feedback forms · question bank
Beyond the Smile Sheet.folder
A reaction form that stops at "were you satisfied?" prices your next session wrong. These six items keep the warmth and add the three signals you can act on.
// six question cards with backs and blanks · 10 min · print & run · tool pack · no projector, no account
The smile sheet measures comfort, not transfer. This pack swaps it for items that ask what was actually learned, how confident the room feels using it on Monday, and which obstacle will get in the way — the signals most reaction forms never capture.
Six poker cards, five to keep and one deliberate control. Print one set per table or paste the items into your live form; the reading guide tells you how to report the free text without turning it into a grade.
the run sheet
// this is the guide file, word for word — read it here, run from it here. the .md at the bottom of the page is the same text, offline.
Folder: `smile-sheet-alternative` · Category: feedback forms · any group · 10 min · offline + online · print props · tool pack License: CC BY 4.0
A reaction form that stops at "were you satisfied?" prices your next session wrong. This pack swaps the smile-sheet items for questions that surface what landed, what felt usable, and what will be tried on Monday — the learning and intent signals most feedback forms never capture.
Objectives
By the end of the activity, participants will have:
- Handed you three signals you can act on — what actually landed, how confident the room feels using it Monday, and which obstacle will get in the way.
- Answered honestly under an explicit anonymity promise, with a control item in the deck that flags when the other answers are flattery.
- Heard you commit, before the room disperses, to one change you will make because of what they wrote — the reason the next form gets filled in truth too.
When to use this activity
- Your sessions close with a reaction form, and what the buyer can read out of it is satisfaction — never learning or transfer.
- You run a repeated course or series and want the trend of "landed / blocked" across editions, not one polite satisfaction score.
- The room can spare five to ten minutes at the close; cards on tables offline, the items pasted into a live form online.
What this replaces
The classic smile sheet measures comfort, not transfer. High satisfaction and low behavior change sit side by side all the time. These items keep the warmth of a reaction form but add the three signals a facilitator can actually act on: what was learned, how confident the room feels using it, and which obstacle will get in the way.
Setup
Space: one table per small group with the question deck face-up, or one screen showing the five chosen items; the collection point sits in the exit path.
Materials per table: one set of the six poker question cards (`smile-sheet-alternative-prop-cards.pdf`) and a pen per person — answers go on the card backs or the blanks.
Materials for the room: the anonymity promise said out loud, and a box or tray at the door; for the online version, the five items pasted into a form — the folder's FormLM prompt on the activity page already generates it from these exact question types.
Grouping: any size — cards circulate per table and every person answers; under ten people, run one card each with a quick show of hands per item.
Roles: everyone answers; you pick the five items that fit this session, state the anonymity promise, collect at the door, and read before you draft the next version.
How to run it
| Time | Phase | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| 0–2 | Frame | Hand out one poker card set per table, or paste the items into your live form. Say: honest, anonymous, used to fix the next session. |
| 2–7 | Answer | Participants circle or type. Keep it under five items so people finish it — a half-empty form cannot be scored. |
| 7–10 | Read | Skim for the three signals: landed, confidence, barrier. Do not average them into one satisfaction number. |
Pick the five items that match your session from the six cards. One card is deliberately a control question — keep it; it tells you when the other answers are flattery.
The card
Use the faces from `smile-sheet-alternative-prop-cards.pdf`: a master card, six question cards — landed (free text), Monday confidence (1–5), barrier, hands-on, add-or-cut, and the venue control — a watch-out card, branded backs and blanks to author your own. Keep the control face in view; it is the card that tells you when the room is being polite.
Failure modes
- Every item is agreeable. If all six cards get top marks and nobody wrote a word, you ran a applause meter. Swap in the barrier card and re-ask.
- Reading it as a score. These items are signals, not a grade. A low confidence line is a lesson about the session, not about the participants.
- Collecting and forgetting. A reaction form nobody reopens teaches the room that filling it out is pointless. Report back one change you made because of it.
Variations
- Online: paste the five items into a live form (the folder's FormLM block generates it from the real question set); take the control item along.
- Two-minute version: keep landed, confidence and barrier only — circle, collect, done.
- Series tracking: run the same five items every edition of the course; the trend of the three signals is the health metric, never a single score.
- Wall read: hold each card up and take a show of hands per item — fine for warm rooms; know that you are trading some of the anonymity that makes the answers honest.
Facilitation notes
- Say the anonymity promise out loud before you collect; a named "feedback" form quietly trains people to write compliments.
- Read the three columns separately — the averaged number is exactly the signal you came for.
- Open the next session with one concrete change made because of the form; it is the cheapest investment in the next form's honesty.
Put it on the wall
Print `smile-sheet-alternative-activity-poster.pdf` (A3) to put the run of show, the six items and the "read the three signals separately" rule on one wall while you facilitate.
Props in this folder
- `smile-sheet-alternative-prop-cards.pdf` — poker-spec print sheet (63.5 × 88.9 mm, bleed and cut guides): master card, six question cards including one control, a watch-out card, branded backs and blanks
- `smile-sheet-alternative-run-sheet.pdf` — the print edition: this run sheet + the debrief, bound as one A4 document with bookmarks (`-Letter.pdf` is US Letter)
- `smile-sheet-alternative-activity-poster.pdf` — the whole form on one A3 wall sheet
- `smile-sheet-alternative-guide.md` · `-debrief.md` · `-start-here.md` — the facilitator guide, the reading guide, the one-page start here
- `smile-sheet-alternative-license.md` — what you may do
- `SKILL.md` · `smile-sheet-alternative.zip` — the machine-readable manifest, and the whole folder in one download
Agent version
Every file in this folder has a stable public URL — an AI agent can fetch the question deck, the reading guide and this run sheet with three curl commands (see `SKILL.md`). The paper version needs no screen: cards, pens, and a box by the door.
the debrief sheet
// the debrief questions, in full — the .md version prints on one page for the room.
Three signals, not one score. Read each column of answers on its own. Use with `smile-sheet-alternative-guide.md`. The read phase at minute 7 is the compressed version; this sheet is the full one.
How to run this debrief
- Split the answers into the three columns first — landed, confidence, barrier — and read every column on its own; the averaged number is the signal you just threw away.
- Check the control item before anything else: venue high, learning thin means the room was being polite. Re-ask with the barrier card before building on the results.
- Land on the one change you will report before the next session — reporting back is part of the instrument.
Read the six cards
- "Name one thing you will actually use." — the landed signal. Free text; if it is empty, nothing stuck no matter what the ratings say.
- "How confident are you using this Monday?" — the intent signal, 1 to 5. The number between satisfaction and behavior lives here.
- "What is most likely to get in the way?" — the barrier signal. Names the real opponent: a tool, a manager, a time slot, a habit.
- "Was there enough to do with your hands?" — separates a good idea from a session that let people try it.
- "What would you add or cut?" — the next draft, in the room's own words.
- Control: "Rate the room temperature / venue." — keep it. When this scores high and the learning items score thin, the room is being polite.
The four debrief questions
- Which ideas repeated in the landed pile — and were they what you set out to teach?
- Where does the Monday-confidence line sit, and what would move it up one point?
- Name the most repeated barrier — tool, manager, time slot, habit. Which one can you actually move before the next session?
- What did the room ask to add or cut — and which one will you honor first?
Failure modes of the debrief
| Failure mode | Why it happens | The rescue |
|---|---|---|
| One satisfaction number | The smile-sheet habit; it reports well | Read the three columns separately; pair intent with barrier every time |
| Politeness read as learning | The control item goes unread | Venue high and learning thin — re-ask with the barrier card before acting |
| Prose averaged | Spreadsheet reflex | Report the landed line as a count; never average free text |
| Collected and forgotten | Nobody reopens the form | Publish one change you made because of it |
What this is not
It is a reaction form with better questions — not a certified learning-measurement tool, and not a way to rank instructors. The three signals guide your next session; they do not prove competence.
who it's for · what it leaves behind
What does this replace?
A standard smile sheet or satisfaction survey. Keep the ones you like and swap the rest for these items, which ask what landed, how confident people feel applying it, and what will block Monday.
Is five items really enough?
For a reaction form, yes — and it is the point. A longer form gets abandoned half-way and cannot be read. Five focused items beat twenty agreeable ones.
Why keep a venue question?
It is a control. When the venue scores high and the learning items come back thin, the room is being polite rather than telling you something useful. That one card recalibrates the rest.
Can my AI agent use this folder?
Yes. The folder ships a SKILL.md with runnable prep — pull the poker card sheet and the reading guide, and paste the items into your own form or slides. Everything is plain text and CC BY 4.0.
make it live
Print the cards and collect on paper — that is the point: honest signals, not applause. If you want it online — same items, anonymous, results in your own workspace — two ways:
for AI agents
$ formlm-cli smart generate --input "Honest workshop reaction form that replaces the smile sheet: Likert items on clarity, relevance and confidence to apply, a barrier card and one open what-would-you-change; collected right after the session - signals, not applause."
Step 4 of the agent workflow: npm install -g @formlm/cli, log in once, and the prep above runs itself. The form and its data live in your own workspace.
— or, with a mouse —
Open the template on FormLM and paste the items from the guide — the template already collects responses anonymously.
// optional, not required — the paper version in this folder is complete on its own. free account on their side.
take this folder with you
// every file downloads as a plain file. no account, no email wall inside a folder.