How to Write a Performance Review at a Startup

It's again that time of the year for many— performance review season. The mere mention of performance reviews is typically enough to evoke eye rolls, audible sighs, and a litany of complaints around "the system" for folks working in the corporate world.

And if you work at an early-stage startup, it is usually even more painful. Most startups undergo a series of iterations that can change as often as every cycle. One year, the entire team might get a Google form with the same four general questions, and six months later, you suddenly have to grade yourself on multiple linear scales and answer open-ended questions that rival that of the SAT. 

After 10+ years of working at startups and moving from team member to department head, I've learned a few tips and tricks to make the performance review process more manageable. 

Prepping for Reviews

The prospect of reviews can be daunting. The pressure to feel like this is your shot to advocate for your hard work and prove your contributions might feel enormous. 

Most folks need help remembering the names of all the restaurants they ate at in the past six months. Do you remember every win you had at work? Waiting until the review writing process has officially begun to think about the previous cycle, your wins, misses, etc., is a surefire way to miss the mark. 

An easy solution? Keep a swipe file of wins. 

A swipe file can be anything, such as a bulleted list of wins or a collection of screenshots; ultimately, it's a record you can reference at review writing time. 

Proactively Talk to Your Manager

 A common phrase leadership teams throw around reviews is, "Reviews shouldn't have any big surprises in them."

While well-intentioned, it's relatively common for managers and reports to assume they're on the same page, but when it comes to documented feedback, some surprises crop up. 

One smart way to prevent this, or at least not be caught off guard, is to talk with your manager before the performance review process. 

In the past, I've approached this with success by making it an agenda item in my 1-1. While you don't want to appear as looking for your manager to write your review, ask, "I've been working on my performance review, and before I get too far, I just wanted to run down where my head is at and make sure we're on the same page. Is it cool to take a few minutes to review these and see if we have any gaps or misalignment?" This is ideal because you get an inside look at your manager's views as your wins, areas of improvement, etc., which can help frame and align your responses. 

Chatting before your review also helps your manager when they need to go and advocate for why you should get a raise, a higher rating, or whatever. Ultimately, you're a part of their team, and if you change your mindset to think of reviews as a joint effort vs. you solo, you can get ahead.

A note on promotions: I can't recall anyone who was told for the first time, in a performance review, that they were getting promoted.

Generally, it's more of a formality and something that a manager and report have been working on together for some time.

This notion of folks learning they're getting promoted in a performance review is a common misconception with folks who are earlier in their career, and it causes some heartache if they were hoping or thinking they might get a promotion.

If you're wondering, "Am I getting promoted?" I urge you to have a frank discussion with your manager and ask, "Am I getting promoted this review cycle?" It is better to know than to have the unfun surprise of disappointment. 

Reread Your Last Review

This advice only applies if you've stayed on the same team, but bringing fresh eyes to your last review and the feedback you received is often helpful. Is there anything that stands out to you? Are there any clear improvements you can see cycle over cycle? 

If you fall into the bucket of folks who find performance reviews to be emotionally charging, this can be an especially good activity to revisit and reflect while less amped up. 

Get in the habit of making a copy of your performance review for your records. It can be conducive and insightful. For instance, I reread some performance reviews from more than five years ago before writing this post, and it gave me some great perspective on my working style and professional growth.

Build Your Narrative & Get the Data 

Most performance reviews include some version of the question, "What have you accomplished in the past cycle?" where most folks fall off the rails here, thinking this translates to, "List all of the things you did." 

It's not. 

This question means, "What have you accomplished this past cycle, and how does it tie back to impact the company and its goals." 

Confused? Here's an example: Let's say you work in the marketing department, wrote ten blog posts and created three new ebooks. Instead of just listing these, you might say, "I created 10 blog posts and 3 new ebooks, which helped us improve our thought leadership around "topic x" and went on to produce 100 new MQLs for our mid-market segment, which has been a focus of expansion in Q2." 

Working on the narrative around why you did the work you did (hint: company OKRs) and the success/impact/learnings of those activities is far more important than the sheer output. It's critical to show that the projects that are being focused on and the time spent are strategic. 

Writing Your Review

If writing isn't your forte, here are some straightforward tips for writing a performance review.  

1️⃣ Create a separate document to write out your review questions (vs. directly inputting into the response fields). Having a separate document allows you time to go back, tweak, review, and not accidentally input before submitting the final draft. 

2️⃣ Make a barf draft. Yep, I said it, barf. The first time you go to write your responses, list general topics, ideas, and phrases that you know you'll want to work into your final draft.

3️⃣ Leave it alone. After the barf draft, close the document and do something different. It could be a quick walk or a cup of coffee, switching tasks. But give yourself a few hours to let the first draft sit; you'll be surprised how some time away can give you a fresh perspective when you return. 

4️⃣ Build the narratives for each question based on the barf draft. When you're pretty happy with it, step away for a few hours/day. 

5️⃣ Do a final read-over from start to finish. Proofread and reflect. Is this all the narrative you want to come across? If so, get it into the system and ship it. 

That's it. Good luck!