# giving-feedback

A feedback preparation skill based on GAIN and Radical Candor frameworks. It helps managers and teammates draft constructive feedback and role-play hard conversations.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 339 installs · ★ 1434
- Author: RefoundAI
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/giving-feedback/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-07-16
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/giving-feedback

## What it does

The skill draws on advice from 30 guests across Lenny's Podcast and Newsletter. It breaks the feedback workflow into four stages: planning, role-playing, text refinement, and debriefing. At its center lies the GAIN model. This framework structures conversations around goals, specific actions, their impact, and agreed next steps.

The prompt includes ready-to-use templates, Carole Robin's feelings vocabulary, and an AI voice mode prompt for practicing against defensiveness. It spots judgmental phrasing and replaces character labels with observable facts. The approach falls apart if you try to guess what the other person was thinking, so it keeps you strictly focused on your own observations and impact.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill giving-feedback -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/giving-feedback/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/giving-feedback/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill giving-feedback -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/giving-feedback/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill giving-feedback -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/giving-feedback/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills giving-feedback
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/giving-feedback/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill giving-feedback -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills --path skills/giving-feedback
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/giving-feedback/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill giving-feedback -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/giving-feedback/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- structure difficult performance feedback using the GAIN framework
- practice tough conversations with an AI voice role-play prompt
- eliminate judgmental labels from feedback drafts before meeting
- agree on concrete next actions after delivering critical news

## Example prompts
- Help me structure constructive feedback for a teammate who repeatedly misses sprint deadlines using the GAIN framework
- Role-play a conversation where I deny a promotion request and practice handling defensiveness
- Review my draft feedback email to make sure I am staying on my side of the net and not using labels

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: e03e08c34a8b803f.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE e03e08c34a8b803f
```text
---
name: giving-feedback
description: Help users deliver high-impact feedback that drives behavior change while maintaining strong relationships and psychological safety through proven frameworks like GAIN and Radical Candor.
---

# Giving Effective Feedback

Transform difficult conversations into catalysts for growth and high performance.

Help the user with giving effective feedback using insights from 30 guests and posts across Lenny's Podcast and Newsletter.

## How to Help

1. **Preparation** - Help the user structure their thoughts using the GAIN framework to ensure feedback is goal-oriented and evidence-based.
2. **Roleplay** - Use the AI Voice Mode prompt to simulate the conversation and practice responding to potential defensiveness.
3. **Refinement** - Review a draft of the feedback to remove judgmental labels and ensure the user is 'staying on their side of the net.'
4. **Debrief** - Analyze the results of a feedback session and plan for necessary follow-up actions and commitments.

## Core Principles

### Care personally and challenge directly
Kim Scott: "Radical Candor is just what happens when you care personally and challenge directly at the same time. And I think it's probably best understood by what it's not because we all fail on one of those two dimensions or both of them multiple times a day."

Effective constructive feedback requires balancing a genuine personal connection with the courage to be direct about what needs to change.

### Stay on your side of the net
Carole Robin: "We don't understand that we are only privy to two out of the three, so I know what's going on for me and I know what I did. I have no idea what happened on your end."

Acknowledge that you only have access to your own intent and the other person's behavior. Speak only to the impact that behavior had on you.

### Frame feedback as a joint effort
Alisa Cohn: "You know, Matilda, I want to chat with you about the way you're interacting with your peers. So what I'm hearing from them is that you're missing deadlines on a regular basis and not letting them know you're missing the deadlines, and that also you're not fully keeping your team up to speed. And so they're kind of confused running around. Now, we both know that the most important way you can be successful here and also achieve your goals is to make sure that you are working with your peers in a way that's consistent and that they can count on you and you can count on them."

Position difficult feedback as a collaborative exercise intended to help the employee achieve their own professional goals and improve team coordination.

### Prioritize mutual understanding
Rachel Lockett: "There's a misguided view that the goal is to convince the other person that what they're doing is wrong. Actually, the goal of any conflict is to create mutual understanding."
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE e03e08c34a8b803f

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First 2851 of 8919 bytes. © RefoundAI · MIT · https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/giving-feedback/SKILL.md

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