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A manager reading their assessment results might be preparing to defend themselves, while their coach is preparing to explore. This article looks at how feedback shapes those conversations and how to tailor it to what each reader needs to understand and do next. Through practical examples, it explores how Brilliant Assessments helps you give respondents useful development guidance and assessors questions for a more informed debrief, all drawn from the same results.
Here’s something to keep you awake at night: a manager opens a 360 report and reads that people on their team find it difficult to raise concerns with them. Their first thought might be, “Who said that?” Their coach, reading the same result, might be thinking, “What happens when someone disagrees with them?”
By the time they meet, the manager could be preparing to defend themselves while the coach is preparing to explore. The wording of the feedback has already become part of the conversation.
This is worth thinking about before you send both people the same report…
One of the more difficult parts of assessment design is deciding how to present the same result to different people.
Suppose a leadership assessment highlights delegation as an area for development. Feedback for the respondent might offer a practical first step:
“Choose a task to hand over this week. Agree the outcome and a check-in point, so you can support the work without taking it back.”
Their coach’s feedback could approach the result differently:
“Ask for a recent example of a task they chose not to delegate. Explore what influenced that decision and what would have made handing it over easier.”
Both versions draw on the same result, but they help each reader do something different with it. Brilliant Assessments is perfect for this exact scenario.
Different audiences, different feedback
When you want to deliver different feedback to different audiences, you’ll probably use one of the three tools in Brilliant: Rating text and/or AI Interpret with Reports or Results. Together, these tools let you deliver a specific feedback experience for each role.
Using Rating Text to Control Feedback
Ratings, that is, the function that groups scores into bands or gives feedback at an answer level, are super helpful for getting the right message to the right audience.
Each rating can have up to five variants, which you can use for different audiences, reports, or formats.
If you need more, or want to use a completely different scoring matrix for assessors vs respondents, you can set up advanced rating bands too. These also allow for up to 5 variants.
Give AI Interpret an audience and a purpose
With AI Interpret, you can generate feedback using prompts that specify who it is for and what it should cover.
An instruction such as “summarize these results” leaves a lot open to interpretation. You can be more specific: ask for achievable development actions for a respondent, or questions an assessor could use in a follow-up conversation.
You can also give guidance on tone, level of detail and what the feedback should avoid. Defining those requirements helps you build feedback around how it will actually be used.
Decide what each reader receives
Separate reports or Results Dashboards let you bring together the feedback intended for each audience, using the relevant rating text and AI-generated content.
You can also allow for an assessor’s input before sharing the final feedback. AI Interpret output can be reviewed, or you can generate a Word report for editing, giving the assessor an opportunity to add context or commentary.
Explore different perspectives in a 360 assessment
In a 360 assessment, the delegation example introduces another question: what happens when the subject rates themselves highly, but their direct reports see room for improvement?
Roles such as Self, Manager, Peer and Direct Report let you separate those perspectives in the report. You can also control which feedback different audiences receive and when.
The subject’s report could help them reflect on that difference and choose a development action. The coach’s version could include a more detailed breakdown and questions for the debrief, helping them explore the gap without assuming they already know its cause.
Build feedback around what happens next
Before writing feedback, consider what each reader needs to understand, decide, or do with it. That gives you a useful starting point for choosing what belongs in each version.
With Brilliant Assessments, you can create those versions within the same assessment, giving respondents guidance they can act on and assessors material for a more informed conversation.
