How do you run fair and useful performance reviews?

Question

Accepted Answer

A good review is **a summary of feedback the person has already heard, grounded in evidence and tied to a clear standard** — never a surprise. If a rating shocks someone, the failure was yours during the cycle, not theirs.

## How to make them fair

```text
1. NO SURPRISES — everything was said in real time during the cycle
2. EVIDENCE — specific examples and impact, not vibes
3. AGAINST A STANDARD — a level/competency ladder, not against peers' personalities
4. BALANCED — strengths AND growth areas
5. FORWARD-LOOKING — concrete next steps, not just a grade
6. CALIBRATED — compare ratings across managers to reduce bias
```

## Gather signal

Collect peer feedback, look at their actual work, and reflect on the whole period (beware recency bias — the last month is not the year).

## Pitfalls

- **Recency bias** — overweighting the most recent weeks.
- **Halo/horns effect** — one trait coloring everything.
- **Inflation** — calling everyone "exceeds" erodes the system's meaning.
- **Vague feedback** the person cannot act on.

## Why it matters

Reviews affect pay, promotion, and how valued people feel.

Done poorly, they breed cynicism; done well, they reinforce a fair, growth-oriented culture.

Calibration across managers matters too — it is what makes a rating mean the same thing for a quiet engineer as for a loud one, which is the heart of fairness.