Research reveals that self-aware people—those who understand themselves and how others see them—have stronger relationships, are better managers, are easier to manage, run more successful businesses, and tend to be happier and more satisfied with their lives.

Historically, self discovery has been an individual pursuit. But research shows that we are actually terrible at thinking about ourselves! We tend to distort reality and arrive at misguided conclusions. And that other people tend to see us more objectively than we see ourselves.

Unfortunately, for too long, “feedback” has been co-opted and tainted by our workplaces, used as a cudgel to justify manager-driven compensation and promotion decisions. We have been told that feedback is for our development as well as to serve organizational aims, when in fact evaluation and development are conflicting goals. 90% of HR leaders believe that performance management tools do not yield accurate representations of employee performance.

There are hundreds of research studies about what makes for effective feedback exchanges, but the reality is that these learnings live in academic journals and rarely make it into practice. For two plus years, we’ve worked with coaches, organizational psychologists, DEI experts, and users from all walks of life and at all career stages to understand how to re-orient the entire process of asking for, giving, and receiving feedback.

We created Loupe so that individuals and the communities to which we belong—our family units, parent-teacher associations, classrooms, teams, and especIally workplaces—have an easy and safe way to build a sense of self not defined, but informed by outside perspective. Because feedback is how we grow in relation to one another.

Loupe is a foundational shift in how we engage others in the process of learning about ourselves, deepening our capacity for growth and connection, and making us better coworkers, bosses, friends, and people.