Performance Goals Examples: 30 SMART Goals

TL;DR: The 30 SMART goals below are easy to adapt for a review cycle or goal-setting 1:1.

What strong performance goals examples have in common

Strong goals name the outcome, the proof of progress, and the deadline. For the framework background, use our goal-setting glossary and OKRs vs goals guide.

Goal type	Best for	What it should prove
Delivery	Shipping work on time	The employee can finish the right work by a clear date
Quality	Reliability and standards	The work meets a clear quality bar
Growth and skills	Capability building	The employee is stronger at a role-relevant skill
Collaboration	Cross-functional execution	Work moves better across teams
Leadership	Managers and team leads	The manager improves team output

Delivery performance goals examples

Delivery goals track what should ship, launch, fill, or close by a specific date.

Engineering delivery: “By June 30, ship the billing-alert refactor and reduce false-positive alerts from 18% to under 5%.”
Product delivery: “For the next two quarters, publish approved product requirements at least five business days before sprint planning for 90% of roadmap items.”
Sales delivery: “By the end of Q3, close $250,000 in expansion ARR from existing accounts while keeping CRM opportunity stages updated within two business days.”
Customer success delivery: “By August 31, complete executive business reviews for the top 20 accounts and document next-step owners for 100% of them.”
Recruiting delivery: “Fill the three open senior engineering roles by the end of Q2 with an average time-to-offer of 35 days or less.”
Operations delivery: “Before year-end planning starts, document and launch the new procurement workflow so 95% of requests move from submission to approval within five business days.”

Quality performance goals examples

Quality goals raise the bar on accuracy, reliability, and rework.

Engineering quality: “Over the next two releases, keep post-launch Sev 1 and Sev 2 incidents below two per release while maintaining agreed delivery dates.”
Support quality: “Raise QA review scores from 84% to 92% by the end of Q3 and keep reopened tickets under 6%.”
Design quality: “For the next three launches, reduce late-stage design revisions caused by missing states or edge cases from five per project to one or fewer.”
Finance quality: “By the end of Q2, reduce invoice corrections from 9% of monthly invoices to under 2% by adding a pre-send review step.”
People ops quality: “For the next review cycle, keep manager-review calibration edits caused by unclear language below 10% of submitted drafts.”
Marketing quality: “By December 31, improve content handoff quality so 95% of published pages launch without broken internal links, missing metadata, or factual corrections.”

Growth and skills goals for performance reviews

Growth goals should build a capability the role needs next, with a clear proof point by the end of the period.

Engineering growth: “By September 30, lead two architecture reviews end to end and publish the decision docs within three business days of each meeting.”
Manager growth: “By the end of Q3, complete feedback training and use the framework in every direct report 1:1 for eight consecutive weeks.”
Customer success growth: “By Q4 planning, build and deliver three executive-readout presentations independently, with manager edits required on no more than one section per deck.”
Sales growth: “By July 31, improve multi-threading by adding at least two active stakeholder contacts to 80% of stage-three deals.”
Design growth: “Before the next half begins, run six user interviews independently and turn each round into a written insight summary shared with product and engineering.”
HR or people ops growth: “By the end of the review period, design and facilitate two manager training sessions on performance feedback with average attendee usefulness scores of 4 out of 5 or higher.”

Collaboration goals examples

Collaboration goals work best when the real issue is how work moves between people, not raw individual output.

Engineering collaboration: “For the next two quarters, post a weekly written status update for every cross-team project you own and close 90% of action items by the promised date.”
Product collaboration: “By the end of Q3, reduce unplanned sprint carryover caused by requirement changes from product-side clarifications by 50%.”
Customer success collaboration: “For the next 15 handoffs from sales to onboarding, hold a live kickoff within five business days and log success criteria in the account plan for every customer.”
Marketing collaboration: “By quarter end, create a launch brief template that every product-marketing campaign uses, with stakeholder sign-off completed at least one week before launch in 90% of cases.”
Operations collaboration: “Over the next six months, cut procurement escalations caused by incomplete requests by 40% through clearer intake guidance and faster follow-up.”
People manager collaboration: “For the next review cycle, align on growth priorities with each direct report before formal reviews begin so 100% of reviews reference previously discussed goals rather than surprise expectations.”

Leadership goals examples for managers

Leadership goals should show how a manager improves team output through coaching, prioritization, and clarity.

1:1 leadership goal: “For the next quarter, complete biweekly 1:1s with every direct report and send written follow-up actions within 24 hours for 90% of meetings.”
Coaching goal: “By the end of Q3, deliver one documented coaching conversation per month to each direct report on a role-relevant development area.”
Delegation goal: “By quarter end, transfer ownership of two recurring operational decisions to team leads and document decision rights for each.”
Team-priority goal: “For the next two quarters, keep each direct report to no more than three active priority goals at once and review tradeoffs in every monthly check-in.”
Recognition goal: “For the next 12 weeks, recognize at least one concrete contribution from each direct report in a team or 1:1 setting within seven days of the work happening.”
Calibration-readiness goal: “Before the next review cycle closes, ensure every direct report review includes at least three evidence-based examples tied to agreed goals or expectations.”

How to write performance review goals without overcomplicating them

Start with the work that matters most, write the outcome in one sentence, then add the metric or milestone and the deadline. If you need a live agenda, use the goal-setting 1:1 template.

Three simple checks usually catch weak goals:

Could two people read it and agree on what success looks like?
Could a manager revisit it mid-cycle without asking what the goal meant?
Does it describe an outcome or habit that actually matters for the role?

How to revisit goals in reviews and 1:1s

Performance goals work only when they stay visible after the planning meeting. Use 1:1s to check progress and remove blockers, then use the formal review to assess what happened. For the review conversation itself, use the performance review 1:1 template.

Set the goal clearly at the start of the period.
Revisit it briefly in recurring 1:1s.
Adjust it openly if the role or business context changes.
Use the review to evaluate the result and choose the next goal.

Windmill can help keep goals and follow-ups visible between formal reviews.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are good performance goals examples?

Good performance goals examples are specific enough to guide day-to-day work, measurable enough to review later, and narrow enough that both the employee and the manager can tell whether real progress happened. The best ones name the outcome, the metric or milestone, and the deadline without trying to cram in every possible responsibility.

How do you write SMART goals for a performance review?

Write the goal around one concrete outcome, then add the metric, timeline, and business context that make it reviewable later. A strong review goal sounds like a real commitment, not a personality trait: 'Reduce customer onboarding time from 18 days to 12 by the end of Q2' is usable, while 'be more proactive' is not.

How many performance review goals should an employee have?

Most employees do best with three to five real performance goals for a review period. Fewer than that can leave important work unprioritized, while too many goals make it hard to tell what matters most and usually turn the review into a catch-all document.

What's the difference between a performance goal and an OKR?

A performance goal is usually an individual commitment that gets reviewed against a clear expectation by the end of the period. An OKR is a broader planning framework for team or company priorities. Many organizations use both, but this page focuses on copy-paste goals you can use in a performance review or 1:1 workflow.