People partnerZanele Khoza
- Designs the cycle with Cara in minutes
- Sees coverage and fixes gaps on a live cycle
- Runs calibration and controls the release
Product journey · Performance reviewsOne review cycle.
One review cycle.
Fair, fast and grounded in the work.
Follow Northstar’s mid-year review in October, from Cara’s first question to the report Naledi reads at the end. Work Insights keeps the whole six months in view, so every review rests on data rather than memory. Click through the screens your HR team, managers and employees actually use.
14 stepsAbout 7 minutesClick Next or use ← →
Step 1 of 14HR · Cara
Start with why, not a template.
Zanele opens Guided setup. Instead of a blank form, Cara asks what the cycle is for, how much time people can give it and what Northstar wants to learn, using what October already knows about the company.
- 1Pick the purpose: growth, decisions or both
- 2Size it to the time people actually have
- 3Your company values come first
- 4Cara already knows your teams, values, goals and last cycle
Performance / Review Cycles / Guided setup
Set up a review cycle
About ten minutes with Cara. Nothing is sent to anyone — you’ll get a draft cycle to check and launch when you’re ready.
- 1Why you review
- 2A few questions
- 3Recommended setup
- 4Questions
- 5Timeline
- 6Create
Step 1 of 6
What should this cycle do for you?
Start with why. Cara uses it — and what she already knows about Northstar — to recommend the lightest setup that gets you there.
The main purpose1
How it should feel2
How formalLight touchStandardThorough
Time each person can give itUnder an hour1–2 hoursUp to half a day
How oftenRecommend oneYearlyTwice a yearQuarterly
What you most want to learn
Customer obsession· valueShip, then shape· valueDelivery against goalsCollaborationLeadership and ownershipGrowth and potentialQuality of work
3- People
- 142 across 6 departments
- Managers
- 18 · 2 with fewer than 3 reports
- Last cycle
- Year-end review · 74% complete
- Values
- Customer obsession · Ship, then shape
- Competencies
- 8 in the Product framework
- Company goals
- 5 for this half
- Pay review
- Takes effect 1 September
Anything else Cara should know?
Last year’s reviews felt like a box-ticking exercise and managers ran out of time.
Illustrative product views · Northstar and its people are examples
The killer featuresWhat made that cycle
What made that cycle
feel fair.
Every step you just clicked through fixes something people dread about review season. Here’s each one, and the pain it takes away.
A cycle designed in ten minutes
Cara asks why you review, recommends the lightest setup that fits and drafts the questions from your values and goals. You get a draft to check, never a surprise launch.
The pain it removesWeeks of spreadsheets and template debates before anyone writes a review.Sized to your real teams
Every setup is checked against your managers, team sizes and anonymity threshold, with the review workload shown before you commit.
The pain it removesA cycle that buries managers, or upward feedback that can never be shown.Peers who see the work
Peer suggestions come from Work Insights, 1:1s, recognition and shared goals, with a manager approval step.
The pain it removesPeer feedback from people who barely know what someone did.Grounded in data, not memory
Work Insights brings in activity from connected tools like GitHub, Jira, Linear and HubSpot for the entire review period, beside goals, wins, recognition, 1:1s and self-reports. A period recap puts the whole half in front of every reviewer.
The pain it removesRecency bias: reviews written from memory of the last few weeks, while the work from month one is forgotten.Data that informs, never scores
Work counts are prompts for the conversation. Employees see theirs first, managers once the self-review is in, and AutoDraft never turns them into a rating.
The pain it removesActivity dashboards that quietly become a leaderboard.AutoDraft, with citations
Managers agree with the evidence that matters and get a cited draft in their own voice. It never sets a rating.
The pain it removesManagers staring at a blank box, writing vague praise at 11pm.Cycles that chase themselves
Automatic nudges 7, 3 and 1 days before each deadline, coverage by review type, and reviewer changes on a live cycle.
The pain it removesHR spends a fortnight chasing reviews by email.Calibration with a pre-read
A pre-read, a fairness check on rating patterns, a target curve that guides rather than dictates, and a reason recorded for every change.
The pain it removesCalibration that becomes a debate about who argues hardest.Managers keep the call
Calibrated ratings can apply directly or go to managers as recommendations with the committee’s reasoning and talking points.
The pain it removesRatings change in a room the manager wasn’t in, and nobody can explain why.Release on your terms
HR picks what employees see. Managers preview and publish their own team’s reports after the conversation.
The pain it removesPeople learn their rating from an automated email.Anonymous by design
Thresholds before peer and upward feedback appears, anonymised reports and nominators who are never named.
The pain it removesPeers soften feedback because they know it can be traced back.The next one drafts itself
Completing a cycle drafts the next one with the same settings and questions, and reports become courses with Ash.
The pain it removesEvery cycle starts from scratch, and the review ends up in a drawer.
Everyone in the loopFour people, one cycle.
Four people, one cycle.
Each with less to do.
Review season works when everyone can do their part quickly and trust what comes out. October gives each person exactly the view they need.
ManagerAlex Morgan
- Sees the whole half, not the last few weeks
- Drafts reviews from cited evidence
- Accepts or keeps calibrated ratings, then publishes
PeerPriya Naidoo
- Suggested because she works with Naledi
- Gives feedback that stays anonymous
- Gets reminders before the deadline
EmployeeNaledi Mokoena
- Reviews her half with the evidence in view
- Chooses who reviews her
- Gets a report she can act on
The full pictureThere’s more
There’s more
inside.
The detail behind the journey.
Cycle setup+
- Guided setup with Cara, or the full form
- Self, manager, peer and upward reviews
- Text, rating, competency, multiple choice, performance and potential questions
- Yearly, twice-yearly, quarterly, monthly or one-off cycles
- Reusable review templates and performance curves
Running the cycle+
- Prepare, preview and launch assignments
- Flag new joiners and re-balance peer reviews
- Change a reviewer or add an assignment on a live cycle
- Automatic reminders, plus send-now reminders
- CSV exports of reviews and incomplete people
Calibration & talent+
- Sessions with a target distribution and rules
- Pre-read and rating anomaly checks
- Live session with park, flag and finalise
- Apply or recommend outcomes, with action items
- 9-box talent grid for performance and potential
Reports & insight+
- Report Hub by department, manager and person
- 360 Report Hub with a competency radar
- Performance Analytics: distribution, discrepancies, missing 1:1s
- PDF reviews and a Highlights recap
- Development plans and growth courses with Ash
Start with your organisation
Bring your next cycle. We’ll set it up with you.
We’ll walk through guided setup with your teams and values, then show calibration and release with your own structure.