Performance Review Examples (Good, Better, Best)

Why Examples Matter

Performance reviews ask you to describe your work. Most people default to listing duties. Strong performers describe impact.

The difference isn't talent or achievement level. It's how you frame your work. The same accomplishment can sound routine or exceptional, depending on how you present it.

These examples show the progression from good to better to best. Use them as templates, but customize them with your actual achievements and context.

Communication Examples

Good

"I communicated with stakeholders about project updates and kept the team informed of changes."

Why it's good: Shows you communicated. That's the baseline.

Why it's not great: Vague. No specifics about frequency, method, or impact. Could mean you sent one email or had daily standups.

Better

"I maintained regular communication with 5+ stakeholders across engineering, product, and design teams. Provided weekly status updates and proactively flagged risks, preventing 2 potential delays."

Why it's better: Specific numbers (5+ stakeholders, weekly updates). Shows proactive behavior (flagging risks). Includes outcome (prevented delays).

Why it's not best: Still focuses on the activity (communicating) rather than the impact of that communication.

Best

"Established a communication cadence that kept 5+ cross-functional stakeholders aligned throughout the project lifecycle. By providing weekly status updates and proactively flagging risks, I prevented 2 potential delays worth $50K in saved rework. Stakeholder satisfaction scores improved from 3.2 to 4.6."

Why it's best: Shows the system (communication cadence), the scope (5+ stakeholders), the proactive behavior (risk flagging), the quantifiable outcome ($50K saved), and the measurable impact (satisfaction scores). Demonstrates strategic thinking, not just task completion.

Leadership Examples

Good

"I helped mentor junior team members and provided guidance when they had questions."

Why it's good: Shows leadership intent. Mentoring is valuable.

Why it's not great: Passive language ("helped," "provided"). No metrics. Unclear impact.

Better

"Mentored 3 junior developers, providing code reviews and weekly 1-on-1s. Helped them ramp up 40% faster than average, with 2 receiving promotions within 6 months."

Why it's better: Specific scope (3 developers). Clear activities (code reviews, 1-on-1s). Quantifiable outcome (40% faster ramp-up). Measurable result (2 promotions).

Why it's not best: Still uses weak verbs ("helped," "providing"). Could show more strategic leadership thinking.

Best

"Built a mentorship program for 3 junior developers that reduced average ramp-up time by 40% and resulted in 2 promotions within 6 months. Created structured onboarding materials and weekly 1-on-1 framework that other teams adopted, scaling the program to 12 developers company-wide."

Why it's best: Shows you built a system, not just mentored individuals. Demonstrates scalability (other teams adopted it). Shows broader impact (12 developers). Uses strong action verbs ("built," "created," "scaling"). Proves leadership through system-building, not just one-on-one help.

Problem Solving Examples

Good

"I identified a problem with our deployment process and worked with the team to fix it."

Why it's good: Shows problem-solving initiative. You didn't just report issues.

Why it's not great: Vague problem ("deployment process"). Unclear solution. No metrics or impact.

Better

"Identified that our deployment process was causing 3-4 production incidents per month. Worked with DevOps team to implement automated testing, reducing incidents by 75%."

Why it's better: Specific problem (3-4 incidents per month). Clear solution (automated testing). Quantifiable outcome (75% reduction).

Why it's not best: Focuses on the problem-solving activity rather than the business impact of solving it.

Best

"Diagnosed root cause of 3-4 monthly production incidents: lack of automated testing in deployment pipeline. Partnered with DevOps to implement comprehensive test suite, reducing incidents by 75% and saving 20+ engineering hours per month. This improvement became standard practice across all teams, preventing an estimated $200K in potential downtime costs annually."

Why it's best: Shows diagnostic thinking (root cause analysis). Demonstrates collaboration (partnered with DevOps). Quantifies multiple impacts (75% reduction, 20+ hours saved, $200K in prevented costs). Shows scalability (became standard practice). Connects technical work to business outcomes.

How to Customize Examples

These examples are templates. Customize them with your actual work:

1. Replace the activity with your specific work 2. Add your real numbers and metrics 3. Include your actual context (team size, project scope, company goals) 4. Connect to business outcomes (revenue, costs, time, quality) 5. Show progression (before/after, baseline/comparison)

Customization example:

Template: "Reduced [metric] by [percentage] through [action], resulting in [outcome]."

Your version: "Reduced customer churn by 22% through improved onboarding flow and proactive check-ins, resulting in $150K in retained revenue and 40% improvement in customer satisfaction scores."

The structure stays the same. The specifics make it yours.

Common Patterns in Best Examples

Pattern 1: System over task Not "I did X" but "I built a system that enables X"

Pattern 2: Quantified impact Not "improved" but "improved by 35%"

Pattern 3: Business connection Not just technical outcomes but business outcomes (revenue, costs, time)

Pattern 4: Scalability Not just individual impact but team or company-wide impact

Pattern 5: Before/after Shows baseline and improvement, not just the end state

Pattern 6: Collaboration Not "I did" but "I partnered with" or "I led team to"

Pattern 7: Proactive behavior Not just responding but anticipating and preventing

How HiveResume Helps

Writing strong performance review examples is easier when you have documented achievements to draw from. Instead of trying to remember and frame your work during review season, you pull from your achievement library.

HiveResume helps you:

• Document achievements with metrics as they happen
• Format achievements for performance review narratives
• Generate review responses from your achievement data
• Build a library of examples you can reuse across reviews

Stop rewriting your performance story every review cycle. Document it once, format it for reviews, and focus on impact, not memory.