Writing the Performance Review
Explore how to write structured performance reviews that focus on key areas such as communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and impact. Learn to balance positive feedback with areas for improvement while maintaining objectivity. This lesson helps you deliver clear and constructive evaluations to support team growth and accountability.
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Most of the time, the formal review will be heavily skewed towards a written exercise: You will be required to write—not extemporaneously speak—your review, so that it can be part of a filed record. (Again, this is part of what makes it a formal review, rather than the more informal feedback session, which usually isn’t written except maybe in your notes.) Most engineering managers, if they came up through the ranks as developers, are not particularly comfortable with writing prose, which only adds to the stress.
Your HR team may have a specific format to follow; if not, consider that most performance reviews, regardless of position, are generally going to do some kind of assessment of the following:
- Communication
- Collaboration and teamwork
- Problem-solving
- Quality and accuracy of work
- Attendance, punctuality and reliability
- Ability to accomplish goals and meet deadlines
Lacking any specific format, you can structure your review to these six topics, each one covering a two-question format: “What did this person do well? What could they improve?” Or perhaps you prefer a more agile-retro-style start/stop/continue format: “What are the things this person is currently doing that they should continue doing? What things should they stop doing? What things should they start doing?”
Alternatively, go back to your stated set of expectations, and for each ...