How to Prepare for Your Performance Review
Five practical steps to prepare for your next performance review. Document accomplishments, gather evidence, and walk into your review confident.
Most performance reviews don’t fail because of bad managers. They fail because employees walk in unprepared. Every review cycle, high-performing people struggle to explain their impact, rely on memory instead of evidence, and miss out on raises, promotions, and meaningful growth conversations. Your performance review isn’t a recap of the past year. It’s a strategy conversation where alignment gets set, scope expands, and career progression becomes possible.
The good news: preparation solves this. The five steps below will help you walk into your next review confident and intentional.
Keep a running accomplishments document
A brag document (also called an accomplishments log) is the single most valuable tool for performance review preparation. Without one, you’re forced to reconstruct months of work from memory, and research shows that people systematically forget their own contributions. The concept was popularized by software engineer Julia Evans, and it’s now standard practice at many tech companies.
Your brag document should capture:
- Projects completed with outcomes and metrics
- Positive feedback from managers, peers, or stakeholders
- Problems solved that others might not have noticed
- Skills developed through stretch assignments or training
- Collaboration wins where you helped others succeed
Update it weekly or monthly while details are fresh. Come review time, you’ll have a searchable record instead of a blank page.
Gather quantifiable evidence
Vague statements like “I worked hard” or “I improved the process” don’t move the needle in performance conversations. Managers evaluate dozens of employees. Specific, quantified evidence makes your contributions memorable and defensible during calibration discussions.
For each major accomplishment, document:
- What you did in concrete terms
- The measurable outcome (time saved, revenue generated, error rate reduced, customer satisfaction improved)
- The business impact connecting your work to team or company goals
For example, instead of “I improved onboarding,” write “I redesigned the new hire onboarding flow, reducing time-to-productivity from 6 weeks to 4 weeks and increasing 90-day retention by 15%.”
If you don’t have hard numbers, use approximations or qualitative evidence: “reduced support tickets by roughly 30%” or “received positive feedback from 4 stakeholders.”
Review your previous goals
Before your review meeting, pull up the goals you set at your last review or the start of the year. For each goal, assess your progress honestly:
| Status | What to Document |
|---|---|
| Exceeded | Specific metrics showing you went beyond the target |
| Met | Evidence that you hit the goal as defined |
| Partially met | What you accomplished, what blocked completion, what you learned |
| Not met | Honest assessment of why, plus what you’re doing differently |
Managers don’t expect perfection. They expect self-awareness. Walking in with a clear-eyed view of your performance, including where you fell short, signals maturity. It’s better to name the gap yourself than have your manager surface it.
If your goals were unclear or changed mid-year, that’s worth discussing too. Goal clarity is a two-way responsibility.
Prepare your case for growth
Your performance review is the best opportunity you have to advocate for your career. Don’t leave this to chance. Before the meeting, think through:
- What do you want next? A promotion, a raise, a new project, a skill you want to develop, a different scope?
- Why do you deserve it? Connect your accomplishments to the requirements for what you’re asking for.
- What’s blocking it? Anticipate objections and address them proactively.
If you want a promotion, research what the next level requires at your company. Map your accomplishments to those requirements. Identify gaps honestly and propose how you’ll close them.
According to Quantum Workplace, only 14% of employees feel inspired to improve after performance reviews. Don’t be passive. Come with specific requests and a plan.
Prepare questions for your manager
A performance review isn’t a one-way evaluation. It’s a conversation. Asking thoughtful questions shows engagement and helps you understand what success looks like going forward.
Questions to consider:
- “What would you need to see from me to be ready for [next level/promotion]?”
- “What’s one area where I could have the most impact over the next six months?”
- “Is there anything I should be doing differently that we haven’t discussed?”
- “How can I better support the team’s priorities?”
Write your questions down. It’s easy to forget them in the moment, especially if the conversation covers difficult feedback. Having a list ensures you leave with the information you need.
Common mistakes to avoid
Even prepared employees can undermine themselves during reviews. Watch out for these patterns:
- Waiting until the meeting to surface concerns. If something affected your performance, your manager should already know. Surprises in reviews damage trust.
- Being defensive about feedback. Listen first. Ask clarifying questions. You don’t have to agree with everything, but you should understand it before responding.
- Underselling your contributions. Nearly 60% of millennial workers believe their managers are unprepared to give feedback. Don’t assume your manager knows everything you did. Spell it out.
- Leaving without clarity. End the meeting knowing what you need to do next, what your manager expects, and where you stand.
Make preparation easier with AI tools
Tracking accomplishments year-round is the ideal, but most people don’t do it consistently. If you’re facing a review deadline with incomplete records, AI tools can help you reconstruct your contributions.
Windmill’s free Self Review Generator helps you articulate accomplishments and structure your thoughts into a professional self-review. Upload a brag doc, resume, or just chat about what you worked on, and the AI helps you organize it into review-ready content.
For teams running review cycles, Windmill’s performance review platform automates the hardest parts of preparation. Windy, the AI assistant, integrates with tools like GitHub, Jira, Slack, and Asana to surface accomplishments employees forget. Self-reviews happen through conversation in Slack rather than staring at a blank form. The result: employees spend minutes instead of hours on self-reviews, and the content is higher quality because it’s based on actual work data.
Whether you use a simple brag doc, AI tools, or a combination of both, the key is this: don’t walk into your performance review unprepared. The conversation shapes your career trajectory. Treat it that way.
Frequently Asked Questions
How early should I start preparing for my performance review?
Start preparing at least two weeks before your review meeting. This gives you time to gather evidence, request peer feedback, and reflect on your goals. Ideally, track accomplishments year-round so preparation becomes a matter of organizing what you've already documented.
What should I bring to my performance review meeting?
Bring a written summary of your key accomplishments with specific metrics, examples of challenges you overcame, questions about your growth path, and goals you'd like to discuss for the next period. Having documentation shows preparation and keeps the conversation focused.
How do I talk about my accomplishments without sounding arrogant?
Focus on facts and outcomes rather than self-praise. Instead of saying 'I did an amazing job,' say 'I completed the project two weeks early, which saved the team 40 hours.' Let the evidence speak for itself. Crediting collaborators where appropriate also demonstrates maturity.
What if I had a difficult year with missed goals?
Be honest about challenges while demonstrating accountability and growth. Explain what you learned, what you'd do differently, and steps you've already taken to improve. Managers value self-awareness and a growth mindset more than a perfect track record.