Write a manager review with AI Assisted Reviews (Beta)

Ben Pemstein Ben Pemstein
· Updated

AI Assisted Reviews guides managers through four phases when writing a manager review: Reflect, Write, Check, and Discuss. The context layer assembles evidence from 15Five data and connected work tools before you write a single word, and the Review Assistant provides real-time feedback throughout.

This article applies to organizations enrolled in the AI Assisted Reviews beta. If your organization uses the current review experience, see Complete a manager review with AI Assist.

Before you begin

  • Your organization must be enrolled in the AI Assisted Reviews beta.
  • An HR Admin must have enabled AI Assisted Reviews for the current review cycle.
  • You must be assigned to write a manager review for at least one direct report in an active cycle.
  • For the best experience, the direct report's self review should be submitted before you begin your manager review.

Phase 1: Reflect — Review Moments

Before writing, engage with the evidence the context layer has assembled for this person and this review period.

  1. Select Reviews in the left navigation.
  2. Open the active review cycle.
  3. Select Write Reviews and choose the direct report you want to review.
  4. You land in the Reflect phase. Moments are organized by four themes: Strengths and impact, Goal progress, Growth edges, and How they work.
  5. Step through each theme tab:

- Review each Moment — sourced evidence from check-ins, objectives, 1:1 notes, High Fives, Kona insights, peer feedback, and connected work tools.

- Exclude any Moment that is not relevant.

- Add notes to capture your own observations about a theme.

- Upload files — documents, transcripts, or other materials you want included.

  1. When you have reviewed all themes, click Draft review.

Note: The reviewer controls the evidence pool. Only Moments you keep and notes you add feed the draft. The AI does not add evidence you have not seen.

Phase 2: Write — Edit AI-drafted answers

The AI generates draft answers for all review questions grounded in your curated Moments.

  1. You land on the first question with a draft answer in the editor.
  2. Read the draft and rewrite it in your own voice. Every answer is fully editable.
  3. Below each answer, the specific Moments used to generate that response are visible.
  4. Use the Review Assistant on the right side:

- Suggestions tab — live evaluation across four dimensions:

- Actionability: Does the person walk away knowing what to do differently?

- Specificity: Are claims backed by real examples — numbers, dates, situations?

- Balance: Does the review include enough recognition and enough growth feedback?

- Tone consistency: Does the language match the rating?

- Bias row — flagged separately from writing quality because bias affects how a person's career gets documented. Detects: gendered language, personality-trait assessments, affinity bias, attribution bias, effort over outcome, halo/horn effects, leniency inflation, severity deflation, and recency bias.

- Patterns across your answers — surfaces issues that span multiple questions, like recency bias or redundancy across answers.

- Chat tab — a thinking partner scoped to the active question. Use quick prompts: "Draft this from my sources," "Make it more specific," "Check for bias," "Soften the tone," "What's missing?"

  1. Move through all review questions.

Important: Suggestions are advisory. Nothing blocks submission other than completing required questions.

Phase 3: Check — Preview before submitting

Before submitting, the Check phase gives you a final read of the review.

  1. After completing all questions, click Check to enter the preview.
  2. Review the At a glance quality summary — the same dimensions tracked during writing (Actionability, Specificity, Balance, Tone consistency, Bias, Whole-Review Insights), now consolidated into a single view. Each dimension shows a pass or flag with a plain-language explanation.
  3. Click into any flagged dimension to see what is driving the signal.
  4. Below the quality summary, read the Recipient preview — your full review formatted exactly as the employee will receive it, question by question.

- The preview is framed as "How this will land in conversation" — you read the review from the employee's perspective before it is shared.

  1. Decide whether to go back and address flagged items, or submit as-is.

Note: Nothing in the Check phase blocks submission. It is a final moment of clarity, not a gate.

Phase 4: Discuss — Prepare for the performance conversation

After all reviews for a participant are submitted, the Conversation Guide becomes available. It bridges the written review and the live conversation.

  1. Navigate to the completed review.
  2. Open the Conversation Guide.
  3. Review the What to focus on summary — the employee's last cycle rating and trajectory, tenure context, and a ranked list of the most important things to land in the conversation, each linked to sources.
  4. Review the suggested Agenda, organized in five stages:

- Opening — set the tone by inviting the employee's perspective first. Suggested talking points are prompts, not scripts.

- Recognize — surface wins grounded in specific Moments from the review period.

- Growth — address development areas with enough specificity that the employee knows what to do differently.

- Impact — connect the employee's work to what it meant for the team and the organization.

- Closing — land concrete next steps and commitments.

  1. Each stage links to the sources from the review that inform it.
  2. At the close of the agenda, create an IDP (Individual Development Plan) — the guide drafts one from the review's growth areas, next steps, and commitments. Edit it before sharing.
  3. Review the Review Summary — an AI-drafted overview for the employee to read alongside the conversation. Edit it in your own voice before sharing.
  4. Use the Chat assistant at any point — ask how to open the conversation, what to avoid saying, or how to handle moments where the employee might disagree. Responses are grounded in this specific review and employee context.

Note: Disabling "Manager coaching for review conversations" at the cycle level disables the Conversation Guide. Disabling the Conversation Guide also disables auto-generated IDPs.

Related articles

  • What is AI Assisted Reviews? (Beta)
  • Understand Moments in AI Assisted Reviews (Beta)
  • Use the Review Assistant while writing a review (Beta)
  • Use the Conversation Guide after a review (Manager) (Beta)
  • Set up AI Assisted Reviews (Admin) (Beta)
  • Complete a manager review with AI Assist
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