How to Prepare for Performance Reviews

In my 18 years at Amazon, I've seen more careers transformed by the next 2 weeks than by the other 50 weeks of the year combined. It's performance review season. Most people rush through it like a chore, seeing it as an interruption to their "real work." The smartest people I know do the opposite: they treat these upcoming weeks as their highest-leverage opportunity of the year. After handling over fifty feedback requests, self-reviews, and upward feedback 𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 for nearly two decades, I've learned this isn't just another corporate exercise. This is when careers pivot, accelerate, or stall. Your feedback directly impacts compensation, career trajectories, and professional growth. Your self-assessment frames how leadership views your entire year's work. This isn't busywork—it's career-defining work, but we treat it with as much enthusiasm as taking out trash. Here's how to make the most of it: 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗻'𝘁 - Ask yourself: "What perspective am I uniquely positioned to share?" Everyone will comment on the obvious wins and challenges. Your job is to provide insights others miss, making your feedback instantly invaluable. 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗯𝗶𝗮𝘀 - I keep a living document for every person I work with. When something feedback-worthy happens—good or challenging—it goes in immediately. No more scrambling to remember projects from months ago. This ensures specific, timely examples when needed. 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 - Don't just list tasks—craft a narrative. Lead with behaviors that drove impact. Show your growth in handling complex situations, influencing across teams, and making difficult trade-offs. Demonstrate self-awareness by acknowledging areas where you're actively improving. 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 - They receive little feedback all year. Focus on how they help you succeed and specific ways they could support you better. Make it dense with information—this might be their only chance to learn how to serve their team better. 𝗢𝗻 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 - The difference between criticism and valuable input is showing you genuinely want the other person to succeed. When that intention shines through, you don't need to walk on eggshells. Be specific about the behavior, its impact, and how it could improve. 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 - Good constructive feedback often feels like an insult at first. But here's the mindset shift that changed everything for me: feedback is a gift. It's direct guidance on improvement from those who work closest with you. When you feel that defensive instinct rise, pause and focus on understanding instead. Here's your challenge: This year, treat performance review season like the most important work you'll do. Because in terms of long-term impact on careers—both yours and others'—it just might be.

Learning how to manage up is a key to success. Here's one template I wish I had earlier in my career to help people manage up (and down) better. Ideally you have an experienced manager who knows how to create clear goals, provide specific detailed feedback and helps you remove blockers. Unfortunately I chat with tons of operators who don't feel like they get clear enough direction. Instead of waiting for things to change, take things into your own hands and drive a clear 1:1 or regular communication with your manager. How? Fill out this document, update it weekly and go over it with your manager. The Keys: 1. Goals this quarter, your current results and projected results - this will help you get alignment on the goals and force your manager to be clear about what success looks like 2. Wins - What went particularly well this week. It's important for both of you to celebrate your successes and to reflect on why certain things worked (this make it a lot easier to get critical feedback when they need to give it) 3. Updates - Last week I completed X -This upcoming week will be successful if: (write out 2-3 priorities) - Throughout my career I've found people throwing more and more things at me. The reality is that we only have so much time and everything has an opportunity cost. Therefore, by writing out your 2-3 priorities, you are explicitly getting alignment on what other things you are putting on the back burner. If your manager doesn't agree with your priorities then at least you can discuss that and get aligned on what should be rearranged. 4. Roadblocks, concerns & items needing input - This is the section or the conversations throughout the week where your manager can help you problem solve based on their previous experiences or knowledge, they can help you think through different solutions to the problem and pressure test your thinking or they can just sign off on whatever it is that you are trying to get across the line. 5. Personal Development (PD) - This is the section where you're going to both reflect and push for specific and clear feedback from your manager. It'll force both of you to reflect regularly and figure out what to focus on to improve. -PD skill I am working on: -PD update from last week: -PD idea for next week:   -Feedback from this week: -What I think I did well: -What I think I could have done better: -What manager thinks I did well or could improve: (Ask!) -What I think my manager did well or could improve: 6. Stretch Question (Your manager will ask you a question. No need to fill anything in.) Now I understand that many companies are opting not to do 1:1s. Each company should do what they believe is right, but even if you don't have 1:1s I do believe you should be having each of these conversations regularly Huge thank you to my partner Rebecca Price for creating this template that has helped me as a manager immensely and put structure around many of the things I did naturally earlier in my career.

Who likes getting feedback? I do! We are in the midst of annual performance reviews, and the majority of people who are reading this note have either just received their annual performance review or have one on the calendar in the next few weeks. I've lost count of how many I've gone through during my career. But each one has made me a better leader and professional, and I'm grateful for all of them. I've made a career out of actioning feedback, and using it to improve. Given we are in the season, I wanted to share some best practices I have developed over the years in order to chart a path for the maximum amount of progress and self improvement based on your annual review. 1) Start by focusing on your strengths. And then double down on them. The path to improvement lies on leveraging your best skills, not improving some of your weaknesses. 2) Be open to the feedback, or put another way don't reject it. It's human nature to be defensive, but that will get you nowhere. Deeply understand the feedback. Be curious about it and ask questions. The better you understand and believe it, the more effective you will be moving forward. 3) Hear the feedback from a panel of stakeholders. You'll likely receive your review from your boss, but then set time with a group of peers, directs, and partners who can also share feedback with you so you are getting multiple perspectives. 4) Create an action plan. Write down the changes in behavior, attitude, mindset, and action you are going to pursue. Break each down into tangible things you can hold yourself accountable to in the next 30-60 days so you can begin to see progress. 5) Check back in. Ask your boss and the same group of stakeholders for live feedback as they witness the topics you discussed. Set the expectation that you want feedback live and in the moment. Also make sure to check in each quarter. If you are committed to your professional development, taking feedback seriously and using it to grow is essential. So keep an open mind, and be ready to make change for the better. Good luck in your reviews all!

We all deserve useful performance feedback, but not every company offers it consistently. That's where my concept of "minimum viable perf" comes in: taking ownership of your performance narrative. This is a customizable framework for self-evaluation—I'll link to an example set up for a product manager at a startup in the comments below. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗜𝘁 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 1/ Sections reflect your scope: I've divided it into execution, strategy, peer leadership, management, and company leadership. 2/ Simple scale: Instead of an arbitrary 5-point scale, I use "does not meet", "meets with support", "meets independently", and "exceeds". Stolen from my kids' elementary school report cards, this much more clearly illustrates our professional growth path. 3/ Calibration: Expectations are tricky at first, but most people will fall into one of the "meets expectations" categories for almost of their ratings. 4/ Customize the heuristics: Rewrite the examples to match your roles and responsibilities. 5/ Don't speed through the written bits: I challenge you to write down "evidence for your score" and "growth edges" for each rating. To be most useful, you should be as specific as possible. What are you doing? What do you want to be doing? 𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 Once you've completed your self-evaluation, ask your manager or peer for their input. Do their expectations differ from yours? How do they perceive your performance? Finally, read through all the feedback, yours and your managers, and set some goals. I like the "start/stop/continue" framework and find it helpful to clarify (a) how you'll know if you're successful and (b) the timeframe you're giving yourself to improve. Remember: Performance feedback is a team skill between you and your manager. Expect it to be time-consuming, awkward, and uncomfortable initially, but it will quickly improve with practice. I'm working on a longer piece, but I wanted to get this out as quickly as possible. I very much appreciate your feedback. And if anyone wants to use this themselves, please let me know, and I'd love to be helpful.

Happy New Year! To give back to our community, I write a free blog for anyone looking to transition to corporate Learning & Development. Posts include tips for a successful job search, explanations of basic instructional design concepts, and stories from my own career pivot. Let's start off 2024 talking about performance reviews and how to appropriately toot your own horn. In the corporate world, you review your own performance annually. This self-review is then included along with other factors in compensation decisions like raises or bonuses. I have a system that makes my self-review during the performance review cycle seamless. Every Friday, I jot down a list of my achievements for the week, highlighting the most significant wins. I also drop in screenshots of positive feedback, data, or quotes from colleagues and customers as evidence. When it comes time to write my performance review, all of my major wins are already listed for me. All that remains is to explain how these accomplishments supported team and company goals. I find myself having to pare down the write-up from a long block of text to a bullet point list using a hierarchy that draws attention to the most impactful items. Always link your achievements to the larger organization. For example, if increasing customer satisfaction was a company goal, connect the PMP course you took to an actual project you managed with higher than usual survey results. Every item in your performance review should have measurable evidence as support, similar to a resume. And the biggest thing to remember is that your manager is not a mind-reader. Set aside the humility and share your wins. No one is going to sell your awesomeness except for you. View my blog at the link below for a bonus podcast episode on this topic. #CorporateWork #CareerDevelopment #LearningAndDevelopment #FormerTeacher #TransitioningTeachers #InstructionalDesign #PerformanceReviews Image Description: A white female manager with short curly brown hair sits at an office desk holding a clipboard speaking to a Black male employee in a wheelchair