A quarterly performance review is designed to provide regular feedback, celebrate achievements, and set actionable goals with direct reports. It allows managers and employees to address performance issues quickly, collaborate on growth plans, and align individual objectives with team and company goals. This process ensures ongoing development and helps reinforce the connection between personal performance and organizational vision. Source
Quarterly performance reviews, also known as "performance snapshots," focus on short-term goals and allow for more frequent feedback and course correction compared to annual reviews. This regular cadence helps managers address issues promptly and keeps employees engaged in their growth and development. Source
Employees are encouraged to actively participate in the review process by performing self-assessments, reflecting on their performance, identifying areas for improvement, and setting both ambitious and attainable goals. This collaborative approach empowers employees to take ownership of their growth and ensures the review is a two-way conversation rather than a top-down evaluation. Source
Managers should prepare in advance by scheduling the meeting early, gathering feedback from peers (360-degree feedback), and sharing the agenda ahead of time. Preparation includes collecting specific examples of performance, both positive and constructive, and ensuring the review is a collaborative discussion. Source
The recommended agenda includes: 1) Self-assessment and peer feedback, 2) Performance against objectives, 3) Wins, strengths, and growth opportunities, 4) Areas of improvement, and 5) Concerns, questions, and clarification. This structure ensures a balanced, collaborative, and actionable review. Source
Managers can encourage participation by inviting employees to complete a self-assessment, reflect on their achievements and challenges, and contribute to the meeting agenda. This approach fosters ownership, transparency, and a growth mindset. Source
360-degree feedback involves gathering input from peers, managers, and direct reports to provide a well-rounded view of an employee's performance. Including this feedback in quarterly reviews helps employees understand their impact from multiple perspectives and supports more objective, actionable development plans. Source
Feedback should be specific, constructive, and actionable. Managers are encouraged to avoid surprises by providing ongoing feedback throughout the quarter and using the review to reinforce and clarify key points. Positive feedback should be balanced with areas for improvement, and next steps should be clearly defined. Source
Best practices include preparing in advance, using a collaborative agenda, incorporating 360-degree feedback, providing specific and actionable feedback, and reserving time for questions and clarification. Managers should also ensure agreed-upon next steps and follow-up actions are documented. Source
Spinach AI helps managers run better meetings by automating agenda management, taking accurate meeting notes, and automating follow-up tasks. This allows managers to focus on providing feedback and supporting employee growth rather than administrative work. Source
You can access a free, easy-to-use quarterly performance review agenda template provided by Spinach AI. This template helps structure your meeting for maximum effectiveness. Get the template here.
Effective questions include: What are you least clear about? What’s your outlook on the next quarter? How are you feeling? Are you surprised by any of the feedback? Do you feel supported? These questions help ensure clarity and foster open communication. Source
Managers should reserve time at the end of the meeting to agree on next steps and create a collaborative action plan. Documenting 3-4 key points to achieve in the next quarter helps drive accountability and future success. Source
Spinach AI offers a collection of free meeting agenda templates, guides, and examples to help you run more effective reviews. These resources are designed to streamline preparation and execution. See all templates
Spinach AI automatically captures meeting notes, action items, and outcomes, allowing users to focus on discussions without manual note-taking. This feature is especially useful for performance reviews, ensuring all feedback and next steps are documented accurately. Source
Yes, Spinach AI integrates with popular tools such as Zoom, Slack, Jira, and Salesforce, enabling seamless collaboration and workflow automation during performance reviews and other meetings. Source
Spinach AI provides agenda templates and meeting structures that encourage specific, actionable, and balanced feedback. By automating note-taking and follow-ups, managers can focus on delivering meaningful feedback and supporting employee growth. Source
A collaborative agenda ensures both managers and employees contribute to the meeting structure, making the review process more engaging, transparent, and effective. It encourages open dialogue and shared ownership of outcomes. Source
Spinach AI documents agreed-upon next steps and action items, making it easy to track progress and ensure accountability. This helps teams stay aligned on goals and follow through on commitments made during the review. Source
Spinach AI offers an AI Meeting Assistant, automated note-taking, workflow optimization, AI-powered insights, seamless integrations with tools like Zoom, Slack, Jira, and Salesforce, and tailored solutions for different roles such as product managers, sales, engineering, and more. Source
Yes, Spinach AI automatically captures meeting notes, action items, and outcomes, allowing managers and employees to focus on the conversation rather than manual documentation. Source
Yes, Spinach AI automates the creation of action items and follow-up tasks, ensuring nothing is missed and all commitments are tracked for accountability. Source
Yes, Spinach AI automates tasks such as generating meeting agendas, managing tickets, and streamlining administrative work, making the performance review process more efficient. Source
Yes, Spinach AI uses AI-powered analysis to uncover trends, pain points, and opportunities from user feedback, enabling data-driven decision-making for managers and teams. Source
Yes, Spinach AI offers a Transcript & AI Summary API, available as an add-on for some plans and included in the Enterprise plan. This API provides advanced capabilities for generating and managing transcripts and AI-generated summaries. Source
Spinach AI can be set up almost instantly. Users simply sign up with their Google or Microsoft accounts, connect their calendars, and start using the platform immediately. No complex IT involvement is required. Source
Yes, premium users have access to an onboarding program to ensure a smooth transition and help users fully utilize the platform's features. Source
Spinach AI is SOC 2 Type 2 certified (verified by EY), GDPR compliant, and HIPAA compliant. These certifications ensure the security, reliability, data integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of sensitive information. Source
Spinach AI uses TLS and AES-256 encryption for data in transit and at rest, does not use user data for training, and offers features like SAML SSO, SCIM provisioning, admin controls, and custom data retention policies. Source
Spinach AI is designed for product managers, engineering teams, project managers, marketing, HR, customer success, sales, and finance teams—anyone looking to streamline meetings, automate administrative tasks, and improve collaboration. Source
Customers can expect increased productivity, streamlined workflows, enhanced collaboration, data-driven decision-making, customizable solutions for different teams, and improved customer engagement. Source
Spinach AI addresses challenges such as manual note-taking, administrative overload, workflow inefficiencies, extracting insights from feedback, and maintaining team alignment. It automates documentation, action item tracking, and integrates with existing tools. Source
Yes, customers like Ron Meyer (Infinite Ranges), Sergio (AlfaDocs), Matt Filion (Authvia), and others have shared how Spinach AI improved their meeting efficiency, reduced administrative work, and enhanced team communication. See testimonials
Industries represented include sales, customer success, technology, revenue operations, consulting, and healthcare technology. Source
Spinach AI stands out with tailored features for different roles, advanced AI-powered insights, seamless integrations, and customizable solutions. Customers highlight its specificity for product management, sales, and customer success processes. Source
Spinach AI offers unmatched specificity for different user segments, automates administrative tasks, provides actionable AI insights, and integrates with popular tools. Customer testimonials emphasize its positive impact on productivity and team alignment. Source
Spinach.ai is enterprise-ready, offering robust security and compliance with SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and HIPAA certifications. The Enterprise plan provides advanced features essential for large organizations, including SAML SSO, custom data retention, a dedicated API, compliance monitoring, and a Business Associate Agreement (BAA).
A quarterly performance review is designed to provide regular feedback, celebrate achievements, and set actionable goals with direct reports. It allows managers and employees to address performance issues quickly, collaborate on growth plans, and align individual objectives with team and company goals. This process ensures ongoing development and helps reinforce the connection between personal performance and organizational vision. Source
Quarterly performance reviews, also known as "performance snapshots," focus on short-term goals and allow for more frequent feedback and course correction compared to annual reviews. This regular cadence helps managers address issues promptly and keeps employees engaged in their growth and development. Source
Employees are encouraged to actively participate in the review process by performing self-assessments, reflecting on their performance, identifying areas for improvement, and setting both ambitious and attainable goals. This collaborative approach empowers employees to take ownership of their growth and ensures the review is a two-way conversation rather than a top-down evaluation. Source
Managers should prepare in advance by scheduling the meeting early, gathering feedback from peers (360-degree feedback), and sharing the agenda ahead of time. Preparation includes collecting specific examples of performance, both positive and constructive, and ensuring the review is a collaborative discussion. Source
The recommended agenda includes: 1) Self-assessment and peer feedback, 2) Performance against objectives, 3) Wins, strengths, and growth opportunities, 4) Areas of improvement, and 5) Concerns, questions, and clarification. This structure ensures a balanced, collaborative, and actionable review. Source
Managers can encourage participation by inviting employees to complete a self-assessment, reflect on their achievements and challenges, and contribute to the meeting agenda. This approach fosters ownership, transparency, and a growth mindset. Source
360-degree feedback involves gathering input from peers, managers, and direct reports to provide a well-rounded view of an employee's performance. Including this feedback in quarterly reviews helps employees understand their impact from multiple perspectives and supports more objective, actionable development plans. Source
Feedback should be specific, constructive, and actionable. Managers are encouraged to avoid surprises by providing ongoing feedback throughout the quarter and using the review to reinforce and clarify key points. Positive feedback should be balanced with areas for improvement, and next steps should be clearly defined. Source
Best practices include preparing in advance, using a collaborative agenda, incorporating 360-degree feedback, providing specific and actionable feedback, and reserving time for questions and clarification. Managers should also ensure agreed-upon next steps and follow-up actions are documented. Source
Spinach AI helps managers run better meetings by automating agenda management, taking accurate meeting notes, and automating follow-up tasks. This allows managers to focus on providing feedback and supporting employee growth rather than administrative work. Source
You can access a free, easy-to-use quarterly performance review agenda template provided by Spinach AI. This template helps structure your meeting for maximum effectiveness. Get the template here.
Effective questions include: What are you least clear about? What’s your outlook on the next quarter? How are you feeling? Are you surprised by any of the feedback? Do you feel supported? These questions help ensure clarity and foster open communication. Source
Managers should reserve time at the end of the meeting to agree on next steps and create a collaborative action plan. Documenting 3-4 key points to achieve in the next quarter helps drive accountability and future success. Source
Spinach AI offers a collection of free meeting agenda templates, guides, and examples to help you run more effective reviews. These resources are designed to streamline preparation and execution. See all templates
Spinach AI automatically captures meeting notes, action items, and outcomes, allowing users to focus on discussions without manual note-taking. This feature is especially useful for performance reviews, ensuring all feedback and next steps are documented accurately. Source
Yes, Spinach AI integrates with popular tools such as Zoom, Slack, Jira, and Salesforce, enabling seamless collaboration and workflow automation during performance reviews and other meetings. Source
Spinach AI provides agenda templates and meeting structures that encourage specific, actionable, and balanced feedback. By automating note-taking and follow-ups, managers can focus on delivering meaningful feedback and supporting employee growth. Source
A collaborative agenda ensures both managers and employees contribute to the meeting structure, making the review process more engaging, transparent, and effective. It encourages open dialogue and shared ownership of outcomes. Source
Spinach AI documents agreed-upon next steps and action items, making it easy to track progress and ensure accountability. This helps teams stay aligned on goals and follow through on commitments made during the review. Source
Spinach AI offers an AI Meeting Assistant, automated note-taking, workflow optimization, AI-powered insights, seamless integrations with tools like Zoom, Slack, Jira, and Salesforce, and tailored solutions for different roles such as product managers, sales, engineering, and more. Source
Yes, Spinach AI automatically captures meeting notes, action items, and outcomes, allowing managers and employees to focus on the conversation rather than manual documentation. Source
Yes, Spinach AI automates the creation of action items and follow-up tasks, ensuring nothing is missed and all commitments are tracked for accountability. Source
Yes, Spinach AI automates tasks such as generating meeting agendas, managing tickets, and streamlining administrative work, making the performance review process more efficient. Source
Yes, Spinach AI uses AI-powered analysis to uncover trends, pain points, and opportunities from user feedback, enabling data-driven decision-making for managers and teams. Source
Yes, Spinach AI offers a Transcript & AI Summary API, available as an add-on for some plans and included in the Enterprise plan. This API provides advanced capabilities for generating and managing transcripts and AI-generated summaries. Source
Spinach AI can be set up almost instantly. Users simply sign up with their Google or Microsoft accounts, connect their calendars, and start using the platform immediately. No complex IT involvement is required. Source
Yes, premium users have access to an onboarding program to ensure a smooth transition and help users fully utilize the platform's features. Source
Spinach AI is SOC 2 Type 2 certified (verified by EY), GDPR compliant, and HIPAA compliant. These certifications ensure the security, reliability, data integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of sensitive information. Source
Spinach AI uses TLS and AES-256 encryption for data in transit and at rest, does not use user data for training, and offers features like SAML SSO, SCIM provisioning, admin controls, and custom data retention policies. Source
Spinach AI is designed for product managers, engineering teams, project managers, marketing, HR, customer success, sales, and finance teams—anyone looking to streamline meetings, automate administrative tasks, and improve collaboration. Source
Customers can expect increased productivity, streamlined workflows, enhanced collaboration, data-driven decision-making, customizable solutions for different teams, and improved customer engagement. Source
Spinach AI addresses challenges such as manual note-taking, administrative overload, workflow inefficiencies, extracting insights from feedback, and maintaining team alignment. It automates documentation, action item tracking, and integrates with existing tools. Source
Yes, customers like Ron Meyer (Infinite Ranges), Sergio (AlfaDocs), Matt Filion (Authvia), and others have shared how Spinach AI improved their meeting efficiency, reduced administrative work, and enhanced team communication. See testimonials
Industries represented include sales, customer success, technology, revenue operations, consulting, and healthcare technology. Source
Spinach AI stands out with tailored features for different roles, advanced AI-powered insights, seamless integrations, and customizable solutions. Customers highlight its specificity for product management, sales, and customer success processes. Source
Spinach AI offers unmatched specificity for different user segments, automates administrative tasks, provides actionable AI insights, and integrates with popular tools. Customer testimonials emphasize its positive impact on productivity and team alignment. Source
Spinach.ai is enterprise-ready, offering robust security and compliance with SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and HIPAA certifications. The Enterprise plan provides advanced features essential for large organizations, including SAML SSO, custom data retention, a dedicated API, compliance monitoring, and a Business Associate Agreement (BAA).
Quarterly performance reviews are the best way to provide feedback, celebrate achievements, and set actionable goals with your direct reports.
Anita Chauhan
Quarterly performance reviews are the best time to reflect on your employee’s performance, celebrate wins, and give constructive feedback. Providing your team with effective quarterly performance reviews is the key to a successful and collaborative team and company.
If you’ve struggled to run quarterly performance reviews in the past effectively, we’re excited to share our easy-to-use quarterly performance review template with you. It will help you get the most out of your meeting, facilitating a collaborative experience with your direct reports.
Read on to learn how to make the most of quarterly performance reviews and grab the template below:
What’s the purpose of a quarterly performance review?
What roles does an employee play in a quarterly performance review?
How do you conduct a quarterly performance review?
5 items to add to your quarterly performance agenda
Quarterly performance review agenda template
Also known as “performance snapshots,” since they tend to highlight short-term goals, quarterly reviews let managers address performance issues quickly. Well, more quickly than an annual review.
They make space for both the employee and manager to collaborate on a plan that helps the employee grow, providing space to check in on a regular basis, and ensuring that performance is trending upwards. Quarterly reviews are opportunities to reward good behaviors and practices and address challenges.
This is also a great time to reinforce the connection between individual performance, team goals and company vision. Start setting quarterly goals if you haven’t already, and tie them back to the company’s goals. By finishing off the quarterly review cycle with a collaborative review meeting that aligns with each new set of goals, you’ll be equipped with an impactful way to review performance against those goals — making it a more objective process.
This not only allows employees to feel part of the team, and to take ownership of their role, it’s a chance for you, as a manager, to be a supportive force in their growth.
Above all, the primary function of a quarterly review is to support your direct report’s growth. But to do this effectively, managers must be mindful about how they evaluate their employee’s progress. By taking stock of the last quarter and reviewing it in-depth, they can smartly identify what went well, where, if any, the gaps were and how you and your employee can improve next quarter.
Between the employee and employer, each has their own role to play in the quarterly performance review process. From the get-go, we encourage managers to avoid thinking of the review as a top-down process. Include your direct report and come ready for a conversation. It’s helpful to have an agenda in place beforehand to which both parties can contribute.
By including your employee in the process, you’ll also empower them to review themself. Encourage them to reflect on:
The benefit of asking your employee to perform a self-assessment is that you gain insight into their thoughts around their roles, goals, desired trajectory, and aspects of their job or environment that they may be struggling with. In an ideal world, there will be an overlap between their self-assessment and your assessment of them in terms of strengths and challenges.
When handled poorly, quarterly reviews can have significant negative impacts on morale. Handled correctly, they can be the positive lift your team needs to be their best. Effective quarterly reviews are a surefire way to retain your employees by showing you’re invested in their progress. But remember, to get the most out of them, they require preparation.
Here are a few tips on how to conduct a quarterly performance review as a manager.
Give yourself enough lead time to prepare your feedback — both positive and constructive. Put the quarterly performance review meeting in the calendar well in advance and have a touchpoint a few weeks before the meeting. Share thoughts and an agenda ahead of time.
Where possible, ensure human communication. In the age of remote work and hybrid workplaces, providing person-to-person, synchronous communication can alleviate the stress of high-anxiety situations like a quarterly performance review.
Giving constructive feedback is an art and is essential to the success of both your team and organization. Yet, many of us are unable to provide it effectively. By making sure that your feedback is specific and actionable, your direct report won’t be left guessing or uncertain how to move forward.
While a quarterly performance review is an ideal time to share feedback, we encourage you to avoid waiting to share feedback with your team members. Nobody likes being caught off guard, especially in a quarterly performance review, which can be an anxiety-causing situation. Managers should be mindful of their employees and work to avoid blindsiding them with surprise feedback. You can sidestep this by creating a continuous feedback loop on your team. This begins well before the quarterly performance review process.
Traditionally, feedback has been shared top-down, from managers to direct reports. A 360-degree review can encourage employee feedback from all directions: Top-down, upwards, peer-to-peer, etc.
Professor of Management at Yale John Barron shares in his article that “The larger number of independent evaluations the better.”
We agree.
When giving your direct report a review, including team member feedback is crucial.
By evaluating the ways your employee’s work and interactions have impacted their colleagues, along with the skills and contributions they’ve brought to the table, your employee can get a sense of their overall impact from a broader range of inputs.
Don’t forget, any employee performance review isn’t effective without agreed-upon next steps. Before the end of the meeting, make sure you have agreed-upon next steps and a collaborative action plan in place.
Our tip? Reserve 10-15 minutes at the end of the meeting and collaborate on a list of around 3-4 points achieved during the next quarter to drive future success.
Come prepared with 360-degree feedback from your employee’s peers and ask them to prepare a self-assessment beforehand.
Why start with this? It opens up the meeting to be a conversation, rather than a top-down “presentation”. Instead of starting off with the manager’s assessment, open the floor to your team member to let you know how they think they’re doing and to discuss feedback from their colleagues — junior, lateral and senior alike.
Ladder up performance to objectives. This allows your employee to see themselves as part of something bigger and empowers them to understand their role in the company.
It also makes feedback more objective. When you’re looking at performance based on goals, rather than performance based on opinion, it becomes less personal and easier to digest constructive feedback.
Positive feedback is equally as important as constructive feedback. Everybody likes to be recognized! Finding ways to show your employee that they’re appreciated and highlighting achievements can reinforce their experience. It can encourage repeat performance in critical areas.
Don’t only talk about the past — look forward to the future too and discuss career growth opportunities and goals based on strengths.
Giving feedback around areas that the employee can improve for the next quarter is vital to their employee experience. Don’t shy away from providing difficult feedback — this won’t only help the team grow, it’ll also help them develop personally.
Have to provide some tough-to-deliver feedback? Try out our CEO, Brennan’s “Lettuce Pact” approach or LeeAnne Renninger’s 4-part feedback framework. Or both!
To maintain a balanced, collaborative interaction, set aside time during the meeting for your direct reports to share their thoughts and questions with you. It’s also an opportunity for them to provide peer and upward feedback and ask for further clarity on any questions or feedback you provide. You don’t want anyone to leave their quarterly performance review confused.
If they don’t have any questions at the end, try prompting them by asking:
Providing a successful quarterly performance review doesn’t have to be challenging. By encouraging rather than judging and supporting your employees through the process, you can help your team — and your company— flourish. Check out our quarterly review meeting agenda to get started. 👇
Now that you've read this article, here are some things you should do:
helps managers run better
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hit their
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and share better
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