Create Observation Surveys and 360 Feedback

Overview

Observation Surveys allow you to gather insights about learners from the people who know them best. Whether it's managers rating their team's performance or learners providing feedback about their coaches, this feature helps you collect targeted, contextual feedback from the right people.

This setup is also well-suited to 360 Feedback — where learners receive feedback from a full circle of perspectives, including peers, managers, coaches, and direct reports.

Functionality Breakdown

Observation Surveys enable users to complete a survey on behalf of someone else. This includes options to:

• Assign surveys to managers, coaches, or other individuals

• Define exactly who they are filling it out about (individuals, teams, or groups)

• Set one-off or recurring survey cycles

This is ideal for performance reviews, 1-to-1 check-ins, 360 feedback cycles, and continuous feedback loops.

Pre-requisites

• You must have permission to create Surveys

• The people filling in the Survey and those being assessed must exist as users in the platform

• You must have clarity on who should complete the Survey, and who they are completing it about

Required User Roles

To create and configure a Survey, you must have one of the following roles:

• Owner – Full access within their company

• Admin – Administrative access within their company

• Learning Designer – Can create and manage learning content

• Curator – Can create Surveys if they have the "Issue Surveys" permission override enabled

• Manager – Can create Surveys if Surveys are enabled for their company

Quick Start Guide

Step 1: Create a New Survey

1. Navigate to Manage → Learning Content → Surveys in the sidebar navigation

2. Click + Add New and select Survey

3. Choose Observation as the Survey type

4. Enter a Name and optional Tile Image

💡 Choosing "Observation" enables Surveys to be completed on behalf of others.

Step 2: Configure Survey Settings

• Survey display: Choose between single-page or multi-page format

• Notify when completed: Enable notifications for managers, coaches, or selected users

• Permissions: Grant editing access to other users beyond Admins, Owners, or Curators if needed

Step 3: Add Questions

• Use a mix of question types to gather relevant feedback

• For help with question formats, refer to the Survey Question Types Explained article

Step 4: Assign Recipients

Decide who completes the Survey and who it's about:

Managers:

• Select individual managers, teams, or all managers

• Define if they complete it for all direct reports, selected direct reports, or all except selected

Coaches:

• Select specific coaches or all coaches

• Define if they complete it for all coached learners, selected learners, or all except selected

Others:

• Manually assign individual users

• Choose who they complete the Survey about (users, teams, or groups)

Step 5: Schedule Issuing

• One off: Sent once to recipients

• Cycle: Recurs at intervals (e.g. every month or quarter)

• Choose to send Immediately or on a Set Date

FAQs

Can learners complete a Survey about their managers?
Yes. You can assign Surveys in any direction — including upward feedback.

What's the difference between a regular and an Observation Survey?
Observation Surveys are completed about someone else, whereas standard Surveys are self-reported.

Can I use this for 360 Feedback?
Yes. This is a perfect format for collecting feedback from peers, managers, coaches, and reports — all in one cycle.

Troubleshooting