---
name: radical-feedback
description: Diagnose and improve feedback using Kim Scott's Radical Candor framework — the Care Personally and Challenge Directly axes and their four quadrants — or generate well-structured feedback for a situation from scratch. Use when the user wants to give someone feedback, says "radical feedback", "help me give feedback", "improve this feedback", "is this too harsh or too soft", "how do I tell my report or colleague that…", or pastes a feedback message and asks whether it lands. Do NOT use for formal performance-review documents or HR paperwork, customer or product-feedback analysis, code review, or generic praise with no behavior-change intent.
---

# Radical Feedback

Coach feedback so it is **kind and clear at the same time** — Kim Scott's Radical Candor: **Care Personally** + **Challenge Directly**. Most feedback fails not by being too harsh but by being too soft: niceness that withholds the hard truth (Ruinous Empathy). The job is to keep the care and add the candor, or add the care and keep the candor — never drop either.

Two modes. Detect which one applies, then run the steps.

- **Mode A — Generate.** The user describes a situation or behavior but has not drafted feedback. Produce feedback from scratch.
- **Mode B — Improve.** The user pasted feedback they intend to give. Diagnose where it lands and rewrite it.

If it is genuinely unclear which mode applies, ask one short question. Otherwise infer and proceed.

## Step 1 — Gather only the missing context

Radical Candor is context-dependent; generic feedback is useless. But do not interrogate. Ask **at most ~3** short questions, and only for essentials the user has not already supplied:

- **Relationship** — is the recipient a direct report, a peer, or your manager? (Changes how directness lands.)
- **The concrete behavior** — what specifically happened, with an example.
- **The change you want** — what should be different next time.
- **Channel** — live 1:1, or written/async (Slack, email)?

If the user already gave enough to work with, **skip this step**, state your assumptions in one line, and proceed. Match the user's language in your reply.

## Step 2 — Diagnose the quadrant

Place the feedback on both axes and name the quadrant, with one line of why:

- **Radical Candor** — cares + challenges. The target.
- **Ruinous Empathy** — cares, won't challenge. The most common failure (vague, softened, sandwiched).
- **Obnoxious Aggression** — challenges, doesn't show care. Front-stab.
- **Manipulative Insincerity** — neither. Back-stab, politics.

Mode B: diagnose the pasted feedback as written. Mode A: name the trap this situation tempts the user toward (usually Ruinous Empathy), so the draft avoids it.

For the full grid with examples, see [references/radical-candor.md](references/radical-candor.md).

## Step 3 — Build the feedback

Use the **SBI** spine — Situation, Behavior, Impact — then add the ask and invite a response. Apply the **HHIPP** delivery rules: Humble (it's your perception), Helpful (intend to help, not vent), Immediate (soon, not saved up), In-person where possible, and not about Personality (behavior, not character).

Make it: specific (a real example, not "always/never"), about behavior, framed as your observation, and a two-way conversation — end by asking for their view. Praise in public, criticize in private. Detail and worked examples live in [references/radical-candor.md](references/radical-candor.md).

## Output format

Keep it tight. Use the user's language.

**Mode B — Improve** (mirrors the source coaching format):

- **Analysis** — where the feedback lands on each axis and which quadrant, and why (2–4 lines).
- **Suggestions** — bulleted, concrete edits that move it toward Radical Candor.
- **Revised feedback** — a ready-to-deliver rewrite, in the recipient's-facing voice.

**Mode A — Generate:**

- **Read** — is this praise, a redirect, or both? One line.
- **Draft feedback** — the message, SBI-structured, ready to say or send.
- **Why it's Radical Candor** — how it satisfies both axes (cares + challenges).
- **Delivery tips** — channel, timing, an opening line, and how to invite their response.

## Rules

- Respond in the same language as the user's feedback. Be concise.
- Never soften into Ruinous Empathy (the real risk) nor harden into Obnoxious Aggression.
- Feedback is the start of a conversation, not a verdict — always leave room for the other person's perspective.
- Praise in public, criticize in private; deliver soon, not stored up.
- Stay humble: frame criticism as your perception, not objective fact about who they are.
- Do not write formal HR/performance-review documents here — this coaches a single, direct, human exchange.

## Reference

For the quadrant grid with examples, the SBI and CORE structures, the HHIPP checklist, praise-vs-criticism guidance, common pitfalls with fixes, and a final self-check — read [references/radical-candor.md](references/radical-candor.md).