Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is Marshall Rosenberg's communication method: it separates concrete observations from judgment and expresses feelings, the universal human needs beneath them, and specific requests rather than demands. Applied to the problem space, it uncovers the real needs behind complaints and feature requests, which supports requirements elicitation and conflict resolution in teams.

Nonviolent Communication (Rosenberg)

Details
Also known as

NVC, Problem Space NVC, Gewaltfreie Kommunikation (GFK)

Core Concepts:

Observations

Concrete, objective facts without evaluation or judgment. "The deploy failed three times this week" instead of "The deploy always fails."

Feelings

Emotions arising from observations. "I feel frustrated" instead of "This is frustrating."

Needs

Universal human needs underlying feelings. Reliability, autonomy, clarity, safety. The real driver behind every request.

Requests

Specific, actionable asks (not demands). "Could we add a pre-deploy check?" instead of "Fix the deploy process."

Four-step process

Observe → Feel → Need → Request. Each step builds on the previous one.

Key Proponent

Marshall Rosenberg ("Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life", 1999)

When to Use:

  • Tell an LLM: "Reformulate this complaint using NVC according to Rosenberg"

  • Tell an LLM: "Write this stakeholder email in NVC style — observation, feeling, need, request"

  • Requirements elicitation that uncovers real user needs behind feature requests

  • Conflict resolution in teams and retrospectives

  • Transforming vague complaints into actionable requirements

  • Socratic Method — complementary: NVC for expressing, Socratic for exploring

  • BLUF — contrasting style: BLUF is conclusion-first, NVC is empathy-first