Write a performance review

To: Theo Brandt From: Ana Ruiz, Group PM Date: Annual Review Rating: Meets expectations

*

Hi Theo,

It’s time for your annual review. First, I want to acknowledge your hard work and dedication over the past year. You are an exceptionally reliable Product Manager, and your squad’s execution has been rock-solid.

Strengths

Your delivery engine is second to none. As your engineering lead noted, your specs are clear, you keep the team unblocked, and you never miss a sprint review. Shifting 14 features in a year—with 12 delivered strictly on time—is an impressive output that demonstrates strong project management and technical collaboration.

You are also a fantastic cross-functional partner. Sales loves working with you because you are responsive and action-oriented, and our design lead appreciates your steady communication and positive team dynamic. You cultivate a smooth, friction-free environment for your squad, which is a rare and valuable skill.

Areas for Improvement

While your output and velocity are stellar, we need to evolve how we measure success. Our primary focus this past year was on driving core product metrics, and we fell short of our targets: * Timeline View Adoption: Moved only from 22% to 23% (against a target of 30%). * Time to First Plan: Improved marginally from 3.0 days to 2.6 days (against a target of 1.0).

Additionally, six of the 14 features we shipped are currently used by fewer than 2% of teams. Five of these were direct requests from Sales, including two built for single customers.

As a PM, your role isn't just to say "yes" to stakeholders and push code across the finish line; it’s to interrogate the why, protect our roadmap, and obsess over the impact of what we build. Relying too heavily on outbound feature requests without validating their broader utility led us to invest engineering cycles in low-impact work.

I also want to own my part in this: looking back at our 1:1 notes, I praised your high velocity when you asked if you were on track, and I failed to course-correct early enough regarding the stagnant metric goals. Moving forward, we will be much sharper about tying your weekly execution directly to our key results.

Overall Rating

Meets expectations.

Your execution, reliability, and stakeholder management are top-tier. To reach the next level, you need to shift your mindset from output (features shipped on time) to outcomes (metrics moved and customer value realized).

*

Goals for the Next Half

To help bridge that gap, your goals for the next H are focused on strategic impact and validation:

1. Improve Core Activation Metrics: Reduce the time new teams take to build their first plan from 2.6 days to 1.5 days, focusing on self-serve friction reduction rather than custom feature additions.
2. Increase Feature ROI & Validation: Implement a mandatory pre-build discovery and validation process for all major initiatives. Ensure that 100% of shipped features have a defined success metric and achieve at least 15% adoption within 30 days of launch.
3. Stakeholder Alignment Strategy: Partner with Sales leadership to create a structured framework for evaluating custom requests, ensuring we prioritize scalable product improvements over single-customer concessions without sacrificing our partnership.

Thank you for everything you do for Plotwise, Theo. I’m looking forward to supporting you as you tackle these new challenges in the year ahead.

Best, Ana

Theo Brandt — Annual Review

Manager: Ana Ruiz, Group PM, Plotwise Overall rating: Below expectations

Theo, you brought reliability, clarity, and strong collaboration to the squad this year. You kept delivery moving and earned positive feedback from Engineering, Design, and Sales. However, the product outcomes we committed to were substantially below target. This rating reflects that gap—not a lack of effort or commitment.

I also owe you an acknowledgment: I did not give you clear feedback about that gap during the year. When you asked in Q3 whether you were on track, I said, “Yes, great velocity.” That answer confused delivery progress with goal progress and gave you the wrong signal. We should have discussed the metrics and changed course together. You should not be hearing this assessment for the first time in an annual review.

Strengths

Reliable execution. Your squad shipped 14 features, 12 on time. Your engineering lead highlighted your clear specs, consistent participation in sprint reviews, and ability to keep the team unblocked. These are important strengths that make the squad more effective.

Strong working relationships. Design described you as great to work with, and Sales praised your responsiveness. You listen to partners and follow through on commitments. That trust is an asset to preserve as you become more selective about what the squad builds.

What to work on

Own outcomes, not just delivery. Your two annual goals were: - Increase weekly Timeline usage from 22% to 30%. Actual usage reached 23%. - Reduce time to first plan from 3.0 days to 1.0 day. Actual time reached 2.6 days.

Both metrics improved, but neither came close to its target. For a PM, successful delivery is a means to improving customer outcomes, not the end measure of success. This substantial shortfall is the primary evidence for the Below expectations rating.

Strengthen prioritization and validation. Six of the 14 shipped features are used by fewer than 2% of teams. Low adoption does not automatically mean a feature lacks value, but it requires us to examine whether the investment was justified. Five features came from Sales requests, including two for individual customers. Those requests may have legitimate business value; they still need an explicit rationale relative to our broader goals.

Design’s feedback that we should have tested more before building reinforces this development area. Before committing engineering time, establish the customer problem, intended audience, evidence of demand, and expected impact. After launch, check whether that impact materialized.

Make tradeoffs visible. Being responsive should not mean accepting every request. Bring partners a clear recommendation: what we should build, what we should decline or defer, and why.

Goals for the next half

1. Improve the two core outcomes. Increase weekly Timeline usage from 23% to 26% and reduce time to first plan from 2.6 days to 2.0 days, using consistent measurement definitions. In the first month, identify the biggest barriers and establish monthly checkpoints toward those targets.

1. Validate before committing. For every substantial roadmap investment, document the problem, target users, supporting evidence, success metric, and opportunity cost. Test the riskiest assumption before building, or explicitly document why an exception is warranted.

1. Close the post-launch learning loop. Review each substantial release within six weeks against its success metric. Audit the six low-adoption features and recommend whether to improve, maintain, or retire each, accounting for customer and business value.

1. Lead outcome-based prioritization. Bring a monthly roadmap recommendation grounded in metric progress and customer evidence, including explicit tradeoffs for stakeholder requests.

My commitment is to make our 1:1s outcome-focused, review these checkpoints with you, and give direct feedback when progress is off track. Your execution strengths provide a solid foundation. The next step is applying that discipline to choosing and validating work that produces measurable customer value.

Annual Review: Theo Brandt

Prepared by: Ana Ruiz, Group PM Overall rating: Meets expectations

Theo, I want this review to be direct, because you deserve a clear picture. I also need to own a mistake of mine, which I cover below.

Results against your goals

Neither goal was met. Time to first plan improved by about 13%, which is real progress but a small fraction of the gap. Timeline usage was essentially flat.

Strengths

Delivery and team health. Your squad shipped 14 features, 12 on time. Your engineering lead says you keep the team unblocked, write clear specs, and never miss a sprint review. That reliability is hard to build, and the team trusts you.

Collaboration. Your designer called you "great to work with." Sales called you "very responsive." You treat partners as partners, and that is a real asset.

Responsiveness to stakeholders. You moved quickly on requests and kept people informed.

What to work on

1. Connecting what you ship to the outcomes you own. Your goals were about Timeline adoption and onboarding speed. Most of the year's output didn't aim at either. Six of the 14 shipped features are used by fewer than 2% of teams. Five of those six were Sales requests, and two of those were built for a single customer each. Responsiveness is a strength, but here it substituted for prioritization. Saying yes to five Sales asks used capacity that could have gone toward your goals.

2. Validating before building. Your designer said, "I wish we'd tested more before building; we shipped three things I'm not sure anyone uses." I agree. Moving fast on unvalidated work produces output, not impact. Fewer, better-tested bets would serve you and the team better.

3. Using data to drive decisions. Our 1:1s focused on delivery and stakeholder updates, not on whether your metrics were moving. Part of your job is to look at usage numbers regularly and change course when they don't move. I'd like you to make that a habit.

Where I fell short

In your Q3 1:1 you asked whether you were on track for your goals. I told you yes, citing great velocity. That wasn't accurate. Velocity was great, but the goal metrics weren't moving, and I never raised it. You asked the right question and got a misleading answer. I should have flagged this months earlier, when you had time to change course. Some of this outcome is on me, and it's a main reason I'm rating you Meets rather than Below expectations.

Rating rationale

Meets expectations reflects strong execution and collaboration, weighed against two missed outcome goals and a significant share of shipped work with minimal adoption. Without the missing mid-year feedback, I'd have had a harder conversation with you about the lower end of this rating. I don't see evidence for Exceeds, and I think the evidence supports Meets rather than Below, given partial progress on onboarding and the feedback gap on my side. To be clear, this is a solid-but-not-yet-sufficient year on outcomes, and the next half needs to show a shift.

Goals for the next half

1. Onboarding: Reduce time to first plan from 2.6 days to 1.8 days. Identify the two or three biggest drop-off points in the first-plan flow within the first month, and bring me a proposal for addressing them.
2. Timeline adoption: Raise weekly Timeline usage from 23% to 27%. Start with research into why teams who try Timeline don't return, and share findings with me by the end of month one.
3. Validation before build: Every feature above a small-effort threshold needs a written success metric and some evidence of demand (user tests, prototype feedback, or data) before engineering starts. Requests from a single customer need a case for broader value.
4. Post-launch review: Check usage of each shipped feature 60 days after launch and report the results to me. If something is underperforming, tell me what you'll do about it.
5. Sales partnership: Work with Sales on a lightweight way to evaluate requests so that "yes" is reserved for asks tied to our goals or to broad demand, and "not now" comes with a clear reason.

How we'll work together

We'll spend the first part of every 1:1 on your goal metrics, not just delivery. I'll tell you plainly where you stand each quarter, including when the news is uncomfortable. If you disagree with anything here, I want to hear it. I'd also like to hear what support would help most.

You've built a team that executes well and trusts you. The next step is pointing that capability at the metrics that matter. I'm confident you can do it.

Ana