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Create and launch a review cycle

Ashlyn Wright
15Five Knowledge Team

This article walks Review Admins through the exact steps to create a Best-Self Review® cycle in 15Five. During setup, you will select review types, participants, question templates, and set milestones (due dates) that determine the review timeline.

In this article, you will learn...

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.

1. Create a New Review Cycle

  1. Navigate to Best-Self Review® in the left-hand navigation.

    BSR.png

  2. Click Add review cycle.


    💡

    Tip

    Want to reuse settings from an existing cycle? You can clone a previous review cycle instead.

  3. A pop-up will appear asking: “What type of Review cycle would you like to run?”

    Best-Self Review® cycles · 15Five - Google Chrome .jpg

    • Manual – run reviews exactly when you need them, like annual or mid-year cycles. Best for planned, organization-wide evaluations tied to growth, calibration, or compensation.

    • Automatic – reviews launch based on milestones such as hire dates or anniversaries, ensuring feedback always happens on time. Learn more here: Run Automatic Reviews by Hire Date and Employee Milestones

    For this setup, select Send Manually then click Next: Customize button to move forward.

  4. You will be redirected to Review cycle setup page. Enter a cycle name and click Continue.Select-Cycle-Name.png

2. Select Review Types

  1. Choose which review types to include:

    Review-Types.png
    • Self: Participants write reviews assessing their own performance.
    • Manager: Managers write reviews assessing the performance of their direct reports.
    • Peer: Peers write reviews assessing the performance of their colleagues.
    • Upward: Direct reports write reviews assessing the performance of their managers.

  2. If you include Peer reviews, choose whether they are:

    • Participant-initiated - participants will nominate peers to complete a peer review about them. This is the default and most common option.

    • Peer-initiated - peers initiate a review by selecting participants they wish to write a peer review for.

      Select-Peer-Review-Type.png

  3. Click Continue.

3. Add Cycle Collaborators

  1. Select any individuals who will help administer this review cycle. Cycle collaborators have the same permissions as review admins but they are contained to a specific cycle. 

    Add-Cycle-Collaborator.png

  2. Click Continue.

4. Plan your review timeline

In this step, you’ll set the start date, cycle duration, and all milestone due dates that make up your review timeline. Milestones automatically trigger reminders and notifications for participants and reviewers.

Set your cycle start date

  1. Select the Start date — this is when the review cycle will begin.

  2. Click to choose the date from the calendar.

Set your cycle duration

  1. Enter how long the cycle should run.

  2. The system will automatically generate milestone timing based on the number of days you choose.

Most organizations complete their review cycles in ~25–30 days, but you can adjust this to fit your team’s needs.

Enable or disable calibrations (optional)

If your cycle includes manager reviews, you’ll see the option to include Calibration sessions.

  • Toggle Include calibration sessions in this review cycle on or off.

  • If enabled, a Calibrations due by milestone will appear in your timeline.

Use the “Timeline at a glance”

The timeline displays all milestones visually across a calendar-style layout.

Here, you can:

• Adjust milestone dates by dragging

  • Click and drag any milestone bar directly on the timeline to update its due date.

• Update milestone dates manually

  • If you prefer, you can edit dates by clicking the pencil icon instead of dragging.

This gives you a quick and flexible way to finalize all milestone dates, including:

  • Self reviews due

  • Peer reviews due

  • Upward reviews due

  • Manager reviews due

  • Calibrations due

  • Share & finalize reviews

(Only milestones relevant to your selected review types will appear.)
drag-review-due-dates.png

Choose whether the cycle should repeat

At the bottom of the timeline section, choose how often you want the review to repeat:

  • Monthly

  • Quarterly

  • Bi-annually

  • Annually

  • No, this is a one-time review

If you select a repeat cadence, 15Five will automatically notify Review Admins when it’s time to launch the next cycle.
repeat-review-cycle.png

When you’re done

Click Continue to proceed with cycle setup.

5. Choose Review Participants

  1. You can choose to include or exclude any employee, group, or account status (active, invited, and created). You can also limit participation by hire date. If there are groups or individuals you don't want to be participants or write reviews in review cycles, you can globally exclude them.
  2. Select who should be included in the cycle. Options include:
    • All active, invited, and created users
    • All active users
    • Everyone except selected people or groups
    • Only selected people or groups
    • Filtering by hire date rangeSelect-Participants.png
  3. Remember: People who are not participants will not have reviews written about them, but may still be asked to write manager, upward, and/or peer reviews about someone who is a participant.
  4. Click Continue.

6. Configure Objectives (Optional)

Decide whether or not you'd like to include objectives to allow participants to assess, track, and directly connect objective data to overall performance while filling out reviews. 
Include-Objectives.png

  1. Choose whether to include Objectives.

  2. Select which types to include.

  3. In the next step when you select a Question Template, you'll choose a timeframe for which Objectives to include.

  4. Click Continue.

7. Select Question Templates

  1. Choose a question template for each review type. You can use 15Five's default question templates or create custom question templates. Learn more in our "Decide how you want to add questions to your review cycle" article. 

    Select-Question-Templates.png

  2. Click View to preview a template’s questions.

  3. If prompted after selecting a template, choose the Objective timeframe. All Objectives with start and end dates within the time range you select will be included. Only people who own at least one objective or key result in this timeframe will see Objective-related questions.

    Include-Objectives-Review.png

  4. Click Continue.

8. Include a Performance Rating Formula (optional)

When enabled, Performance Ratings+ automates a score for each participant based on results received in manager and/or self reviews. Learn more.
performance-rating-formula-review-setup.png

  1. Select a rating formula from the dropdown. To learn more about managing or creating performance rating formulas, see this article.

  2. Choose a rubric. To create or manage a performance rating rubric, see this article.

  3. Set a rating visibility.

  4. Choose whether to include additional manager reviews in the ratings calculation.

  5. Click Continue.

9. Review the settings and setup summary

  1. Here, you'll see all the setup you just customized in a summary. Confirm the details, including the Kickoff Email being sent. If any settings need to be adjusted, you can scroll back up to the relevant setting, or click "Edit" next to the setting:

    review-summary-setup.pngreview-summary-setup2.png
  2. Save your changes. If you navigate back to the Best-Self Review® dashboard, you'll now see this review appear in your Upcoming Cycles section. The review cycle will go live automatically on the start-date you selected and participants will receive a kick-off email if you selected the option to include one when confirming review cycle settings.

     

    :
    upcoming-review-cycles.png
  3. What happens next? You can manage your upcoming or active review cycle by selecting the three dots to its right:
    Manage-Review-Cycle.png
  4. You can share the following resources to help your team get started:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 

Q: What additional settings do I need to configure when creating a manager-only or peer-only review cycle?
A:

  • If you choose to hold a manager-only review cycle, you have the option to hide the review cycle from participants. Selecting this option means that the people who are being reviewed by their managers will not see the review cycle in 15Five, will not be able to access any data related to the review cycle, and will not receive notifications.
    If you check the box next to "Hide this review cycle from participants," peer reviews will be manager initiated, meaning that managers will be responsible for nominating peers to write peer reviews about their direct reports.
  • If you want to hold a peer-only review cycle, check out our "Hold a peer-only review cycle" Help Center article for more information.

Q: When are review kickoff emails sent?

A: Kick-off emails are sent at 8:23 am in the company's timezone on the day the cycle begins.

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