SBI — Situation, Behavior, Impact — is the structure that turns evaluative feedback into observable feedback. Most feedback misfires not because it is wrong, but because it is delivered as a trait label (“you’re not detail-oriented”) rather than a process description (“in the Q2 report review I noticed three numbers that did not match the source data”). SBI is the discipline that strips the trait label out.

When to use SBI / SBI-I

Use SBI any time you need feedback to land as observable rather than evaluative. The signal you need it is the urge to say “always” or “never.”

Manager-to-direct-report 1:1s
Peer feedback in a 360 cycle
Performance review preparation
Real-time correction after a meeting
Any moment where you are about to say “you always” or “you never”

How to use it

Situation. Name the specific context — meeting, document, week, project. “In the Q2 planning meeting on Tuesday.” Avoid “always” and “never.”
Behavior. Describe what you observed in process language, not trait language. “You interrupted twice before the engineering lead finished her point,” not “you were aggressive.”
Impact. Name the consequence on the work or the room. “The engineering lead stopped contributing for the rest of the meeting.” Stay on consequence, not character.
(Optional) Inquire intent. “I want to make sure I understand — what were you trying to do in that moment?” Adding the inquiry step (SBI-I) stops the feedback from collapsing into accusation.

Example

Them

Can you give me feedback on the Q2 planning meeting?

On your HUD

In the Q2 planning meeting on Tuesday, I noticed you cut in twice before the engineering lead finished her point on the dependency risks.
The team left the meeting unclear on whether engineering’s concerns had been heard, and two people DM’d me afterward to ask whether the decision was final.
What were you trying to do in those moments? I want to make sure I am reading it right.

What Kennan would surface in this moment, in the same first-person bullet format as the in-app HUD.

Common pitfalls

Trait labels. “You are aggressive,” “you are not detail-oriented,” “you are defensive” — all evaluations, all difficult to act on. Replace with process descriptions.
Delayed delivery. SBI feedback works when the situation is fresh enough to recall. A week is fine, three months is too late.
Skipping intent inquiry. Without the I step, even clean SBI can read as accusation. The inquiry is what turns it into a conversation.

Where it comes from

Center for Creative Leadership · Scott, Radical Candor (2017) · Mueller & Dweck, JPSP (1998)

In your next meeting

Kennan watches for the conversational pattern this framework addresses and surfaces a first-person line you can read off your HUD, in the same shape as the example above. Frameworks are receipts; the user-facing output is a sentence, not a citation.