Tell me about a time when you received harsh feedback. How did you react?

S: First review with my manager, after one month of my joining. There he expressed discontent regarding my document writing skills, which lacked the strategic thinking and looks more like a project execution document and wanted me to improve it sooner.

T: I graciously took the feedback and had to put a plan into action to ensure I am able to improve my writing skills

A: I took high level feedback from my manager, spoke to senior colleagues in my team and discussed my document structure with them to understand the gaps in my writing and thought process. I also did research over the internet on writing strategy docs. Combining everything, I created a structure in my mind and started writing my documents in that structure. I also took feedback during the initial few days from my colleagues on whether I am doing it right or not. Eventually, a couple of months later, I was able to create detailed strategy documents which looked much more professional and catering to the right audience for whom it is intended.

R: During the quarterly review, my manager was delighted to see the way I took his feedback and incorporated it into my writing skills. He appreciated my current way of document writing and even shared with new members as well to refer to this as a guardrail while writing product documents.