How I conduct performance reviews
Performance reviews are the most important conversations a manager has. Getting these conversations right sets the tone for the next six months. They aid direct reports in internalizing the events of the past six months or year. They reinforce the themes that have emerged over that time in more frequent 1:1 conversations. And they make clear where employees should focus and how success will be measured.
These conversations also tend to be emotionally fraught. Employees approach them as high stakes, even though they are just one moment point in a continuous management conversation. At Squarespace, feedback and comp conversations happened simultaneously, which upped the ante further. (Feedback “performance indicators” — Needs Improvement; Developing; Solid; Exceptional — typically set the boundaries for each employee’s compensation change. I’m going to skip compensation in this post because comp is its own ball of wax.)
Through trial and error, I developed a pretty reliable structure for these conversations. I’ve found the structure helps keep the conversation focused, and ensures that each piece gets its due time.
It has worked really well across a wide variety of functions: I’ve used it to deliver feedback to direct reports in Product Management, Data Science, Business Development, Strategy, and Marketing. I’ve used it for Directors, Managers, career individual contributors, and relatively junior individual contributors, all with similar results. (Note: Any resemblance in the below to actual management specifics in my past is completely coincidental; none of the examples below are tied to individual people.)
Feel free to use any of the below if it seems reasonable to you. Plan for the conversation to take anywhere from 45 to 75 minutes.
Conversation Outline
Intro
Establish feedback goals
Outline conversation structure
Allude to compensation conversation coming at the end
Goal: Remove anxiety about what information comes when
Process
Explain each input and the role it plays in the review
Goal: Establish trust and transparency
Accomplishments
Walk through each key accomplishment
Goal: Make the employee feel seen and appreciated
Feedback headlines
Review 1-3 key themes
Goal: Focus on a finite set of takeaways to avoid getting lost in the details
Feedback walkthrough
Discuss each competency
Dig into specific examples
Goal: Establish a shared working understanding of how the feedback manifests
Looking ahead
Zoom back out to key themes
Brainstorm ways these themes will play out in key projects, and how to approach them
Goal: Orient toward the future
Wrap-up
Debrief on the conversation
Cover anything we missed
Agree on any necessary follow-ups
Goal: Exit with a shared understanding
Intro
“I’m really looking forward to having this feedback conversation. It’s a great opportunity for us to zoom out and talk about what has gone well and what hasn’t and why. And it’s a great opportunity to take what we’ve learned from these past six months and apply it to the next six months to increase your impact and grow your career.
“You’ll notice that the conversation will tilt toward constructive feedback. Here’s why: I think a conversation that focuses on what changes will produce the biggest impact is more productive, and more applicable for the future. But I don’t want you to interpret that weighting as inherently critical. It’s just based on my desire to help you do your best going forward.
“I have a few goals for this conversation:
First, I want you to feel that the process was fair and transparent; you should feel confident that I’ve seen the whole picture
Second, I want you to feel recognized and heard; feedback won’t be productive if you don’t feel this way
And third, I want you to be able to walk away from this conversation with a couple of clear areas to focus on
“Here’s how I’d like to structure this conversation:
First, I want to give you an overview of my process: Who I talked to, what feedback I collected, and how I approached writing your review.
Second, I want to celebrate your accomplishments these past six months. It’s really important to do this so that you feel appreciated and know that I’ve seen you.
Third, I’ll cover the headlines as I see them: The one or two big themes that jump out consistently
Fourth, we’ll step through the full review, discussing examples and giving you the space to ask questions, push back, etc.
And last, we’ll talk a little bit about how this feedback applies to the next six months: Where you can best leverage your strengths, and where to look out for opportunities to develop
“If you’re up for a compensation review, we’ll cover comp at the end, since it is in part connected to the performance feedback.
Process
“I wanted to get a complete picture of the past six months, rather than having my feedback be biased by just my perspective, or just by more recent events. So here’s how I approached things.
“I started by reading your self reflection to get an understanding of how the last six months felt to you, and to provide a lens to interpret the feedback received from others.
“We collected structured feedback from the peer reviewers you nominated, and in the case of managers, from your direct reports. I read all of that feedback, and in a couple cases reached out to people to clarify their thinking.
“I also used the last month or so as an opportunity to collect informal feedback from those beyond the formally selected group. Whenever I had a chance to grab a snippet of feedback — after a meeting where you presented, or after a product demo, or whatever may be — I took the opportunity to ask a question or two. This helped round out my thinking.
“I then went back and read your past performance reviews. Today’s conversation is just a point in time. Reading past reviews gives me a better sense of the arc of your development, and gives me a chance to specifically focus on growth in the areas we focused on last time around.
“After gathering in all these inputs, I sat down and wrote your review. I tried to grab as many specific examples as I could. And when there’s an opportunity to quote directly from one of your other reviewers to connect a theme, you’ll see me do that.
“Finally, I let the review sit for a week or two before revisiting it one last time; this allows me to take a measured tone and rework anything that doesn’t ring true to me.
“Phew, that’s it. What questions can I answer for you about the process?
Accomplishments
“It has been a [ difficult / mixed / solid / amazing ] six months. Let’s talk a little bit about some of the wins.
[ Here I lay out the major accomplishments. This includes:
Areas of personal development, such as speaking at a conference or adding a new skill
Areas of team accomplishment, such as hitting a major milestone or a product release
Most importantly, measures of company impact, such as changes in metrics or revenue ]
“How do you feel about these accomplishments looking back? Is there anything I missed?
Feedback headlines
“Before jumping into the full review, I thought it would be helpful to zoom out for a second and talk about a couple key themes. You’ll hear these themes come up more than once as we step through the full review, so it’s a good idea to talk about them in more depth before we jump in.
[ We then talk about these themes. Here are a few examples:
Your focus on the details means that your team has a high degree of confidence in what they’re building. But it poses a risk — more than one person felt your detail orientation interfered with the team’s ability to change direction or make decisions independently. How can you leverage your depth of understanding while also letting others move quickly and freely?
Your team understands what they are doing, but not always the why. Better answering this why question will build trust with the team, and give them the necessary context to propose alternative approaches. What are they missing? How can you give them more clarity about the reasoning for your decisions and the intended impact?
Your teammates want more of your feedback. You have more domain expertise than any of them, but at times they’re not sure how to ask you for help. Solving this problem will give you a lot more influence; investing in feedback for others is one of the highest-leverage uses of your expertise. What tactics can you try to make this easier for others, and how will you know if these tactics are working? ]
“Those are the couple of big headlines as I saw them. Do those ring true to you? Are there any I missed?
Feedback details
“Okay, let’s step through all my feedback. I’ve tried to use specific examples wherever I had them. This is meant to be fodder for a conversation — please interrupt with questions, observations, or pushback as we go.
[ Squarespace’s feedback system revolved around “competencies” in the core career ladder. For each competency, and employee was rated from Improvement Needed to Exceptional. The competencies:
Scope and complexity
Autonomy
Knowledge and expertise
Alignment, communication, and leadership
Delivering results
I then provided a fed sentences of explanation and examples underneath. ]
Looking ahead
“I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how this feedback can be used in some of your future work. I’d like to talk about a couple of examples, and workshop how you can use this feedback to approach those examples when they arise.
[ Here we’d talk specifics. Some examples:
We’ve talked about the team’s need for more autonomy, despite your attachment to the details of the work. They’re about to kick off a new project in an area you’re more familiar with than they are. How can you structure the kickoff meeting to lend your expertise while still giving them breathing room?
We’ve talked about your team’s desire for more of the Why of what they’re doing. You’re working now on a product brief for a new feature. Let’s workshop how you could frame the brief to better answer the Why.
We’ve talked about how your teammates want more direct feedback from you. I noticed Charlie was struggling with something you could help on. How can you approach him with the feedback needed to get him unstuck? ]
Wrap up
“That’s everything. How did you feel this conversation went? What should we follow up on next week?”