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Manager performance reviews bring together all feedback from self, peer, and upward reviews with continuous context from the review period. Instead of starting from a blank page, managers have everything they need to write thoughtful, evidence-based assessments in minutes.

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The Performance Review Packet

When it’s time to draft reviews, managers access a Performance Review Packet for each direct report. This packet consolidates:
  • Employee impact summary — Key contributions, goals progress, and work activity from connected tools
  • Self review — How the employee describes their own growth and accomplishments
  • Peer reviews — Feedback from colleagues on collaboration, strengths, and opportunities
  • Upward feedback — If the employee manages others, feedback from their direct reports
  • System signals — Recaps, pulse survey responses, 1:1 notes, and continuous feedback
All of this context is automatically gathered and organized, so managers can focus on writing rather than hunting for information. To access Performance Review Packets, go to Performance Reviews, select the active cycle, and click into any direct report.

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Drafting a review

Manager reviews are structured around specific questions configured when the cycle was created. These might include:
  • Overall performance rating
  • Key accomplishments and impact
  • Areas for growth or development
  • Goal progress and alignment with company values
  • Promotion readiness or compensation recommendations
For each question, Windmill provides AI-generated observations to help managers get started.

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AI-suggested observations

Windy automatically generates short, objective observations drawn from:
  • Self — How the employee describes their own growth
  • Peer — Collaboration, strengths, and opportunities from peer feedback
  • System — Recaps, pulse surveys, 1:1s, continuous feedback, and work activity
  • Upward — If applicable, feedback from the employee’s direct reports
Each suggestion is tagged by source so managers know exactly where the insight came from. For example:
[Peer] “Consistently delivers high-quality work on tight deadlines, as noted by three peers who worked with them on the Q3 product launch.”
[Self] “Took initiative to refactor the billing system, reducing processing time by 40%.”
[System] “Received positive feedback in Slack from the design team for collaboration on the new onboarding flow.”
Managers can:
  • Select suggestions to include in their answer
  • Edit suggestions to add context or adjust wording
  • Write their own observations from scratch
  • Add custom observations alongside AI suggestions

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Generating draft answers

Once managers have selected observations for a question, they can generate a full draft answer. Windy synthesizes the selected observations into coherent, professional prose that:
  • Weaves together multiple observations
  • Balances strengths and growth areas (based on the rating)
  • Maintains a professional tone
  • Preserves source attribution
The draft serves as a starting point. Managers have full editorial control and can revise any part before submitting.

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Adjusting tone

The same feedback can land very differently depending on how it’s framed. Windmill’s tone selector allows managers to fine-tune how draft answers are written—ensuring feedback is both honest and effective.

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Tone options

When generating a draft answer, managers can choose from three tone options: Balanced (default) — Neutral tone that matches the rating and observations Use when:
  • The employee is a solid, reliable performer
  • You want to acknowledge both strengths and growth areas
  • The rating reflects meeting or slightly exceeding expectations
Glowing — Celebrates outstanding performance with enthusiastic language Use when:
  • The employee exceeded expectations significantly
  • You want to emphasize exceptional performance
  • The review supports a promotion or strong compensation increase
Corrective — Emphasizes areas needing improvement with factual language Use when:
  • Performance is below expectations
  • The employee needs specific guidance on what to improve
  • You want to set clear expectations for future performance

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How to adjust tone

1

Select observations and rating

Choose the AI suggestions or write custom observations for the question. If it’s a rating question, select the appropriate rating.
2

Choose tone

Before generating the draft, select the desired tone from the dropdown.
3

Generate draft

Click Generate to create a draft answer using the selected tone.
4

Review and edit

Review the generated draft and make any manual edits as needed. You can regenerate with a different tone if the first draft doesn’t feel right.

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What stays the same

No matter which tone is chosen:
  • Review content remains grounded in evidence — Windy doesn’t invent accomplishments or exaggerate impact
  • Data sources are preserved — Each observation still traces back to self, peer, system, or upward sources
  • Managers retain full editorial control — The draft is a starting point; managers can edit freely
Tone changes how feedback is framed and emphasized, not what feedback is included.

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Submitting reviews

When a manager is satisfied with all answers, they click Submit. Once submitted:
  • The review is marked as “Submitted” in the manager’s dashboard
  • If calibration is part of the cycle, the review moves into calibration
  • Managers and HR/admins can still edit the review until it’s released to employees
Reviews are not locked when submitted or calibrated. They only lock once released to employees.

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Review status

Manager reviews move through several states:
  • Not Started — The packet is available but the manager hasn’t opened it yet
  • In Progress — The manager has started drafting but hasn’t submitted
  • Submitted — The manager has finalized and submitted the review
  • Calibrated — If applicable, the review has been through calibration
  • Released — The review packet has been shared with the employee and is now locked
Managers can see the status of all their reviews in the My Team view. HR can monitor org-wide status in the All Employees view. Learn more about releasing reviews to employees in Releasing Reviews.

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Writing effective reviews

Even with AI assistance, the best reviews are:
  • Specific — Reference actual projects, outcomes, and behaviors
  • Balanced — Acknowledge both strengths and growth opportunities
  • Forward-looking — Include development goals and next steps
  • Fair — Based on evidence, not recency bias or gut feeling
Windmill makes it easier to write high-quality reviews by:
  • Surfacing specific examples — AI suggestions include concrete work products and outcomes
  • Balancing strengths and growth areas — The draft structure and tone options ensure reviews aren’t one-sided
  • Grounding feedback in data — Every observation traces back to a source
  • Saving time — What used to take hours now takes minutes

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FAQs

When it’s time to draft reviews, Windmill consolidates data that’s been collected throughout the review period:
  • Employee self reviews completed in Slack
  • Peer feedback from colleagues
  • Upward feedback from direct reports
  • Context from connected tools (Jira, Salesforce, GitHub, Google Workspace, etc.)
  • Recaps, pulse surveys, and 1:1 notes
By surfacing this context in one Performance Review Packet, Windmill eliminates the need for managers to rely on scattered notes or memories.Instead of spending 1-2 hours per review, managers can complete a full, data-backed assessment in as little as six minutes.
Yes. Reviews are not locked when submitted. Managers and HR/admins can still edit reviews after submission until they’re released to employees.This allows for:
  • Calibration adjustments
  • Final edits before sharing
  • Corrections or additional context
Reviews only lock once they’re released to employees.
Windy automatically generates short, objective observations drawn from:
  • Self — How the employee describes their own growth
  • Peer — Collaboration, strengths, and opportunities from peer feedback
  • System — Recaps, pulse surveys, 1:1s, continuous feedback, and work activity
  • Upward — If applicable, feedback from the employee’s direct reports
Each suggestion is tagged by source so managers know exactly where the insight came from. Managers retain full control and can select, edit, or write their own observations.
Yes. When creating a cycle, you configure specific questions managers will answer about each direct report. Questions can be:
  • Text questions — Open-ended written responses
  • Rating questions — Single-select ratings (e.g., 1-5 scale, Exceeds/Meets/Needs Improvement)
  • Yes/No questions — Boolean responses
These questions are fully customizable to match your company’s review process.Learn more in Cycles.