After checking your review settings, you need to create a question template(s) for your cycle. You can use our default 15Five question template or you can create a custom template with your own questions. Self+manager reviews need their own template. Peer reviews need their own template. Upward reviews need their own template. You could have up to 3 different templates in one review cycle.
Note
If you are using the default 15Five question template(s), you will not need to create a question template. You will choose the default template(s) when creating your cycle. To learn more about the default question templates, see this article.
Best-Self Review® example questions
Need some inspiration for questions to ask in your company's review cycle? Check out the list below!
- What are your top 3 strengths?
- What are your top 3 weaknesses?
- What do you feel went well this quarter/year?
- What would you like to accomplish between now and your next review?
- What are the challenges you feel we face as a business this next quarter/year?
- How can we be of more support to you in your role?
- What do you see as the next steps for your career growth?
- What are the top 3 skills you would like to improve on?
- What do you want to do differently next quarter/year?
- Do you have the tools you need to perform your job?
- How can management support your role going forward?
- What position would you like to migrate towards in the future with this company?
- Are there any concerns you have with the company going forward?
Create a question template(s)
1. Click on Best-Self Review® from the left navigation.
2. Click on the 'Question templates' tab at the top of the page.
3. Click on the Create a new template button.
4. Name your template.
5. Choose the reviews for which the template should apply under 'Template type'.
6. Name each of the sections using the ... and Edit title, or leave the titles as the defaults; whichever fits better for your team.
If changing the titles, please read the tooltips to ensure your new title aligns with the goal of the section in question.
7. Under each section, enter your questions, values, competencies, and private manager assessment.
8. For the 'Questions' section: Click Add a new question and fill in the question field.
Tip
If you want to ask a question on the manager review only (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.9. To make the question optional, change the answer format for your question, or set the question as group specific, click on Show advanced options. Answer formats options are Text, Yes/No, Opinion scale, Multiple choice.
10. For the 'Company values' section: Click Add a company value.
Note
If you have not added your company values on the Reviews settings page, you will need to do that before adding a company value question.
To change the answer format for your question or to set the question as group specific, click on 'Show advanced options'.
11. For the 'Competencies' section: Click Add a competency.
Note
Competencies can be added while creating a question template (which is what you're currently doing) or beforehand on the Reviews settings page.
Select the competency you want to add a question for or create a new one. Add a competency description. Select who the competency is for.
Things to note about competencies:
- There is no limit to how few or how many competencies you can include in a question template.
- Competencies can be added to Self+manager or Peer review templates. At this time, competencies cannot be added to Upward templates.
- If your company uses groups, you can add competencies for specific groups when creating your question template. For example, if only Leadership should be asked competency questions, add the competencies for the group 'Leadership' on the self+manager template.
- Competency responses will appear on the Summary for managers to review before sharing results with their direct reports/participants. The competency results and assessment will also be available to participants, managers, and review admin in the 'My/Team's/Company's Results' tab.
- At this time, we do not have the option for individual competencies. We will continue to work on improving this functionality.
To change your scale labels and to add label descriptions, click on 'Show scale labels'. Minimum number of points on scale is 3. Maximum number of points on scale is 9.
12. Click on Create template.
13. Review your questions and if all is well, click Looks good.
14. Now you are ready to create a review cycle!
Clone/duplicate a question template
1. Click on Best-Self Review® from the left navigation.
2. Click on the 'Question templates' tab at the top of the page.
3. Click on the ... next to the template you would like to duplicate.
4. Then click Clone.
Re-order questions
If you have already added your questions and want to adjust the order in which they appear, you can drag and drop them into the order you want.
1. Click on Best-Self Review® in the left navigation of 15Five.
2. Click 'Question templates' in the top navigation bar.
3. To edit a template, click on ..., then Edit. If the edit option is not available, it is because the template is currently in use and cannot be edited.
4. To reorder, just click on the six dots to the left of each question and drag!
5. Finalize your review templates and you are ready to start a review cycle.
Private manager assessment
Private manager assessment questions are also managed through these question templates. The 'Private manager assessment' piece of Manager reviews is only visible to the manager who completed the review and the review admins. Additionally, the 'Private manager assessment' includes future focused questions inspired by research from Deloitte and highlighted in the April 2015 HBR article, Reinventing Performance Management, by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall. Questions 1 - 3 are taken directly from Deloitte, question 4 has been adjusted and Question 5 is 15Five's addition.
Next steps:
Help Center article 🧠: Create a review cycle for your team