Create a custom question template

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Create a custom question template 🧑‍💻

This section walks through the steps of creating a custom question template. If you leave the question template creation page at any point, it will appear in the 'Draft question templates' section of the 'Template configuration' page so you can continue working on it a later date.

1. Click on Best-Self Review® from the left navigation.
   
2. Click to open the 'Template configuration' tab at the top of the page.
   
3. In the 'Question templates' section, click Create a new template.
   
4. Name your template.
   
5. Choose which type of review you would like to create a question template for— either self & manager, peer, or upward.
   
   
   • Self & manager reviews are when employees review their own performance and managers also review employees' performance.
   • Peer reviews are when peers review an employee's performance.
   • Upward reviews are when employees review their managers' performance.
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   Note

   If your review cycle includes either self reviews or manager reviews (but not both), select the "Self & manager review" question template option. When adding questions, you'll be asked to provide both a self and manager question. To ask a question only in the manager review (or only in the self review), leave the other field blank.

6. You're now in the "Questions" section, where you can add questions to your template. Enter your questions under each section, using the drop-downs below for guidance.
   
   Growth & development

   Included in self & manager, peer, and upward review question templates.

   This section should contain strengths-based development questions that serve to increase motivation and performance. Example questions include:

   • What are your top three strengths and how did you apply them to your work since your last review?
   • What are up to three wins you want to celebrate since your last review? What led to those wins?
   • Where would you like to improve? What are up to three opportunities for growth to focus on before your next review? What next steps do you want to take?
   • Do you have the tools you need to perform your job?
   • How can management support your role going forward?

   To add a question to this section, click Add a new question and type your question text. To customize your question, click Show advanced options.

   Under "Who is this question for?" select the audience for the question. Should it be asked to all participants, or only certain groups?

   Under "Select a question type" decide whether you want the question to be a Text, Yes/No, Opinion scale, or Multiple Choice question. If you select Opinion Scale, please note that, by default, questions are rated on a 1-5 scale (Strongly disagree > Strongly agree). You have the option to change these scale labels and add label descriptions in the following section. You can also add or remove scale points; the minimum number of points on scale is 3, and the maximum number of points on scale is 7. If you choose Multiple Choice, you can add up to 20 answer options.

   [Only relevant for opinion-scale questions] Under "Select an answer template" select which answer template you want to apply to the question. Answer templates replace the default opinion-scale labels (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree). Learn more about creating and utilizing answer templates in our "Create an answer template" Help Center article.

   In this section you can also make the question optional by turning off the 'Required question' option, as well as allow participants the option to provide written context by turning on the 'Include field for optional content' option.

   Company values

   Included in self & manager, peer, and upward review question templates.

   This section should contain questions about your company's values, and serve to see how your people live out company values in their work. If you'd like to ask company value questions, you should first enter your company's values in 15Five. These questions typically contain a prefix like, “Rate [Name]'s contribution to the company value:”. After typing your prefix, you can select a company value from the dropdown menu.

   To add a question to this section, click Add a new question. Write a prefix like, “Rate [Name]'s contribution to the company value:” and select a value from the dropdown. The company values that appear in the dropdown list are the same ones that you set in your company's review settings (in-app link).

   To change the answer format for your question or to set the question as group-specific, click Show advanced options.

   By default, company values are rated on a 1-5 scale (Strongly disagree > Strongly agree). If you prefer to use a different answer scale, you can do so under "Select an answer template". All custom answer templates your organization has created will appear in this dropdown. Learn more about creating and utilizing answer templates in our "Create an answer template" Help Center article.

   If you'd like to give participants the ability to add a text response in addition to their rating, turn on the 'Include field for optional content' option. You can also make the question optional by scrolling to the bottom of the box and turning off the 'Required question' option.

   Competencies

   Included in self & manager and peer review question templates.

   This section should contain questions about competencies: measurable patterns of knowledge, skills, abilities, behaviors, and other characteristics that an individual needs to perform work roles successfully. The intent of this section is to measure how your people are performing in their role.

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   Note

   Competencies should be imported to 15Five before creating competency questions.

   1. Click Configure competencies to manage competency settings.
      
   2. Decide whether you want to include role-based, group, and/or company competencies in the question template.
      
      
      
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      Note

      Competency questions are automatically generated based on each matching competency uploaded to 15Five. Let's say there's an Account Executive named Mike in your organization who is a member of the Sales Leadership group. If you choose to include all competency types in the review and you've uploaded 8 role-based competencies for AEs, 8 group competencies for the Sales Leadership group, and 8 general company-wide competencies, reviews written about Mike will contain 24 competency questions (which may be a bit much). Keep this in mind when selecting which competency types to include in your question template. You can view all uploaded competencies on the Competencies and Paths settings page.

   3. Choose the answer template you'd like to apply to competency questions. Answer templates define the rating options that review writers can select from when answering rating-scale questions. The default 'Recommended' template uses a 1-5 scale (Never demonstrates > Always demonstrates). If you'd prefer a different rating scale, you can select a custom answer template from the dropdown, which includes all templates created by your organization. For more details on creating and using answer templates, visit our "Create an answer template" Help Center article.
      
   4. Toggle on/off custom options.
      
      
      • Questions are required is selected by default and means that review writers are required to answer competency questions. You can make competency questions optional by toggling this option off.
      • Include field for comments gives review writers the option to add a text response in addition to their rating.
      • Require comments requires review writers to provide a written comment about why they selected a specific rating. This option helps ensure that feedback is more thorough and detailed so that it can be used to directly support employee development.
   5. If desired, make changes to the answer template you selected in step #3. The scales listed will default to those of the selected answer template, but can make changes— including adding/removing labels, changing scale labels, and changing scale descriptions— as needed.
      
   6. When you're done, click Create question.
      

   Manager Effectiveness

   Included in self & manager and upward review question templates.

   This section allows you to add 15Five's eight manager effectiveness questions to your review cycle. Adding these questions to a review cycle allows you to measure manager effectiveness and, upon cycle completion, pull the data into the configuration for the Manager Effectiveness Indicator feature. These questions cannot be altered, as they're used for benchmarking. Each manager effectiveness question asks participants to reflect on how often a manager demonstrates the following competencies on a five-point likert scale from always demonstrates to never demonstrates. Learn more about running a manager effectiveness review cycle.

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   Tip

   If the manager effectiveness questions are added to a self and manager review question template, only those who are managers will see the manager effectiveness questions within the self review.

    

   Objectives

   Included in self & manager review question templates only.

   The 'Objectives' section is where you can create questions focused around objective and key result performance, and will only appear in self & manager question templates if the 'Objectives' option is enabled in your company's review settings (in-app link).

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   Note

   If you've renamed the 'Objectives' feature in your account, the custom name will appear here instead of 'Objectives'. As with other question template sections, you are able to rename the 'Objectives' section by clicking ... to the right of 'Objectives' and selecting 'Edit title' from the dropdown menu.

   To create a new objectives question, click Add a new question. Type out the self review question- for example, "How was your completion of all objectives and key results you owned?"- and your manager review question- for example, "How was [Name]'s completion of all objectives and key results they owned?" Click Show advanced options to customize your question.

   Under, "Who is this question for?", select the audience for the question. Should it be asked to all participants, or only certain groups?

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   Note

   When creating a review cycle, you will be asked to provide a timeframe for objectives that should be included in objective-specific questions. For example- if you select "Jan 1-Dec 31” as the timeframe, all applicable Objectives and Key Results that have start and end dates within January 1st-December 31st will be included. Even if a person is included in "Who is this question for?", they will not see objectives questions unless they own at least one objective or key result that falls within that set timeframe.

   Under "Ask a question for every objective?", decide whether you want this question to be asked only once in reference to all OKRs the participant owned, or once for each individual objective and key result they owned. For example- if a person owned two objectives and three key results and you check this box, the review participant will be asked five separate questions: one for each objective and key result they owned.

   Under "Select a question type" decide whether you want the question to be an Opinion scale or Text question. If you select Opinion Scale, please note that, by default, objective questions are rated on a 1-5 scale (Slightly below expectations > Significantly above expectations). You have the option to change these scale labels and add label descriptions in the following section. You can also add or remove scale points; the minimum number of points on scale is 3, and the maximum number of points on scale is 7.

   In this section you can also make the question optional by turning off the 'Required question' option, as well as give participants the ability to add a text response in addition to their rating (if the question is an opinion scale question) by turning on the 'Include field for optional content' option.

   Private Manager Assessment

   Included in self & manager review question templates only.

   The 'Private manager assessment' section is a section in which managers answer future-focused questions about their direct reports.

   Click Add a new assessment to create a custom question, or click 15Five's assessment to use 15Five's default, science-backed private manager assessment questions. If you choose the latter option, you can still add additional, custom questions to the assessment by clicking Add a new question at the bottom of the section.

   The default questions in the Private manager assessment are:

   • [Name] is ready for a promotion today (Yes/No)
   • [Name] is at risk for low performance (Yes/No)
   • Given what I know of [Name]’s current performance, and if it were my money, I would award them the highest possible increase and bonus (5-point opinion scale, Strongly disagree > Strongly agree)
   • Given how well I know [Name] works with others, I would always want them on my team (5-point opinion scale, Strongly disagree > Strongly agree)
   • Given what I know of [Name]’s performance, if [Name] got a job offer somewhere else, I would feel (5-point opinion scale, Distressed > Relieved)

   To add a question to this section, click Add a new question and type your question text. To customize your question, click Show advanced options.

   Under "Select a question type" decide whether you want the question to be a Text, Yes/No, Opinion scale, or Multiple Choice question. If you select Opinion Scale, please note that, by default, questions are rated on a 1-5 scale (Strongly disagree > Strongly agree). You have the option to change these scale labels and add label descriptions in the following section. You can also add or remove scale points; the minimum number of points on scale is 3, and the maximum number of points on scale is 7. If you choose Multiple Choice, you can add up to 20 answer options.

   In this section you can also make the question optional by turning off the 'Required question' option, as well as allow participants the option to provide written context by turning on the 'Include field for optional content' option.

   Manager expectations

   Included in upward review question templates only.

   The 'Manager expectations' section contains questions that measure the effectiveness of their manager, based on set expectations. To add a question to this section, click Add a new expectation.

   To use 15Five's default expectations, click 15Five's expectations. The expectations included in this section are:

   • [Name] is a positive energizer. They uplift and boost my mood and leave me feeling elevated, energized and motivated.
   • [Name] clarifies the expectations and responsibilities of my role and I know what is expected of me at work on a regular basis.
   • [Name] helps me understand my top strengths and align my work with those strengths.
   • [Name] cares about me both personally and professionally.
   • [Name] and I have regular and recurring one-on-one meetings.

   To customize your question, click Show advanced options.

   Under "Who is this question for?" select the audience for the question. Should it be asked to all participants or only certain groups?

   Under "Select a question type" decide whether you want the question to be a Text, Yes/No, Opinion scale, or Multiple Choice question. If you select Opinion Scale, please note that, by default, questions are rated on a 1-5 scale (Strongly disagree > Strongly agree). You have the option to change these scale labels and add label descriptions in the following section. You can also add or remove scale points; the minimum number of points on the scale is 3, and the maximum number of points on the scale is 7. If you choose Multiple Choice, you can add up to 20 answer options.

   In this section, you can also make the question optional by turning off the 'Required question' option, as well as allow participants the option to provide written context by turning on the 'Include field for optional content' option.

7. Finish editing, organizing, and previewing your question template using the options below.
   
   Edit a question section title or description

   Choose whether you'd like to use the default name and description for each section, or edit them by clicking '...' to the right of the section name and selecting Edit title and description from the dropdown. If you don't want to use a section, simply don't add questions to it.
   
   If you're changing a section title, read the tooltip next to that section by hovering over the ? icon to make sure the new title aligns with the goal of the section.

   

   Reorder question sections

   You can customize the order that question template sections appear in by hovering over the section title and using the six dots to its left to drag and drop the section.

   

   Preview what the question template will look like

   Preview what the question template will look like by clicking the Preview option at the bottom of the page.

   
8. When you're ready, click Create template.
   
9. A popup will appear for you to review your questions. You will not be able to make changes to your template once it's associated with a review cycle, so make sure to check it twice! When you're satisfied, click Looks good.
   
10. The question template will now appear in the "Question templates" section of the Template Configuration tab.

Next steps 🐾

If you plan to utilize Performance Ratings+ in your review cycle, your next step is to create a Performance Ratings+ template. If you don't plan to utilize performance ratings, you can skip this step and move on to creating your review cycle.

Related resources 📖

• How to create a Best-Self Review® cycle
• How to manage Best-Self Review® feature settings
• How to add competencies for your organization
• How to add company values for your organization
• Video walkthrough: How to create a Best-Self Review® question template (4 min 35 sec)
• Role-based guide: I'm a review admin