One of the challenges of putting your thoughts in writing and asking for feedback is to ensure that people look at your document. I wrote about this in my blog post Have you ever heard of “Warnock’s dilemma”?
I recently learned that Google Docs can now ensure that selected individuals have reviewed your document by getting approvals on files in Google Drive. This works somewhat similarly to submitting a pull request on GitHub.
In Google Docs, you can require feedback/approval by selecting File → Approvals:
A sidebar will open on the right. Click Make a request to initiate the process.
This will open a dialogue that enables you to add approvers, include a message, and set due dates.
You can also decide if approvers can edit or make suggestions to the file or if it should be locked in its current state.
This looks like a useful improvement to ensure that everyone you asked to review a document has done so!
Have you used this feature before? Did it help you avoid Warnock’s dilemma and get confidence that your writings received adequate feedback?