Good feedback, shared early and often, is essential to our culture at Parabol. We covet regular feedback from our customers, from our advisors, and from each other.

At Parabol we use our software to support a peer review process that we run at least every 6 months per employee. Here’s how it works in brief:

• A team member and their team lead select a panel of peers who have worked alongside the member on a regular basis
• Folks on the panel respond to a set of prompts to highlight the highs and the lows, offer suggestions for opportunities, or ask questions about the team member’s roles, accountabilities, and work
• The team member reviews the topics during 1:1 time with their team lead. Follow-up discussions with the panel are encouraged
• The team member develops a plan for how they want to improve based on the feedback and share that with the team

The steps of inviting a panel and gathering feedback are entirely async. Once the panel is in place we share a private Slack channel and private Parabol team. The team member chooses what prompts to share with the panel and kicks off the async activity. We have 3 templates to start with or they can customize their own:

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Open-Ended Feedback

Trust

What examples can you give that have helped or hurt you trust this teammate’s ability to assist you with your own work?

In Focus

What appears to have this teammate’s attention over other efforts? Give some examples.

Out of Focus

What isn’t getting as much attention as perhaps it should?

Values

Share examples of a company value this person has brought to life.

Questions

What questions might you have about the work of the role(s) this teammate performs?

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Feedback on Progression

Roles & Skills

What should this teammate do more of or less of to grow professionally or better the company?

Collaboration

What should this teammate stop, start, or continue doing when working alongside others?

People Matters

How has this teammate best helped develop others around them, or built up our talent & membership? How can they do better? What should they stop?

Questions

What questions do you have about this teammate’s roles, work, development, or performance in general?

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Feedback on Development

Remarkable

What does this teammate do that you find remarkable? What do you brag about them to other people?

Obstacles

What do you see getting in this teammate’s way?

Challenges

Assume you’re working with this teammate for the next 10 years. What behavior isn’t a big deal now, but will get challenging over that time?

Opportunities

What areas would you like to see this teammate develop in? How could they be more helpful to you or the team?

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We’ve been running reviews like this for the past year. The best part is that any Parabol employee can propose improvements to the process that can be sponsored by our leadership team. How do you gather peer feedback at your organization? We’d love to hear what works for you.

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Originally published as Parabol Friday Ship #326