Promotion Review Checklist

Most promotion cases aren't lost in the meeting. They're lost weeks earlier, when nobody wrote down what the next level actually requires. Work through this before you ask.

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. Name the exact level you are asking for

   Not "a promotion." A specific title and level, in your company's own language.

   • Write the current title and level, and the target title and level, in one line.
   • Check whether the target is an open role, a level change on your current role, or a scope change with no title attached. These are three different asks with three different approvers.
   • If the target doesn't exist as a defined level, that's the real conversation to have first.

2. Get the criteria in writing

   You can't build a case against a bar nobody has stated. If there's no career framework, ask your manager to write down what they'd need to see.

   • Find the internal career framework, levelling guide, or job architecture doc.
   • If none exists, ask: "What would you need to see from me to argue for this level in calibration?" Take notes and send them back in writing.
   • Separate hard requirements (tenure, scope, headcount) from judgement calls (impact, influence). The hard ones can end a case before it starts.

3. Map your evidence to each criterion, one by one

   This is the part that wins promotions. A list of things you did is not a case. A criterion with two pieces of evidence under it is.

   • Make a row per criterion, then fill in your strongest one or two examples under each.
   • Use outcomes with numbers where you have them, and named stakeholders where you don't.
   • Reach for your achievement log or your last two self assessments rather than trying to remember the year. If you've been logging wins in Perform Review's Achievement Log as they happened, this step is mostly copy-paste.
   • Anything that maps to no criterion comes out of the document. It dilutes the rest.

4. Find your gaps and decide what to do about each

   Every real case has gaps. The difference is whether you found them or the calibration room did.

   • Mark every criterion with thin or no evidence.
   • For each, pick one: close it before the cycle, or name it openly with a dated plan.
   • Don't try to argue a gap away. It reads as not understanding the bar, which is worse than the gap itself.

5. Line up the people who will be asked about you

   Your manager won't be the only voice in the room. Someone will ask a peer manager or a senior engineer what they think of your work.

   • List three to five people whose opinion carries weight on this decision.
   • Check that each has seen recent, direct evidence of you operating at the target level. If not, that's a gap in visibility, not in performance.
   • Ask one or two of them directly whether they'd support the case, and what would make it stronger. Their hesitation is the objection you'll face in the room.

6. Write the one page your manager can forward

   Your manager has to argue this to other people, usually without you there. Make that easy.

   • One page: the ask, the criteria, the evidence per criterion, the gaps and plans.
   • Written in the third person and in the company's own levelling language, so it can be pasted into a calibration doc unchanged.
   • No preamble, no thanks, no hedging. Just the case.

7. Open the conversation a full cycle early

   The review meeting is where a promotion gets confirmed, not where it gets decided. By then the calibration has usually already happened.

   • Raise it in a 1:1 at least one cycle before the decision point, not in the review itself.
   • Open with the ask and the criteria, then hand over the page. Don't open with the achievements.
   • Ask directly: "Do you think this case is ready, and if not, what's missing?"

8. Leave with a decision date and both outcomes agreed

   The most common failure after a good promotion conversation is silence for two quarters.

   • Agree when the decision will be made and who makes it.
   • Agree what happens if it's a yes: effective date, and whether pay moves with it.
   • Agree what happens if it's a no: exactly what changes the answer, and when it's revisited.
   • Send a short summary of all three in writing the same day.

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.