The Power of Performance Reviews: Use This System to Become a Better Manager 🤝
Jul 2019
The bulk of your time should be spent in preparation—gathering peer feedback, soliciting self-assessment, and crystallizing your own opinion before the conversation. This stage sets up everything that follows and reduces bias.
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Ideas from across Lenny's archive that connect to this one
The Power of Performance Reviews: Use This System to Become a Better Manager 🤝
Jul 2019Form your own assessment of performance before reading peer feedback. This critical step reduces bias and prevents you from being completely swayed by what others say, allowing you to triangulate rather than defer.
The Power of Performance Reviews: Use This System to Become a Better Manager 🤝
Jul 2019Begin the feedback collection process at least a month before a scheduled performance conversation, since it often takes time to get everyone's responses. Early starts reduce rushed decisions and allow patterns to emerge.
This Week #0: Advice on growth, product, and leadership
Sep 2019Your performance will be judged based on how it compared to your manager's expectations, not against an absolute standard. Set realistic expectations upfront, then exceed them—this is more powerful than doing great work against unknown benchmarks.
This Week #2: Tackling the chicken-and-egg problem, building a growth team from scratch, and addressing overlap with PM peers 🤔
Sep 2019Don't wait for all details to be worked out before making organizational changes—this can take months or years. Identify the biggest issues, align on a few key improvements, and implement them while continuing to refine.
This Week #0: Advice on growth, product, and leadership
Sep 2019When asked to change plans, be transparent about what will suffer and what will benefit. Don't assume your manager knows what you know. Partner with them to make the best decision by surfacing the full picture.
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