We’re mixing things up this quarter and doing quarterly check-ins instead of quarterly performance reviews. OK, so they are pretty much the same thing but we tweaked the naming to reflect that this is a conversation with your manager/direct report, it isn’t tied to an immediate raise/promotion, and is important for aligning goals. I’ve talked about performance reviews several times before. Here are the questions we ask now:
- What did you accomplish this quarter? (List top 5-10 accomplishments)
- What 3-5 goals will you focus on next quarter?
- How can you improve?
- How are you embracing the company values? (Please provide specific examples.)
The quarterly check-ins are frequent enough to remember what you accomplished and infrequent enough to not be burdensome. My recommendation is to do something similar to facilitate communication and feedback on a regular basis.
What else? What other ideas do you have about check-ins/performance reviews?
David Cummings on Startups 
You probably already have a 360 mechanism in place, but in our performance reviews, we always ask: “What can we, the company (Highgroove) do to help you succeed, which is an easier way of finding out: “what are we doing wrong and right?” but in a more positive way….
Do you use the same questions for managers and non-managers? How about managers of managers?
Yes, same questions for everyone
Thanks David, this is extremely useful. Another quick question: do you have managers answer questions in writing about their reports? Or is the written check-in one way only?