An update on the Mehdeeka Focus Network
How the Beta went and what's next!
Hello! A surprise Tuesday message from me, with an update on how the Mehdeeka Focus Network beta group went, and what’s next for it.
If you missed the Focus Network, here’s what the original message was:
Essentially, I wanted to test out an idea where a bunch of people looking for more detailed feedback swapped their work around and spent a short amount of time reviewing and giving feedback.
How many times have you asked someone to give feedback on your work and gotten “yep looks good” back? When what you really want is “this is good, but if you tried this, it’d be great.”
I opened the beta group up to 10 lucky participants and was super shocked that more than 10 wanted to be a part of it. We ran a session a week for 6 weeks on a Slack channel, and a lot happened!
Here’s a summary of the learnings:
People don’t have work that needs feedback every week, so the next iteration is on an “as needed” basis - sign up to the next available session only when you’re in need of feedback!
Slack was ok for the beta group but it’s not scalable, so the next test is on Miro!
Beta testers said just seeing feedback being given on other peoples’ work was helpful to them
They also said giving and receiving feedback got their brains turning, and it helped them think about their own work in a new light:
“I think the most benefit from the submission of the work is that I feel more reassured and have new perspectives and ways to look at work/balance that I did not have before that is helping me navigate things more thoroughly”
How to be part of the next phase of the Focus Network
I’m opening it up to another 20 people across 2 sessions, Monday October 30 and Monday November 6.
It’s changed from an hour to half an hour, and as mentioned we’re testing out Miro instead of Slack so you can see everyone buzzing around giving feedback. Here’s an example of what the Miro looks like! (That’s a real draft of my own work on there by the way)
The next big test for this idea is… will people pay for it? I’ve add a baby price tag to the sessions, $7 each, with of course a discount for Mehdeeka subscribers, just use the code SUBSCRIBER for $2 off.
Sessions are capped at 10 people, I’ll be there to moderate (and screen your work so you don’t accidentally submit something confidential), and there’s also a screening process so you don’t get put into a cohort with one of your competitors in it.
More details are of course on the event page!
If you were part of the original Beta group, I’ve got a free code for you which I’ll send out in a private email in a bit. I want to really thank my beta testers for being so open to my idea and being so forthcoming with feedback and suggestions.
Any questions, just give me a shout,
Kayla
Love the way you've designed the feedback experience Kayla! Have signed up to the next one :)