Competency questions are auto-generated from competencies already uploaded to 15Five. Configuring them in a question template controls which competency types appear, who answers them, and how reviewers rate and comment.
Before You Begin
- Competencies must be imported to 15Five before you configure competency questions. Visit the Competencies and Paths settings page to verify uploads.
- Be intentional about which competency types you include. If a reviewee matches role-based, group, and company competencies simultaneously, all three sets generate separate questions. A reviewee with 8 questions per type will have 24 competency questions total.
- Competency questions are rating-scale questions. In a cycle with AI-Assisted Reviews enabled, the review writer always selects the rating and 15Five AI never selects one. If you turn on Include field for comments, that comment field is open text and can receive an AI draft.
- You must already be inside a question template's Questions section. See Create a custom question template to reach this point.
Steps
- Scroll to the Competencies section of the template.
- Click Configure competencies.
- Select the competency types to include: role-based, group, and/or company.
- Under review audience, choose self reviews, manager reviews, or both.
- Under Select an answer template, choose the rating scale for competency questions.
- To use the default scale, leave Recommended selected (four-point scale, Never demonstrates → Always demonstrates).
- To use a custom scale, select one from the dropdown.
- Review the scale labels in the lower section; edit labels or descriptions as needed.
- To add or remove scale points, use the scale editor (minimum 3, maximum 7 points).
- Under toggle options, leave Questions are required on to make competency questions mandatory.
- To make competency questions optional, toggle Questions are required off.
- Toggle Include field for comments on to let reviewers add a text response alongside their rating.
- Toggle Require comments on to make a written comment mandatory for every rating.
- Click Create question.
In a cycle with AI-Assisted Reviews enabled, the comment field added in step 12 is the only part of a competency question that can receive an AI draft. The rating itself is always selected by the review writer.
If Something Goes Wrong
| Issue | Check | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No competency types appear in step 3 | Competencies may not be uploaded | Go to Competencies and Paths settings and confirm competencies exist |
| Custom answer templates don't appear in the dropdown | Templates may not have been created yet | Create an answer template first, then return to this step |
| Require comments toggle is unavailable | Include field for comments is off | Toggle Include field for comments on first, then enable Require comments |
| Competency questions don't appear for a specific reviewee | Reviewee may not match any uploaded competency | Confirm the reviewee has an assigned role, group, or company competency in Competencies and Paths |
| A review writer sees no AI draft for a competency question | Confirm whether the writer is looking at the rating or at the comment field | This is expected for the rating — 15Five AI never selects a rating. Turn on Include field for comments if you want an open-text field that can receive a draft |
Not Covered Here
This article does not cover creating or editing the competencies themselves — see Competencies and Paths for that workflow.