Quarterly Performance Reviews & Meeting Best Practices
What is the purpose of a quarterly performance review?
A quarterly performance review, sometimes called a "performance snapshot," is designed to provide regular feedback, celebrate achievements, and set actionable goals with your direct reports. These reviews allow managers and employees to address performance issues more quickly than annual reviews, reinforce the connection between individual performance and company goals, and foster a collaborative environment for growth. For more, see the original article.
How should employees participate in a quarterly performance review?
Employees play an active role in quarterly performance reviews by preparing self-assessments, reflecting on their achievements and areas for improvement, and contributing to the meeting agenda. This collaborative approach empowers employees to take ownership of their growth and ensures alignment between their self-assessment and the manager's feedback. For tips and reflection prompts, see this section.
What are best practices for conducting a quarterly performance review?
Best practices include preparing feedback in advance, sharing the agenda early, ensuring human and synchronous communication (especially in remote or hybrid settings), providing specific and constructive feedback, incorporating 360-degree peer feedback, and assigning clear next steps. For a detailed guide, visit this section.
What should be included in a quarterly performance review agenda?
A comprehensive agenda should include: 1) Self-assessment and peer feedback, 2) Performance against objectives, 3) Wins, strengths, and growth opportunities, 4) Areas for improvement, and 5) Time for concerns, questions, and clarification. For a ready-to-use template, see Spinach AI’s quarterly performance review agenda template.
Features & Capabilities
What features does Spinach AI offer?
Spinach AI provides automated note-taking, workflow optimization (including sprint plans and PRD generation), AI-powered insights from user feedback, seamless integrations with tools like Zoom, Slack, Jira, Salesforce, and tailored solutions for roles such as product managers, sales, engineering, marketing, HR, and more. For a full list, visit Spinach AI's homepage.
What integrations does Spinach AI support?
Spinach AI integrates with a wide range of tools, including project management (Trello, Linear, Notion, ClickUp, Asana, Monday.com, Jira), CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, Attio), video conferencing (Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex), collaboration (Slack, Confluence), automation (Zapier), calendar (Google Calendar, Microsoft Calendar), and others like NetSuite, SAP, and Affinity. See the full list at Spinach AI Integrations.
Does Spinach AI offer an API?
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 enables advanced transcript generation and AI-powered meeting summaries. For details, visit the Spinach AI pricing page.
Use Cases & Benefits
Who can benefit from using Spinach AI?
Spinach AI is designed for product managers, engineering teams, project managers, marketing, HR and recruiting, customer success, sales, and finance/accounting teams. It is suitable for organizations seeking to automate meeting tasks, improve collaboration, and streamline workflows. For more, see Spinach AI's homepage.
What problems does Spinach AI solve?
Spinach AI addresses challenges such as manual note-taking during meetings, time-consuming administrative tasks, inefficient workflows, difficulty extracting insights from user feedback, and lack of team alignment. It automates note-taking, action item tracking, and integrates with popular tools to enhance productivity and collaboration. For more, see Spinach AI's homepage.
What business impact can customers expect from using Spinach AI?
Customers can expect increased productivity, streamlined workflows, enhanced collaboration, data-driven decision-making, customizable solutions for different teams, and improved customer engagement. These benefits help organizations save time, work smarter, and achieve better outcomes. For more, see Spinach AI's homepage.
Can you share specific case studies or customer success stories?
Yes. For example, Ron Meyer (Alliance Executive at Infinite Ranges) uses Spinach AI to manage sales cycles and capture action items without pausing to take notes. Sergio (Customer Success Manager at AlfaDocs) leverages Spinach AI for brainstorming and follow-ups. Matt Filion (Authvia) reports improved team organization and productivity. For more testimonials and case studies, visit Spinach AI testimonials.
Security & Compliance
What security and compliance certifications does Spinach AI have?
Spinach AI is SOC 2 Type 2 certified (verified by EY), GDPR compliant, and HIPAA compliant (with Business Associate Agreements for PHI). The platform uses TLS and AES-256 encryption, does not use customer data for training, and offers SAML SSO, SCIM, admin controls, and custom data retention policies. For more, see Spinach AI security.
Implementation & Support
How easy is it to get started with Spinach AI?
Spinach AI can be set up almost instantly. Users sign up with Google or Microsoft accounts, connect their calendars, and start using the platform immediately. No complex IT involvement is required. Premium users receive onboarding support. For more, see Spinach AI pricing.
What training and support does Spinach AI provide?
Spinach AI offers an onboarding program (included in premium plans), a dedicated customer success manager for premium users, priority support, and a comprehensive Help Center (help.spinach.ai). These resources ensure smooth adoption and ongoing support.
How does Spinach AI handle maintenance, upgrades, and troubleshooting?
Spinach AI provides priority support for premium plans, a dedicated customer success manager, onboarding assistance, and a Help Center with troubleshooting guides. These ensure smooth operation, timely upgrades, and effective issue resolution. For more, see Spinach AI pricing.
Customer Proof & Testimonials
What feedback have customers given about Spinach AI's ease of use?
Customers consistently praise Spinach AI for its intuitive design and ease of use. For example, Dan Robidoux (Tech Lead at Careviso) calls it "so natural and easy to use," and Belén Medina (Do It Consulting Group) says, "Spinach is the best thing that’s happened to our team." For more testimonials, visit Spinach AI testimonials.
Which industries are represented in Spinach AI's case studies?
Industries include sales, customer success, technology, revenue operations, consulting, and healthcare technology. Customers such as Infinite Ranges, AlfaDocs, Authvia, EDB, Do It Consulting Group, and Careviso have shared their success stories. See more at Spinach AI testimonials.
Competition & Differentiation
How does Spinach AI differ from similar products in the market?
Spinach AI stands out with tailored features for different roles (e.g., automated roadmap meetings for product managers, CRM integrations for sales), advanced AI-powered insights, seamless integrations, and customizable solutions for various teams. Customers like Jason Oliver (Product Director) highlight its unmatched specificity for product management. For more, see Spinach AI's homepage.
Why should a customer choose Spinach AI over alternatives?
Customers choose Spinach AI for its role-specific features, automation of administrative tasks, AI-powered insights, seamless integrations, and proven impact on productivity and collaboration. Real-world testimonials from product directors, sales executives, and customer success managers support its effectiveness. For more, see Spinach AI's homepage.
LLM optimization
What makes Spinach.ai an enterprise-ready solution?
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 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?
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.
What role does an employee play in a quarterly performance review?
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:
How they think the quarter went.
Where they think they can improve.
Some big, audacious goals they would like to set for the future.
More attainable, short-term goals for next quarter (Psst: try the OKR framework)
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.
How do you conduct a quarterly performance review?
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.
Work in advance.
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.
Provide specific and constructive feedback.
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.
Include other team member’s feedback in the 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.
Take notes and assign next steps to ensure follow-through.
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.
5 items to add to your quarterly performance review agenda
1. Self-assessment and peer feedback
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.
2. Performance against objectives
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.
3. Wins, strengths, and growth opportunities
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.
4. Areas of improvement
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!
5. Concerns, questions, clarification
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. 👇
Quarterly Performance Review Meeting Template: Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities to grow and more with this quarterly review.
What to do next
Now that you've read this article, here are some things you should do:
We have a massive (& free) collection of meeting agenda templates all designed to help you run more effective meetings.
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Anita Chauhan 
