Peer-to-peer feedback: the definition, 5 detailed examples & top tips

Peer-to-peer feedback is essential, especially as managers become more overstretched. According to Leapsome’s 2024 Workforce Trends Report,* 81% of upper-level managers experienced an increase in direct reports, limiting their capacity for personalized feedback.

Peer feedback helps bridge that gap. It promotes engagement, strengthens peer relationships, and equips managers with insight they might otherwise miss. But because many professionals aren’t used to exchanging feedback with peers, teams need the right structure and tools to make it work.

Keep reading for real-world examples and practical tips to implement peer feedback effectively and respectfully.
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*Leapsome’s Workforce Trends Report, 2024
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What is peer-to-peer feedback?

Peer-to-peer feedback is a process where individuals without direct or indirect reporting relationships exchange feedback — whether it’s praise or constructive feedback about their work, performance, or behavior. Unlike top-down managerial evaluations, this feedback flows between colleagues with similar status and company influence. 

Peer feedback is an opportunity to leverage the constructive insights people gain from working alongside each other and offer peer recognition for achievements.
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How peer-to-peer feedback gives organizations a strategic advantage

Peer-to-peer feedback is vital for organizations fostering a culture of continuous feedback; it empowers team members to practice communicating in an open, collaborative manner. This process is also hugely beneficial for professional development, encouraging growth and self-reflection, while increasing employee engagement; it can even boost performance by up to 14%. For organizations that use 360° performance reviews in their approach to continuous performance management, peer-to-peer feedback is a great way to diversify viewpoints. Along with upward feedback, it gives higher-ups a more holistic view of their direct reports’ performance and how they interact with the wider team.
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💡 “As work becomes more interdependent and managers have less direct visibility into the day-to-day of their teams, high-quality peer input has become an essential part of effective performance feedback.” 

— Jessica Knight, Research Director at Gartner

5 examples of peer-to-peer feedback

To help you visualize how beneficial peer-to-peer feedback can be on both individual and organizational levels, we’ve curated scenarios inspired by real-life examples — some are constructive, some are purely positive, and others show how the two can be balanced. 
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Peer-to-peer feedback scenario #1: the pressure’s on for a prototype 

Scenario

Katie and Amira are developers at a software consultancy, and they’re building a prototype for a client presentation. Two days before the deadline, Katie proposed some last-minute design changes she knew the client would like, but she was urgently needed on another project. Amira volunteered to implement these changes and worked late into the evening updating the prototype. 
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Katie’s feedback

“Amira, I really appreciate that you volunteered to work late so the design changes could be made in time. Plus, you did a great job implementing my suggestions, even under pressure.”
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Impact

Katie’s recognition made Amira feel appreciated and motivated her to be more forthcoming with her suggestions for future design improvements.
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Peer-to-peer feedback scenario #2: an overly talkative colleague 

Scenario

Mateo, a project manager at a nonprofit organization, is sometimes very talkative in internal meetings, occasionally interrupting or speaking over others in his excitement. After a meeting where this happened more than once, a team lead in attendance named Rachel decided to catch up with Mateo and offer some constructive feedback. 
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Rachel’s feedback

“Mateo, you bring such great energy to our internal meetings, and it’s always good to hear your ideas. However, you’ve been speaking up a lot more than your colleagues lately, which makes it difficult to hear everyone’s perspectives. Can you be mindful about giving others a chance to speak up moving forward?”
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Impact

With Rachel’s feedback in mind, Mateo set active listening as one of his leadership development goals, made a concerted effort to invite his more reserved teammates into meeting conversations, and tried to keep an eye on his own participation, too. 
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Peer-to-peer feedback scenario #3: helping stats tell a story 

Scenario

Sarah, a marketing analyst at an advertising agency, is pulling figures for the stakeholders’ quarterly results presentation, but she’s struggling to convey the impact of her work. Akash, a copywriter at the same level in the agency, collaborates with Sarah on the deck to shape her data into a narrative that does their growth justice. 
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Sarah’s feedback

“I hoped the numbers would speak for themselves, but your copy made them tell a story. It really helped our stakeholders get a clearer picture of our progress and encouraged them to actually engage with the slides.”  
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Impact

After their joint success, Sarah and Akash put forward a new process for quarterly stakeholder decks, ensuring that a copywriter was always booked to help marketing analysts communicate their key points. 
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Peer-to-peer feedback scenario #4: nurturing new starters 

Scenario

Elena was working as a sales representative at a small FinTech startup when the business was awarded considerable Series A funding, and a sudden flurry of new starters joined her team. Elena knew from her own experience that their onboarding processes were minimal and took the initiative to walk her peers through their sales enablement tools with a training session. 
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Feedback from Elena’s team

“Without your training session, we wouldn’t have known where to start with the internal tech stack. Plus, with the business being laser-focused on growth and productivity, we weren’t sure where to direct our questions. You helped us get to work right away and ask specific questions as they related to our roles.”
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Impact

Thanks to peer feedback, the senior leadership team noticed Elena’s efforts to streamline onboarding and implement proper training. They decided to implement a full-service HR platform with customizable onboarding capabilities. 
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Peer-to-peer feedback scenario #5: an editor’s oversight 

Scenario

Senior editors Marcus and Claire are both working on a high-profile memoir. However, while reviewing their pages, Marcus spots that Claire occasionally slips into the wrong citation style. Before the final proof goes to layout, Marcus sensitively flags the issue with Claire directly. 
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Feedback

“Hey Claire, I noticed that you sometimes slipped into the APA citation style in the memoir we’re working on. The publisher mandated that we use the Chicago style. It’s an easy mistake to make when you’re stretched across multiple projects — do you need a hand combing through your chapters to double-check citations?” 
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Impact

Claire is able to correct her references before anyone else sees the work. Moving forward, they agree to sense-check each other’s citations for inconsistencies.
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Top tips for sharing effective, meaningful peer feedback

To facilitate effective and meaningful peer-to-peer feedback, organizations should take a considered approach that minimizes the chance of bias creeping in.

As Brighid Gannon, Founder of Lavender Psychiatry pointed out in an article for Forbes: “Professionals are used to getting feedback from their managers, but might not be as open to receiving criticism from a peer [...] While some people like direct feedback, others might respond better to a more gentle approach.” 

Take a look at our top tips for team members giving feedback to their peers below.
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Be specific & behavior-focused, not personal

Feedback should center on performance or behavior, rather than anything personal. Share insights on what your peers do, not who they are. Bringing specific, real-life examples to the table can be particularly valuable as it allows team members to learn from each other’s strengths and areas for improvement.Similarly, think about the long-term effects (and benefits) of any comments you intend to share. Good peer feedback is encouraging and growth-oriented, with suggestions that help colleagues reach their goals and ideally align with organizational goals, too.
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💡 “A common barrier to giving constructive feedback is the fear of causing offense or demotivation. Overcoming this requires building a culture of open communication and trust, where feedback is seen as a tool for growth and improvement.”

— Michelle Maree, Forbes Council Member, Founder of The Nomad Escape

Balance positive & developmental feedback

Positive feedback impacts employee confidence, and peer recognition also helps to build a strong sense of trust and community;  sharing in each other’s pride and shouting out wins can go a long way. That said, developmental feedback has the most growth potential. In our 2024 Workforce Trends Report, 80% of surveyed employees stated that constructive feedback enhances their productivity; it’s clear that insights with actionable takeaways are very motivating. 

To increase the value of developmental peer-to-peer feedback (and minimize the risk of miscommunication), consider providing team members with targeted training on sharing valuable constructive feedback. You can even create custom learning materials with an AI-powered platform like Leapsome Learning.
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Use a method like SBI or STAR (situation–behavior–impact / situation–task–action–result)

Utilizing a model like SBI and STAR enables you to go into a peer-to-peer feedback session fully prepared. Breaking down the instances you want to discuss into situation-behavior-impact or situation-task-action-result makes the key takeaways as digestible as possible. It shows peers the thought process behind your conclusions, too.

Structured feedback like this reduces the chance of the discussion getting off-track and into unplanned commentary and shows that you’ve taken steps to make your input thoughtful and respectful.  
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Adopt purpose-built feedback tools 

Purpose-built feedback tools like Instant Feedback and Leapsome Reviews not only encourage peer-to-peer feedback and facilitate it in a professional, timely way, but also provide guidance on best practices for team members who aren’t sure where to start through resources like our 360° feedback template. 

Instant Feedback helps to foster a culture of rapid development, and ensures peer-to-peer feedback can be shared quickly; it even allows you to shoutout your peers with public praise, while admins have access to feedback analytics to help them spot patterns. This module complements Leapsome Reviews: a 360° feedback software designed to adapt to your review cycles, empowering you to build the precise review process your team needs. You can implement customized rules and workflows for peer reviews and set up automated notifications to help embed this type of feedback into your culture so it becomes a regular and habitual part of employee development. 
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Deliver feedback close to the event

Timely feedback helps create a culture of real-time learning. It shows that team members are engaged, and — in the case of constructive criticism — it empowers peers to course-correct as soon as possible so they can avoid making the same error twice.

Promptly delivered feedback also reduces the likelihood of misunderstandings or anxiety and ensures that critical contextual details about achievements or events remain clear and accurate.  
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Upgrade your approach to peer-to-peer feedback with Leapsome

With benefits like boosted productivity, improved employee confidence, and contributing to an open culture of trust and respect, it’s easy to see why peer-to-peer feedback is growing in popularity. However, those benefits are elusive without the right approach and the tools to support it. 

For organizations that want to reap real value from peer feedback, our Reviews module is a strategic investment. Features like review builder allow for granular customization of review templates, while people analytics provide a new level of transparency around performance data. This motivates team members to push towards their own goals while staying engaged with how the wider team is working.

If team members are proving a little hesitant when it comes to sharing peer-to-peer feedback, Leapsome Instant Feedback is a great fit. This module provides a professional space where peers can feel confident sharing their insights in a timely way, shout-out the achievements of their peers, with no need to wait for formal review cycles.   
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🚀 Supercharge peer-to-peer feedback with Leapsome

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