Only review admins can create and manage question templates. A custom template lets you control exactly which sections and questions appear for each review type in a cycle.
Before You Begin
Confirm the following before creating a template:
- Your role is Review Admin.
- You have added company values to 15Five if you plan to include the Company values section. See Manage company values.
- You have uploaded competencies if you plan to include the Competencies section. See Upload and manage competencies.
- If this template will be used in a cycle set to Enable 15Five AI, include at least one open-text question. AI drafting applies to open-text questions only, and a self or manager template built entirely from rating-scale questions cannot be used with Enable 15Five AI — 15Five shows an error when that template is selected. See Understand performance review question templates.
The table below shows which sections are available by template type:
| Section | Self & Manager | Peer | Upward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Growth & development | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Company values | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Competencies | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Objectives | ✓ | — | — |
| Private manager assessment | ✓ | — | — |
| Manager effectiveness | — | — | ✓ |
Steps
- Navigate to Reviews in the left sidebar.
- Select Question templates.
- Click Create new template.
- Enter a name for the template.
- Select the review type: Self & Manager, Peer, or Upward.
- Click Add section to open the section picker.
- Select each section you want to include.
- For each added section, click Add question to enter your questions.
- Set the response format for each question (for example, text, rating scale). In a cycle with AI-Assisted Reviews enabled, only the questions you set to a text format can receive an AI draft.
- Click Save template when all sections and questions are complete.
- To apply the template to a cycle, open the Review cycles tab and select your cycle.
- In the cycle setup, locate the review type that matches your template.
- Select your new template from the Question template dropdown.
- Save the cycle settings.
If Something Goes Wrong
| Issue | Check | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| A section does not appear in the picker | Confirm the section is available for your selected review type (see table above) | Change the review type, or accept that the section is not supported for that type |
| Competencies section is empty after adding | Confirm competencies have been uploaded to 15Five | Upload competencies before returning to the template |
| Company values section is empty after adding | Confirm company values have been added to 15Five | Add company values, then return to the template |
| Template does not appear in the cycle dropdown | Confirm the template is saved and the review type matches | Save the template, then verify you are selecting the correct review type dropdown in the cycle |
| Enable 15Five AI cannot be selected for a cycle using this template | Check whether the template contains any question set to a text response format | Add at least one open-text question, select a template that has one, or choose Disable 15Five AI or the legacy experience |
| A writer in an AI-enabled cycle has no AI drafts | The cause is usually the drafting audience, the review type, or the question type rather than the template as a whole | See Troubleshoot: A review writer has no AI drafts for the full diagnostic path |
| Question description formatting looks broken after pasting from Word or another editor | Content copied from external editors carries hidden rich-text formatting that can display incorrectly after saving | Paste content as plain text (Windows: Ctrl+Shift+V, Mac: Cmd+Shift+V), then apply formatting using the built-in rich-text toolbar in the description editor |
Not Covered Here
This article does not cover cloning an existing template, editing a default template, or configuring competency and company value records.