Performance Review Questions Checklist

A review where you only answer questions is half a conversation. The other half is finding out things you can't get anywhere else: how your rating was actually reached, what the next six months should look like, whether you're reading the team's priorities right. Go in with questions grouped by what you need to learn, not a random list.

The Checklist

Work through it in order. Tick things off as you go and your progress is saved on this device, so you can come back to it over the days before the conversation rather than doing it all in one sitting.

1. Clarify the rating itself

   Get behind the number or label to the actual reasoning, while it's still fresh for your manager and you still have room to follow up. If you've been keeping a running record of your work, something like Perform Review's Achievement Log, you'll have the specifics on hand instead of arguing from memory.

   • What specifically moved this rating up or down from the one before it?
   • If someone on the team got the next rating up, what did their year look like that mine didn't?
   • Is this rating mine alone, or was it adjusted in a calibration process against the rest of the team?
   • Which of my accomplishments this cycle actually counted toward this number, and which ones didn't move it?

2. Understand your growth path

   Move from a rating that describes the past to criteria that describe the next step, in language specific enough you could act on it tomorrow.

   • What would you need to see from me to argue for the next level or the next rating up?
   • Which one or two things, if I fixed them, would make the biggest difference next cycle?
   • Is there a skill gap holding me back, or is it more about scope and visibility?
   • Can you point to someone whose work this cycle is close to what you'd want from me?

3. Understand team and org priorities

   Your goals only make sense against what the team is actually being asked to deliver. Ask this before you talk about your own targets, not after.

   • What is the team being measured on for the next period, and how does that map to my role?
   • Are there any priorities shifting that I should know about before we set my goals?
   • Is there a project or area the team is under-resourced on that I could reasonably move toward?
   • What does leadership actually care about right now that isn't obvious from my day to day?

4. Ask about support and resourcing

   Most managers won't proactively ask if you're blocked. This is the moment to say it plainly, while you have their full attention.

   • Is there anything currently limiting my output that we haven't talked about?
   • Do I have the access, headcount, or budget I'd need to take on more scope? If not, what's missing?
   • Is there training, a course, or a mentor you'd recommend given where I want to go?
   • Would it help my case if you connected me with people outside our immediate team?

5. Ask about your working relationship

   A rating tells you what happened. This tells you how to work with your manager better going forward, and it compounds over every future cycle.

   • Is there anything about how I communicate or escalate that makes your job harder?
   • Do you feel like you have enough visibility into what I'm working on day to day?
   • Is there feedback you've been sitting on that you haven't said outright?
   • What's the best way for you to hear about a problem early, before it grows?

6. Close with next steps

   Leave with something concrete you both agreed to, not a vague sense that it went fine.

   • Can we write down the two or three things we just agreed I'll focus on?
   • When should we check in on this before the next formal review?
   • Is there anything you're expecting from me that we haven't covered today?

That is the whole checklist

Everything above is general by design, so it holds for most people in most companies. The specifics of your own case are the part it cannot cover.