Writing a Self Review
When I’m asked to write a self-review for a company, I follow a process inspired by manager tools.
Gather Raw Events and Links
First, I gather raw data forming a list of interesting events.
I systematically search for data to avoid recency bias, etc:
- I look at every email I sent (search from:me)
- I look at every slack I sent (search from:
) - I look at every PR (search is:pr from:
) - I look at every notion page I touched (search: “a” and author:
) - I look at every google doc I wrote (search: …)
- I look at every Jira issue I created o commented on (search: …)
- I look at my 1:1 notes with my manager
- Anything else the above reminds me of.
Protip: Wherever possible, I try to save a link to my actual contribution (e.g. directly to the comment).
Group Raw Events and Links
Then, I put the events into buckets and group similar events together. If my job has a clear ladder, I use the dimensions of the ladder to group the raw events. Otherwise, I use the categories “did well” and “room to grow.”
Add Context
Once I’ve done this categorization, I usually see some pretty obvious high level patterns and takeaways. I try to boil the whole thing down into 1-4 clear, crisp sentences. I find using a madlib style template makes it so I can focus on the content and not the phrasing. I use SEER and SUMEX
I will also pick 2-3 of the raw events to embelish and provide as examples.
Protip: similar to the advice for resumes, I prefer to back accomplishments with hard numbers that pass the “CFO test” (someone who cares about the business but doesn’t do your job should understand that you had an impact).
Protip: When I have a ladder, I find it really powerful to use direct inline quotes from the ladder.
Protip: when giving a link, tell the reader what they should expect to see and why it is meaningful.
Example section
Collaboration
Jo was constantly “supporting the team” this past quarter. In particular, she left very supportive comments on her teammates documents. For example, she helped Tara simplify the proposal for the FooBar project, which ultimately got staffed. Jo collaborated effectively.
Raw examples:
- Jo “helped others succeed” by when she pointed out refinements in this comment on the FooBar proposal.
- Jo “worked with kindness” in her empathetic tone on this comment for a code review.
- Jo “set an example for others” by creating this template for proposals that was later used by 2 of the 3 other teams in the org.