Draft Performance Review Templates and Feedback
Build review templates for any role, turn bullet-point notes into written feedback, and create self-assessment prompts that actually surface useful information.
The situation
Review season is coming. You need to write feedback for several direct reports, and you have rough notes but no polished write-ups.
After this guide you will have a review template for your team, a process for turning notes into written reviews, and self-assessment questions to send before review conversations.
What you walk away with
A review template calibrated to your team's level and function
Written reviews drafted from your bullet-point notes
Self-assessment prompts that surface useful context before the review
The difference one prompt makes
Don't
write performance review feedback for an engineer
Do this
I am a engineering manager writing a mid-year review for a mid-level software engineer on my team. Here are my rough notes from the past six months: - Shipped the search API refactor on time, handled a tricky edge case on their own - Sometimes goes quiet in design reviews — doesn't push back even when they have a view - Mentored the new grad well, proactively set up weekly 1:1s - Two incidents in Q1 where they merged without adequate review, fixed quickly but flagged by team - Strong technically, wants to grow into a senior role Write a review in three sections: Strengths (what to continue), Areas for development (specific and constructive, not just "improve communication"), and a closing paragraph on their path to senior. Tone: direct, specific, and encouraging. No filler like "continues to demonstrate" or "leverages their skills."
The raw notes are the key input. Claude turns them into structured, readable feedback. Without the notes, the output is generic. The section structure and tone instruction keep the format consistent.
Build a review template for your team's level
Before review season, create a template everyone uses. A consistent structure makes reviews easier to write and fairer to compare.
Create a performance review template for [role level, e.g. "mid-level individual contributors"] in a [function, e.g. "product and engineering team"].
The review should cover:
- Impact: what they shipped or achieved
- How they work: collaboration, process, reliability
- Growth: progress on development goals, areas to build
- Manager summary: one short paragraph on overall trajectory
For each section include 2-3 guiding questions to help the reviewer write. The template should take about 30 minutes to complete. Avoid rating scales — we use written narrative only.Turn your bullet-point notes into written feedback
Write your raw observations for one person, then ask Claude to structure them into a review.
I am a [your role] writing a [mid-year / annual] review for [report's role and level]. Here are my notes from the past [time period]:
[paste your raw bullet points — observations, incidents, patterns, wins, concerns]
Write a review with three sections: Strengths (what to keep doing and why it matters), Development areas (specific and actionable — name the behavior, not just the outcome), and a closing paragraph on their trajectory. Tone: direct and honest, not diplomatic-to-the-point-of-useless. No filler phrases.Generate self-assessment prompts to send beforehand
A good self-assessment gives the manager real material to work with. Most self-assessment templates produce answers that are either a brag sheet or a false-modesty exercise.
Write a self-assessment form to send to [role level] before their performance review. It should have 4-5 questions that surface: their most meaningful contributions, something they found genuinely hard, how they think they are developing, and one thing they want their manager to know that might not be visible. Keep questions open-ended and specific. Avoid "what are your strengths and weaknesses."What's next?
Next: Write employee communicationsNew guides, when they ship
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