What is a performance review?

A performance review is a manager's written assessment of an employee's work over a set period, usually a quarter, half or year. It records what the person achieved, how colleagues experienced working with them, a rating against expectations, and the areas to develop next. Most companies pair the written doc with a conversation where both sides discuss it.

What should you say in a performance review?

Say what happened, then what it means. Name specific work from the period rather than general impressions, quote peer feedback where you have it, and give a clear rating instead of hedging. For each development area, describe a real moment where the person fell short and a concrete suggestion for next time. Vague comments give someone nothing to act on.

What questions should a performance review answer?

Four questions cover most of it. What did this person accomplish? How do their colleagues describe working with them? What is the one strength they lean on most? And what two things should they focus on next, with examples. A review that answers those leaves the person knowing where they stand and what to do about it.

What's an example of a performance review summary?

A summary is four lines, not a paragraph. On this template it reads: current role, Product Manager. Rating, Above Expectations. Potential next role, Product Leader. Role timeline, 12 months. The evidence lives below it in accomplishments and development areas. A good summary is readable in ten seconds and doesn't soften the rating.

How often should performance reviews happen?

Annual reviews are still the most common, with many companies running a lighter quarterly check between them. Quarterly cycles catch problems while they're small; annual ones carry more weight because promotion and compensation usually hang off them. New hires often get a review at 30, 60 and 90 days, which uses the same structure over a shorter period. The same structure carries a leadership performance review, where the development areas tend to be about scope and judgement rather than craft.

TemplatesRetrospectives & meetingsPerformance Review

Performance Review Template

A performance review is a manager's written assessment of someone's work over a period: what they achieved, how peers experienced them, and what to improve next. This template has a summary with a rating and a potential next role, numbered accomplishments and peer feedback, a superpower section, and two development areas broken into examples, suggestions, and what excellence looks like. Managers use it for annual and quarterly cycles.

Use this template

Performance review template showing a summary block with current role, rating and potential next role, numbered accomplishments and peer feedback lists, a superpower section, and two development areas with concrete examples. — The review structure: summary and rating, accomplishments, peer feedback, superpower, two development areas.

What's included

A four-line summary block. Current role, rating, potential next role and role timeline, filled in as an example: Product Manager, Above Expectations, Product Leader, 12 months.
Numbered accomplishments. Three slots for the major things the person shipped or moved during the period.
A peer feedback section. Three numbered slots for what colleagues said, kept separate from your own assessment.
A superpower section. Space to name the one strength the person used to drive impact, rather than listing five.
High-level feedback bullets. Room for the story arc of the period, how the person grew from where they started.
Exactly two development areas. Each one splits into a summary, concrete examples with peer feedback, concrete suggestions, and what killing it looks like.

Why write a structured performance review?

Two development areas, not ten. Capping the list forces you to decide what matters this period, and gives the person something they can hold in their head.
Evidence sits above the rating. Accomplishments and peer feedback come first in the doc, so the score reads as a conclusion rather than an opinion.
A rating with a destination attached. Potential next role and role timeline turn "above expectations" into a path with a date on it.
Feedback someone can act on. Every development area asks for concrete examples and concrete suggestions, which rules out adjectives like "more strategic".
A baseline for the next cycle. Six months later the previous review shows whether the two development areas actually moved.

How to use this template

Duplicate the template. Copy it into your workspace and rename it with the person's name and the review period.
Collect peer feedback before you write. Ask three or four colleagues early. Chasing responses takes longer than writing the review does.
Fill accomplishments and development areas first. Work from your notes and the person's own write-up, listing what happened before deciding what it means.
Pick exactly two development areas. Choose the two that would change the most if they improved, and write concrete examples under each from the period.
Write the summary last. The rating, potential next role and timeline make sense once the evidence below them is on the page.
Share it before the meeting. Send it a day ahead so the conversation is about the content rather than a first read.

Start your next review

Performance review vs performance appraisal

A performance appraisal measures results against objectives, usually through a rating scale, and feeds decisions about pay and promotion. A performance review is broader and more developmental: it covers the same results but adds peer feedback, strengths and the areas to work on next, and it's built for a two-way conversation. Many companies use the words interchangeably. Where they separate them, the appraisal is the score and the review is the discussion.

Frequently asked questions

A performance review is a manager's written assessment of an employee's work over a set period, usually a quarter, half or year. It records what the person achieved, how colleagues experienced working with them, a rating against expectations, and the areas to develop next. Most companies pair the written doc with a conversation where both sides discuss it.
Say what happened, then what it means. Name specific work from the period rather than general impressions, quote peer feedback where you have it, and give a clear rating instead of hedging. For each development area, describe a real moment where the person fell short and a concrete suggestion for next time. Vague comments give someone nothing to act on.
Four questions cover most of it. What did this person accomplish? How do their colleagues describe working with them? What is the one strength they lean on most? And what two things should they focus on next, with examples. A review that answers those leaves the person knowing where they stand and what to do about it.

A summary is four lines, not a paragraph. On this template it reads: current role, Product Manager. Rating, Above Expectations. Potential next role, Product Leader. Role timeline, 12 months. The evidence lives below it in accomplishments and development areas. A good summary is readable in ten seconds and doesn't soften the rating.
Annual reviews are still the most common, with many companies running a lighter quarterly check between them. Quarterly cycles catch problems while they're small; annual ones carry more weight because promotion and compensation usually hang off them. New hires often get a review at 30, 60 and 90 days, which uses the same structure over a shorter period. The same structure carries a leadership performance review, where the development areas tend to be about scope and judgement rather than craft.