The Power of Performance Reviews: Use This System to Become a Better Manager 🤝
Jul 2019
Form 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.
Related
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 2019The 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.
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.
The Power of Performance Reviews: Use This System to Become a Better Manager 🤝
Jul 2019Done well, performance reviews improve performance, align expectations, and accelerate careers. Done poorly, they accelerate departure. This single tool may be the highest-leverage intervention a manager has.
Julie Zhuo on accelerating your career, impostor syndrome, writing, building product sense, using intuition vs. data, hiring designers, and moving into management
Jun 2022Early in her career, Julie tried to 'fake it until she made it,' but realized she was preventing herself from getting support, empathy, and advice that would have helped her grow faster. Asking for help—from peers, mentors, or people ahead of you—is not a weakness but a tool that accelerates learning and deepens connections.
Import your highlights, and we'll find the connections you've been missing.