Skip to main content
Peer reviews consist of two phases: nominations and feedback. This ensures employees give feedback to colleagues they’ve actually worked with.

​
How peer reviews work

The peer review process unfolds in two distinct stages:

​
Nomination phase

Windy prompts employees to nominate peers for review. Using existing work context around collaboration, Windy can suggest relevant peers based on:
  • Shared projects and meetings
  • Slack conversations and channels
  • Connected tool activity (Jira, GitHub, shared docs)
Employees can accept suggestions or nominate other colleagues. Once nominations are submitted, they determine who provides feedback to whom.

​
Feedback phase

After nominations close, Windy opens peer feedback conversations. Each employee receives a Slack thread for each peer they’re reviewing. The conversation is interactive—employees respond to discussion topics, and Windy asks follow-up questions to ensure feedback is specific and actionable. Windy follows up on vague responses to ensure feedback is specific and grounded in concrete examples.

​
Visibility and privacy

Peer feedback is uploaded into the Performance Review Packet for the employee’s manager to review. Peer feedback is not shared directly with employees—it goes to their manager, who incorporates it into the final performance review. This approach ensures:
  • Honest feedback — Peers can share constructive input without concern about damaging relationships
  • Managerial context — Managers synthesize peer feedback with other signals
  • Privacy — Individual peer feedback is not attributed directly to the peer being reviewed
Employees can edit their peer feedback in the Windmill Dashboard up until the deadline.

​
Configuring peer reviews

When creating a performance review cycle, you configure the discussion guide for peer feedback—the topics Windy will guide employees through.

​
Creating discussion topics

Discussion topics are open-ended prompts that Windy uses to guide the feedback conversation. You configure them directly in the cycle creation wizard when setting up the peer feedback stage. Example peer feedback topics:
  • What are this person’s greatest strengths when collaborating on projects?
  • Can you share a specific example of this person’s impact on a recent project or outcome?
  • What’s one area where this person could grow or improve?

​
Best practices for discussion guides

  • Keep it conversational — Write topics as if you’re asking them in person
  • Focus on specifics — Ask for examples, projects, or outcomes
  • Limit to 3-5 topics — Windy will follow up naturally based on responses
  • Avoid yes/no questions — Open-ended prompts lead to richer feedback
Windy is trained to ask follow-up questions if responses are vague, so you don’t need to include every possible follow-up in your discussion guide.

​
Scheduling and participants

When configuring the peer feedback stage:
  • Nomination schedule — Set when nominations open and when they’re due
  • Feedback schedule — Set when feedback conversations open and when they’re due
  • Who participates — Optionally filter to a subset of employees for this stage (or use the cycle-level filter)

​
Editing responses

After completing peer feedback in Slack, employees can still edit their responses in the Windmill Dashboard up until the feedback deadline. To edit:
  1. Go to Performance Reviews
  2. Find the active cycle
  3. Click into the peer feedback you want to edit
  4. Make changes and save
Once the deadline passes, responses are locked.

​
FAQs

Yes. After completing peer feedback in Slack with Windy, employees can still edit their responses in the Windmill Dashboard up until the review deadline.This allows employees to:
  • Refine answers after reflecting further
  • Add examples they remembered later
  • Adjust phrasing for clarity
Once the deadline passes, responses are locked.
When collecting feedback, Windy is trained to ask for more specific, constructive input. If responses are vague, Windy follows up with prompts focused on work products and outcomes rather than personalities.For example, when collecting peer feedback, Windy might ask:
  • “What project or outcome are you referring to?”
  • “Can you share a specific example of their impact on a recent project?”
  • “In which ways did they make the process smoother?”
By encouraging feedback focused on work products rather than personalities, Windmill ensures that performance reviews are more actionable, fair, and grounded in reality.
Peer feedback goes to the employee’s manager and is included in their Performance Review Packet. Peer feedback is not shared directly with the employee being reviewed—it’s used by their manager to inform the final performance review.Individual peer feedback is not attributed to specific peers in the final review shared with employees. Managers synthesize peer feedback with other signals (self review, upward feedback, system data) when drafting reviews.
Yes. When creating a cycle, you configure discussion topics for peer feedback. These are the prompts Windy uses to guide the conversation in Slack.Discussion topics are fully customizable to match your company’s review process.Learn more in Cycles.
If a deadline passes and peer feedback is still not submitted:
  • The review status changes to overdue in the tracking views
  • HR/admins can see who’s behind in the All Employees view
  • The employee can still submit after the deadline
However, late submissions may delay calibration or review sharing. HR can follow up with individuals who are overdue to understand blockers and adjust deadlines if needed.Windmill sends automated reminders before and on the deadline to minimize late submissions.