10 Performance Review Questions for Small Teams

Small teams usually skip performance reviews for one of two reasons:

1. there is no HR person to own the process, or
2. everyone assumes a "real" review process has to be heavy, formal, and awkward.

It doesn't.

If you run a team of 5–25 people, you do not need enterprise software or a 6-page writeup to give someone clear feedback. You need a short set of questions that forces specificity.

Below is a lightweight set you can use in Google Docs, Notion, or email today.

If you need the process around the questions too, use this two-week performance review plan for a 10-person company.

How to use these questions

Keep the process simple:

• ask the manager to answer all 10
• ask 2–4 peers to answer the peer questions
• look for patterns, not one-off comments
• turn the answers into 3 sections: strengths, growth areas, next-step expectations
• deliver the review as a conversation, not just a document

For most small teams, that's enough.

The 10 questions

Manager questions

1. What work is this person consistently reliable at?

This surfaces the work you'd trust them with again without hesitation.

Good answers are concrete:

"Client handoffs are organized, on time, and rarely need cleanup."

Weak answers are vague:

"They're great to work with."

2. Where did this person have the biggest positive impact on the team?

Look for outcomes, not activity.

Examples:

• improved delivery speed on a recurring workflow
• calmed down a messy client situation
• raised the quality bar for a project
• made teammates more effective

3. What should this person keep doing because it clearly works?

This prevents the review from becoming a list of fixes.

Small-team reviews work better when the person leaves knowing what to repeat, not just what to change.

4. Where does this person's work create drag, confusion, or rework?

This is the question that gets past politeness.

Look for things like:

• communication gaps
• missed follow-through
• unclear ownership
• avoidable mistakes
• work that lands late and forces other people to scramble

The point is not punishment. The point is to name the friction honestly.

5. What skill, habit, or behavior would most improve this person's results over the next 3–6 months?

Pick one main growth area.

If the review names five priorities, none of them will stick.

6. What does success look like by the next review?

Turn the feedback into observable expectations.

Examples:

• "Own weekly client updates without needing rewrites"
• "Escalate blockers within 24 hours instead of waiting"
• "Run project kickoff meetings with a clear agenda and next steps"

Peer questions

7. What does this person do that makes your work easier?

Peers often see the day-to-day value the manager misses.

This question surfaces practical strengths like responsiveness, clarity, calm under pressure, or strong documentation.

8. When is this person hardest to work with?

This wording is more useful than "what are their weaknesses?"

It produces specific situations:

• when priorities change quickly
• when feedback is direct
• when timelines get tight
• when details are still fuzzy

Situational feedback is easier to act on than personality labels.

9. What is one thing this person could change that would make the team more effective?

Ask for one thing.

That constraint improves answer quality and reduces rambling.

10. What role or responsibility could this person grow into next?

This keeps the review forward-looking.

Even on a small team, people want to know whether they're growing, not just whether they passed.

What good review answers sound like

The best answers are:

• specific
• recent
• behavior-based
• tied to real work
• written like you'd be willing to say them in person

The worst answers are:

• generic praise
• personality judgments
• anonymous-drive-by complaints
• feedback with no example

If a comment would start an argument because it's too vague, it probably should not make it into the review.

A simple format for the final writeup

Once you've collected answers, summarize them into:

1. Strengths to keep using

Two or three patterns this person should keep leaning into.

2. Growth areas to improve

One or two changes that would most improve performance.

3. Expectations before the next review

A short list of what "better" looks like in practice.

That's enough for a strong small-team review.

If you want the lightweight version

If you're doing this manually, copy these 10 questions into a doc and send them to the manager and peers.

If you want help turning the responses into a structured written review, that's what Teemzo was built for. It keeps the process lightweight, collects the inputs privately, and helps the manager produce the final review without adopting a year-round HR platform.

Copy/paste version

Use this block as-is:

1. What work is this person consistently reliable at?
2. Where did this person have the biggest positive impact on the team?
3. What should this person keep doing because it clearly works?
4. Where does this person's work create drag, confusion, or rework?
5. What skill, habit, or behavior would most improve this person's results over the next 3–6 months?
6. What does success look like by the next review?
7. What does this person do that makes your work easier?
8. When is this person hardest to work with?
9. What is one thing this person could change that would make the team more effective?
10. What role or responsibility could this person grow into next?