From “I Feel” to “I Know”: Why I Use Data to Kill Team Frustration
Last month, one of my engineers came to me frustrated. He felt his work—fixing tech debt, helping other teams—was invisible. His performance reviews seemed to run on opinions, not facts. I get it. I’ve been there.
So we stopped guessing. We built simple dashboards—charts for merged requests, filters for tech debt tickets in Jira. Now, if anyone on the team says, “I feel like we ignore tech debt,” we check the data. We see, “Actually, we tackle tech debt every 7-10 days.” Now it’s not about how anyone feels. It’s about what’s true.
This approach changes everything. You replace friction with trust—“Let’s look at the numbers together.” Conversations shift from defensive to collaborative. People see their impact. They relax. The air clears.
If you want your team to feel seen and valued (and cut back on the drama), track what matters—visibly, simply, together. Move from “I feel” to “I know.” That’s where real psychological safety starts.