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Performance reviews are essential, but they don’t need to be painful. Traditional review cycles are often slow, inconsistent, and filled with blank-page dread. Windmill changes that. By turning open-ended prompts into interactive flows powered by AI, Windmill helps teams complete thoughtful, evidence-based reviews in minutes instead of weeks. Whether you’re running quarterly peer reviews or annual upward assessments, Windy helps keep the process lightweight and grounded in real work.

How Windmill makes reviews easier

Windy brings together Feedback, meeting recaps, and context from tools that your team already uses, such as Slack, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Jira, and GitHub. When it is time to write a review, Windmill shows the available performance context and generates a structured draft for you to review and edit. The result? Reviews that take 6 minutes, not 6 hours.

Supported review types

Windmill supports four types of reviews:
  • Self reviews — employees reflect on their own impact and growth
  • Peer feedback — colleagues provide feedback on collaboration and strengths
  • Upward feedback — direct reports share feedback about their manager
  • Manager reviews — managers draft comprehensive performance reviews
Employees can complete self reviews, peer reviews, and upward feedback in the Windmill platform or through Windy in Slack. Each review type is highly configurable. Companies can ask employees specific questions in the phrasing of their choice. Manager reviews take place in the Windmill Platform, where managers have access to their direct report’s self review, peer feedback, upward feedback, as well as relevant work context from the review period.

The complete review workflow

Here’s how a typical performance review cycle flows in Windmill:

1. Employees complete reviews

Windy uses context from the entire review cycle to help employees write authentic, example-driven reviews. Instead of handing employees a blank sheet and asking them to remember their accomplishments, Windy pulls in real examples, highlights, and feedback in a conversational manner. When it’s time for a review, employees can open their tasks in the Windmill platform and answer each question there. Windy can also reach out in Slack with relevant context and guide employees through the same review. Progress stays synchronized, so employees can use either experience.

2. Managers review and draft

Once all self, peer, and upward feedback is in, Windy compiles a packet that’s available to the manager when they complete their manager review. It includes:
  • A context report covering the review period — past feedback, goals, work activity from connected tools, recaps, pulse responses, and 1:1 notes
  • The employee’s self review
  • The employee’s peer reviews
  • Upward feedback from the employee’s reports (if they have any)
Managers can then start to draft their performance reviews in the Windmill platform with this context.

3. Calibration and finalization

After managers submit draft reviews, cycle admins can create calibrations to compare ratings across managers and improve consistency. Committees can review packets in several views, discuss evidence, apply rating changes, or send recommendations back to managers.

4. Progress tracking and analytics

Throughout the cycle, managers and cycle admins can track progress across the organization. The Analytics dashboard shows participation rates, review status by team, and outstanding tasks—ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
Employees can ask Windy “What do I need to do for my current review cycle?” in Slack to get a personalized list of pending todos with direct links to each task. See Talking to Windy for more.

Why teams choose Windmill for reviews

Reviews grounded in real work

Windmill uses feedback collected in Windmill and activity context from your connected tools. This helps reviewers use recent evidence instead of memory alone.

Faster and more consistent

Instead of managers spending hours writing from scratch, Windy compiles evidence-based drafts. Reviews that used to take 6 hours now take 6 minutes.

Higher quality feedback

Windy is trained to prompt for specificity and balance. When responses are vague, Windy follows up with nudges focused on work products and outcomes rather than personalities—ensuring reviews are actionable, fair, and grounded in reality.

Continuous, not annual

Windmill works best when performance isn’t treated as a once-a-year event. You can configure review cycles to run monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, or on a custom schedule. Windy continuously collects feedback and activity data, so your next review is always ready.

Getting started

Ready to run your first performance review cycle?
  • Cycles — Set up your first cycle with the right review types and timeline
  • Self Reviews — Employee self-reflection and performance assessment
  • Peer Feedback — Collect structured peer feedback through nominations and conversation
  • Upward Feedback — Structured feedback from direct reports about their manager
  • Manager Reviews — Draft comprehensive reviews with AI assistance
  • Insights — Analyze aggregate responses across review stages
  • Tracking progress — Monitor completion across your organization