Manager feedback survey questions ask a team what it's like to report to their manager: how clear the direction is, what the one-on-ones are for, how feedback and decisions arrive. People don't tell their manager the truth to their face, so under every question below is the follow-up Spoke asks to get past “they're fine.”
They trust her to defend their estimates upward; what they won't say to her face is that decisions wait in her inbox.
An example of the line the Agent Results Brief leads with.Under every question is the follow-up Spoke asks when the first answer is vague. That second question is where the real answer usually is.
How would you describe what your manager wants the team to achieve this quarter?
When did your manager last say that out loud?
How do you find out what matters most when everything seems urgent?
What did you pick first the last time that happened?
How does your manager explain the reasons behind a goal?
Think of the current goal. What's the reason, in their words?
What do you wish your manager were clearer about?
Think of the last time it came up. What did you do?
How does your manager tell you when priorities change?
Think of the last change in priorities. What did you drop to make room for it?
What happens in your one-on-ones that couldn't happen anywhere else?
What did you bring to the last one that you wouldn't have raised in a team meeting?
How does your manager respond when you tell them you're struggling?
What did they do the last time you said so?
How available is your manager when you need a decision from them?
How long did you wait the last time?
What does your manager do that gets in your way?
Think of the last time work stalled for a day. What were you waiting on?
How does your manager stand up for the team with the people above them?
What's an example from the last few months that you know about?
How does your manager tell you when your work isn't good enough?
What did they say the last time?
How do you know when your manager thinks your work is good?
What did they say about the last piece of work they liked?
What has your manager done for your career in the last year?
What's one conversation about it that you remember?
How does your manager react when you make a mistake?
What happened after the last one?
What skill would you want your manager to help you build?
What has stopped that from happening so far?
How does your manager involve you in decisions that affect your work?
Think of the last one. When did you hear about it?
How does your manager handle being wrong?
When did you last see them change their mind?
What happens when you disagree with your manager out loud?
What happened the last time someone on the team did?
How does your manager share credit when the team does well?
Who got named after the last win?
How much do you trust what your manager tells you about what's coming?
Think of the last thing they told you was coming. What happened?
How does your manager decide how much work you have?
Who decided your load this month?
What does your manager do when you have too much on?
What happened the last time you said so?
How does your manager treat time off?
What was waiting for you after your last week away?
How does your manager protect the team from work that doesn't matter?
What's the last thing they said no to on your behalf?
What does your manager do that you'd miss if you got a different manager?
When did that last make a difference to your week?
What has your manager done in the last few months that you'd tell a friend about?
What made it stand out?
What does your manager do better than other managers you've had?
What's an example from this quarter?
What should your manager keep doing as the team grows?
What would change for you if they stopped?
Every person gets interviewed, not surveyed. Spoke asks, listens, and follows up on what that person actually said. Here's an example.
Read the answer, not the transcripts: themes ranked by how many people raised them, the quotes behind each, and the places where two groups disagree.
The team trusts her, and they said why first: when leadership pushes on a date, she defends the team's estimate instead of passing the pressure down. What they don't say to her face is that her meetings run past their slot and that one-on-ones have turned into status updates. The senior people like being left to run; the two newer people are guessing what good looks like. Change first: end the Monday sync at its slot and move whatever is left to a written thread.
An example Agent Results Brief. The counts, themes and quotes are illustrative, not from a real survey.
Upward feedback is what a team tells its manager. Asked directly, the honest answer is “no complaints,” because the person asking signs the review. Spoke asks about the last time, in each person's own chat. Examples, not real people.
“Fine” means kind and slow to decide. The cost was real money, and the manager never heard about it.
Silence read as approval, until the review. The fix is timing, not tone.
Nothing was said and something changed. That's the kind of thing a rating scale never carries.
What “supportive” means to this team: he takes the hit in public. Now he knows what to keep.
The questions are the same. What changes is who reads the answers and what happens next.
The hardest part of upward feedback isn't the questions. It's that the person asking decides raises. Four things that make people answer.
Nobody softens an answer more than someone describing the person who signs their review. What ScatterSpoke does, and what to tell the team before they start:
On paid plans, you choose anonymous response collection for each survey. The manager reads what the team said, not who said it.
On the Free plan, people verify their email before answering a classic survey, so answers are tied to them. Say so up front. Don't call a survey anonymous because nobody had to sign in.
With three reports, the manager can often tell whose answer is whose. Be honest about that, and leave out questions that narrow it down, such as tenure or location.
If HR or your own manager sets the survey up, the team has one more reason to believe it. Agree before it goes out what you'll be handed: the themes and a few quotes, not the transcripts, and don't ask for more afterward.
Add topics to the off-limits list, such as pay, health or a named colleague, and Spoke steers away from them. A concern about harassment or safety belongs with a person, not a survey.
The setting protects one survey. What protects the next one is the team seeing something change, and nobody being asked “was that you?”
What do you want to learn, and who's answering?
Drafted it, set to anonymous. I'll ask what to keep before what to change. Want me to keep pay and health off limits?
Open questions about what the manager does, not agree-or-disagree statements: “How does your manager tell you when priorities change?”, “What does your manager do that gets in your way?”, “What does your manager do that you'd miss if you got a different manager?” Each is listed above with the follow-up to ask when the answer is “they're fine.”
Feedback that flows from a team to their manager, the reverse of the usual direction. It can be part of a 360 or a survey on its own, and it works best anonymous, with open questions and a promise to share what was heard.
Usually yes, because the person being described decides the reviewer's pay and promotion. In ScatterSpoke, anonymous responses are a setting you choose per survey on paid plans. Say clearly whether it's on, and be honest that on a team of two or three, answers may be guessable.
Twice a year is a common rhythm, timed before the manager's own review so the answers can shape it. One manager asking their own team can do it every quarter with three questions, as long as they share what they heard and change something each time.
A moment and what it cost or made possible, not a verdict on the manager: “When the roadmap changed in May I heard it from the client first; a heads-up the day it changed would have saved me that call.” Or, to keep: “The way you defended our estimate in the planning review is why I'd stay on this team.”
Through an anonymous survey run by HR or by the manager themselves, with the anonymity setting on. Describe a recent moment and what it cost, not the manager's character: “The one-on-one on Tuesday was a status update; I'd wanted to talk about the promotion” lands better than “you don't listen.”
Free to start. No card. Your first ten agent surveys are on us.
