
→ It created an environment where the tough conversations were possible: Yandell's manager couldn't get angry at him for critiquing her, because she knew the CEO would come down on him if he didn't.
Yandell learned early at DoorDash that people disliked pulse surveys whose results were shown on a screen with a promise to 'work on it' and nothing more. He shifted to treating the results like business feedback: naming the lowest-performing area and coming back with the three specific things done to address it, plus tracked progress.
→ Employees see feedback actioned rather than absorbed, which sustains honest input rather than survey fatigue.
Common mistakes
Giving your feedback before you've taken any
Going first preserves the power asymmetry. Taking critique first is what opens the space and makes your own constructive feedback land as reciprocal rather than punitive.
Accepting 'no, everything's fine'
If you don't press, the report learns the ask was performative. Yandell explicitly expects the feedback and presses when it's absent.
Collecting feedback and never reporting the action
Showing survey results and saying 'we're going to work on it' — full stop — is one of the most demotivating things a leader can do. Without a visible action report and re-check, honest feedback dries up.
Is it for you?
Best for
New and experienced managers who find giving constructive feedback uncomfortable, and leaders trying to establish a genuinely candid feedback culture rather than a compliment culture.
Not ideal for
Organisations where senior leadership won't enforce upward critique (the mechanism collapses without it), or teams in acute crisis where the immediate need is direction, not dialogue.
From the transcript
“we set aside time during 101s where I want the feedback first constructive feedback and I expect it and if you don't give it to…”
“we had a system called T3 B3 where during reviews or or pulse check-ins you'd have to say three positives about your manager”
“when you receive feedback you have to show people that you're actioning it and say I heard this from you checking in am I doing…”
From the episode
Leading with empathy
Keith Yandell (DoorDash, Uber)