15Five offers three options for adding questions to a review cycle: using one of 15Five's default question templates, cloning and editing an existing template, and creating a custom question template from scratch. This article walks through the process of creating a custom question template from scratch, which allows you to fully customize the review experience for your team.

In this article, you will learn how to...

Access and availability

⛔️ Required access to Best-Self Review® and feature settings.
👥 This article is relevant to Review admins.
📦 This feature is available in the Perform and Total Platform pricing packages.

🎥 Are you more of a visual learner? Check out our "Create a Best-Self Review question template" walkthrough video.


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.
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  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

    Are you planning to create a review cycle that includes either self reviews or manager reviews (and not the other)? If so, select the "Self & manager review" question template option, and only the correct questions will be pulled in to your review cycle. That said, regardless of whether or not you plan to use the template for a self review only or manager review only, you must assign at least one question to the "self review" section and one to the "manager review" section."

  6. You're now in the "Questions" section, where you can add questions to your template. You'll notice that this section is split into sub-sections of questions: 1) Growth & development, 2) Company values, 3) Competencies (included in self & manager and peer question templates only), 4) Objectives (included in self & manager question templates only), 5) Private manager assessment (included in self & manager question templates only), and 6) Manager expectations (included in upward question templates only). 
  7. Enter your questions under each section. Please refer to the next section of this article ("Add section-specific questions") for section-specific steps on adding and customizing questions.
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    Note

    When creating a self & manager question template, you'll be asked to provide both a self and manager question each time you click the Add a new question button. If you want to ask a question on the manager review only (i.e. you do not want the question to appear on the self review), you can leave the self review question field blank and only fill in the manager review question field (and vice versa).

  8. 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.
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    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.
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  9. 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.
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  10. Once you've added all desired questions, click on Create template
  11. 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.

Add and customize section-specific questions

There are six question sections that may appear on a question template: 1) Growth & development, 2) Company values, 3) Competencies, 4) Objectives, 5) Private manager assessment, and 6) Manager expectations. Continue reading for specifics on how to add questions to each of these sections, possible customization, and notes/tips for success.

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 templateselect 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 job competencies. Job competencies are 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. Competencies should be imported to 15Five before creating competency questions.

Click Configure competencies to manage competency settings. You can choose to include role-based, group, and/or company competencies in the question template.

By default, competencies are rated on a 1-5 scale (Never demonstrates > Always demonstrates). 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.

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Tip

We recommend creating clearly defined competencies, whether company-wide or role-specific. As you add competencies, focus on the “how” instead of the “what”, as recommended in Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS).

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 featureThese 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.

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Tip

Once you've finished creating the question templates for your review cycle, the next step is to create a Performance Ratings+ template, formula, and rubric. If you don't plan to utilize performance ratings, you can skip this step and move on to creating your review cycle. Check out our "What to expect: I'm a review admin" Help Center article for a full list of the steps you should take as a review admin to create and hold a Best-Self Review® cycle from start to finish.


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