Performance management questions.

89 performance management questions from the bank, ready to practice out loud.

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SBI: feedback that names behavior, not character STAR and CARL: structuring your story Managing up: pushing back, then committing Calibration: defending ratings against drift and bias PIPs and paper trails: performance intervention done fairly

All 89 questions

Starting performance documentation processWalk me through how you'd start documenting concerns about a team member who's been underperforming for a quarter.Gathering evidenceMid–leadership

Distinguishing real performance concernsWalk me through how you decide whether your concerns about a team member's performance are real or just calibration drift.Calibration with peersSenior–leadership

Tough feedback for strong performerWalk me through how you'd deliver tough performance feedback to a team member who's been performing well historically.Structured feedback deliverySenior–leadership

Designing a winnable improvement planWalk me through how you'd design a 60-day improvement plan for a struggling team member that's actually winnable.PIP designSenior–leadership

Transitioning out a team memberWalk me through how you'd transition out a team member with care for both them and the team.Dignified transitionSenior–leadership

Good work, problematic peer behaviorWalk me through how you'd handle a team member whose work output is fine but whose behavior with peers is causing friction.Gathering evidenceSenior–leadership

Challenging peer calibration ratingsWalk me through how you'd handle peer calibration when one of your team members is rated higher than you think they should be.Calibration with peersSenior–leadership

Giving feedback after universal praiseWalk me through how you'd deliver feedback to a team member who's been told 'good job' by everyone else for a year.Structured feedback deliverySenior–leadership

Developing someone outgrowing their roleWalk me through how you'd build a development plan for someone whose role has evolved beyond what they were hired for.PIP designSenior–leadership

Communicating team member exitWalk me through how you'd communicate a team member's exit to the rest of the team.Dignified transitionSenior–leadership

Verifying unseen performance complaintsWalk me through how you'd verify a manager's complaint about a team member when you've not seen the behavior firsthand.Gathering evidenceSenior–leadership

Addressing lower team calibrationWalk me through how you'd respond when your team is calibrated lower than other teams of similar quality.Calibration with peersSenior–leadership

Managing defensive feedback responsesWalk me through how you'd address a team member who interprets every piece of feedback as a personal attack.Structured feedback deliverySenior–leadership

Assessing early PIP terminationWalk me through how you'd assess whether a PIP should be terminated early — either successfully or not.PIP designSenior–leadership

Transition with known financial pressureWalk me through how you'd handle a transition conversation when the team member has financial pressures you know about.Dignified transitionSenior–leadership

Documenting pattern of small missesWalk me through how you'd document a pattern of small misses rather than one big issue.Gathering evidenceSenior–leadership

Suspected over-rating during calibrationWalk me through how you'd handle calibration when you suspect another manager is over-rating their team for promotion.Calibration with peersSenior–leadership

Feedback before extended leaveWalk me through how you'd give feedback to a team member who's about to go on extended leave.Structured feedback deliverySenior–leadership

Improving metrics but declining moraleWalk me through how you'd handle a team member who's improving on the metrics but the team's morale around them isn't.PIP designSenior–leadership

Learning from a completed transitionWalk me through what you'd do after a transition is final, to learn from the experience.Dignified transitionSenior–leadership

Performance drop after life eventWalk me through how you'd handle a team member whose performance dropped after a difficult life event.Gathering evidenceSenior–leadership

Advocating for underrated team memberWalk me through how you'd advocate for a team member who's underrated by their peers.Calibration with peersSenior–leadership

Developmental versus evaluativeWalk me through how you'd separate developmental feedback from evaluative feedback in the same conversation.Structured feedback deliverySenior–leadership

Resisting premature PIPWalk me through how you'd respond when HR pushes for a PIP but you don't think it's the right move yet.PIP designSenior–leadership

Offboarding long-tenured departing employeeWalk me through how you'd handle the offboarding of a long-tenured team member who's leaving on poor terms.Dignified transitionSenior–leadership

Top performer who coasts unsupervisedWalk me through how you'd build a record on a team member who's a top performer when watched but coasting otherwise.Gathering evidenceSenior–leadership

Forced ranking without bottomWalk me through how you'd handle calibration when forced rankings are imposed but you don't have a clear bottom.Calibration with peersSenior–leadership

Giving feedback to your managerWalk me through how you'd give your manager feedback about how they're managing you.Structured feedback deliveryMid–leadership

Early intervention without formal PIPWalk me through how you'd structure a no-PIP intervention for an early-stage problem.PIP designSenior–leadership

Strong reference after poor performanceWalk me through how you'd handle a team member's request for a strong reference after a poor performance period.Dignified transitionSenior–leadership

Documenting missed deadlines carefullyWalk me through how you'd collect evidence about a team member's missed deadlines without micromanaging them.Gathering evidenceEntry–mid

Calibrating unfamiliar teams' work qualityWalk me through how you'd prepare for a calibration meeting when you're unfamiliar with other teams' work quality.Calibration with peersEntry–mid

Work requiring multiple revision roundsWalk me through how you'd deliver feedback to a team member who consistently submits work that needs multiple rounds of revision.Structured feedback deliveryEntry–mid

Measurable milestones for communication PIPWalk me through how you'd set measurable milestones for a PIP focused on communication skills.PIP designEntry–mid

Supporting departing employee's job searchWalk me through how you'd support a departing team member in updating their resume and portfolio.Dignified transitionEntry–mid

Tracking concerns with infrequent meetingsWalk me through how you'd track performance concerns when you only meet with your team member once a week.Gathering evidenceEntry–mid

Defending calibration ratingWalk me through how you'd explain your team member's rating when a peer manager questions it during calibration.Calibration with peersEntry–mid

Inconsistent message responsivenessWalk me through how you'd structure a feedback conversation about a team member's inconsistent responsiveness to messages.Structured feedback deliveryEntry–mid

Choosing support resources for PIPWalk me through how you'd decide what support resources to include in a PIP for a technical skill gap.PIP designEntry–mid

Questions about severance during transitionWalk me through how you'd handle a team member's questions about severance or benefits during a transition conversation.Dignified transitionEntry–mid

Cross-functional collaboration inputWalk me through how you'd gather input from cross-functional partners about a team member's collaboration skills.Gathering evidenceEntry–mid

Recalibrating lenient team ratingsWalk me through how you'd respond in calibration when you realize you've been rating your team more leniently than peers.Calibration with peersEntry–mid

AI-assisted contribution assessmentHow do you assess an individual's actual contribution when most of their output is produced with heavy AI assistance?Gathering evidenceSenior–leadership

Calibrating across AI adoptionHow do you run calibration fairly when one team has adopted AI tooling aggressively and another hasn't — and raw output numbers no longer mean the same thing?Calibration with peersSenior–leadership

High AI volume, declining judgmentWalk me through giving feedback to someone whose AI-assisted volume is high but whose judgment calls — the part you actually need — are getting worse.Structured feedback deliverySenior–leadership

Low activity signal solid workYour company's activity dashboard flags a remote team member as 'low activity,' but the work they deliver is solid. What do you do with that signal?Gathering evidenceMid–senior

Setting expectations during AI-driven changeHow do you set performance expectations for a role that AI tooling is reshaping faster than your review cycle can keep up with?PIP designSenior–leadership

Managing out due to automationWalk me through managing someone out when the honest reason is that AI has shrunk the need for their role — their performance was never the problem.Dignified transitionSenior–leadership

Senior team member resisting toolingHow do you address a respected senior team member who refuses to adopt the team's AI tooling and has become the bottleneck in every review cycle?Structured feedback deliverySenior–leadership

Skip-level pressure on visibility biasWhat's your approach when a skip-level pushes you to rate someone higher because they're visible in the office, not because of their results?Calibration with peersSenior–leadership

Assessing inherited problem team memberYou take over a team and inherit zero documentation on a member everyone privately calls 'a problem.' How do you form your own assessment?Gathering evidenceMid–senior

PIP milestone gaming with AIA team member on a PIP is using AI to hit every written milestone while the underlying capability gap remains. How do you handle the PIP review?PIP designSenior–leadership

Transfer request instead of PIPA struggling team member wants an internal transfer instead of a PIP — and the receiving manager calls you for the real story. What do you say?Dignified transitionSenior–leadership

Feedback from artifacts onlyHow do you give performance feedback when most of what you've observed comes through artifacts — pull requests, documents, dashboards — rather than working beside the person?Structured feedback deliveryMid–senior

Invisible glue work in calibrationYour strongest team member's impact is mostly invisible glue work the rating rubric doesn't capture. How do you make their case in calibration?Calibration with peersMid–senior

Performance problem versus workload problemHow do you separate a performance problem from a workload problem when a team member says they're drowning, but peers with similar scope are managing?Gathering evidenceMid–senior

Gathering evidence on missed deadlinesWalk me through how you'd gather evidence when you suspect a team member is missing deadlines but you don't have visibility into their day-to-day work.Gathering evidenceMid–senior

Measuring remote productivity objectivelyWalk me through how you'd collect objective performance data for a remote team member whose productivity you're concerned about.Gathering evidenceMid–leadership

Collaboration gap or motivation gapWalk me through how you'd verify whether a team member's lack of collaboration is a skills gap or a motivation issue.Gathering evidenceSenior–leadership

Junior underperformance causeWalk me through how you'd determine if performance concerns about a junior engineer are due to inadequate onboarding versus actual capability issues.Gathering evidenceMid–senior

Skip-level rating disparityWalk me through how you'd approach calibration when your skip-level reports are consistently rated lower than their peers across other managers.Calibration with peersSenior–leadership

Peer manager defending struggling performerWalk me through how you'd handle calibration when a peer manager insists their struggling team member deserves promotion.Calibration with peersSenior–leadership

Calibrating different business contextsWalk me through how you'd calibrate performance ratings when your team operates in a different business context than peer teams.Calibration with peersSenior–leadership

Defending ratings as newest managerWalk me through how you'd prepare to defend your performance ratings in a calibration meeting where you're the newest manager in the room.Calibration with peersMid–senior

Feedback conversation with defensive personWalk me through how you'd structure a difficult performance conversation with a team member who's defensive and tends to deflect feedback.Structured feedback deliveryMid–leadership

High performer who has plateauedWalk me through how you'd deliver feedback to a high performer who's plateaued and doesn't realize their growth has stalled.Structured feedback deliverySenior–leadership

Strong skills, weak leadership presenceWalk me through how you'd structure feedback for a team member whose technical skills are strong but leadership presence is holding them back from promotion.Structured feedback deliverySenior–leadership

Feedback to senior peerWalk me through how you'd deliver feedback to a senior team member when you're newer to the company than they are.Structured feedback deliveryMid–senior

PIP for inconsistent work qualityWalk me through how you'd design a performance improvement plan for someone whose work quality is inconsistent rather than uniformly poor.PIP designMid–senior

PIP for process compliance gapsWalk me through how you'd structure a PIP for a team member who meets output targets but consistently misses process requirements.PIP designMid–senior

PIP addressing skills and attitudeWalk me through how you'd build a PIP that addresses both skill gaps and attitude issues simultaneously.PIP designMid–senior

PIP milestones for judgment issuesWalk me through how you'd set milestones in a PIP when the performance issues are about judgment rather than measurable outputs.PIP designSenior–leadership

PIP for underperforming managerWalk me through how you'd design a PIP for a manager whose team is underperforming but who isn't violating any explicit expectations.PIP designSenior–leadership

Managing a two-month exit timelineWalk me through how you'd manage a team member's exit when they've accepted the decision but the timeline is still two months out.Dignified transitionMid–leadership

Departing employee announcement timingWalk me through how you'd handle the transition when a departing team member wants to tell the team themselves versus following company protocol.Dignified transitionMid–senior

Offboarding disengaged departing employeeWalk me through how you'd structure the final weeks for a team member you're transitioning out who's become disengaged and bitter.Dignified transitionMid–senior

Transitioning out a well-liked performerWalk me through how you'd transition out a well-liked team member whose performance doesn't meet the bar without demoralizing the rest of the team.Dignified transitionSenior–leadership

Supporting job search during transitionWalk me through how you'd support a team member's job search after deciding to transition them out while managing confidentiality.Dignified transitionMid–senior

Cross-functional input on performanceWalk me through how you'd gather input from cross-functional partners when evaluating a team member's performance on collaborative projects.Gathering evidenceMid–leadership

Defending harsh ratings in calibrationWalk me through how you'd respond in calibration when HR challenges your ratings as systematically too harsh compared to company norms.Calibration with peersSenior–leadership

Mid-year feedback contradicting signalsWalk me through how you'd deliver mid-year feedback that contradicts the positive signals you've been giving in weekly one-on-ones.Structured feedback deliveryMid–senior

Challenging an illegitimate PIP draftA manager brings you a PIP draft with milestones no one could hit in the window — it's clearly a paper trail for a decision they've already made. As the HR partner, walk me through your response.PIP designSenior–leadership

Moving from attitude to evidenceA manager tells you they want to fire someone 'for attitude.' Walk me through how you get them from impressions to evidence before anything formal moves forward.Gathering evidenceMid–senior

Addressing inflated department ratingsYou're facilitating the annual calibration session and one department's ratings run a full point above every other group's. Walk me through how you run the session.Calibration with peersSenior–leadership

Manager delegates serious feedbackA first-time manager asks you to deliver their team member's serious performance message for them. Walk me through how you handle the request.Structured feedback deliveryMid–senior

Planning termination day logisticsWalk me through how you'd plan the termination day for an employee at the end of an unsuccessful PIP — sequencing, who's in the room, systems access, and what the team hears.Dignified transitionMid–senior

PIP after internal complaint filedAn employee's performance dipped shortly after they filed an internal complaint, and their manager wants to start a PIP now. Walk me through your analysis as the HR partner.Gathering evidenceSenior–leadership

Verbal coaching versus formal warningA new manager asks you when a verbal coaching conversation is enough and when an issue needs a formal written warning. Walk me through the distinction and how you'd advise them.Structured feedback deliveryEntry–mid

Correcting rating gaps before compTwo managers rate equivalent performance very differently, and the gap is about to flow into comp recommendations. Walk me through how you'd surface and correct it before the cycle closes.Calibration with peersSenior–leadership