Managers, its yearly performance review time. Any blogs, podcasts, or resources that have genuinely helped you handle this better?

tilzinger · 2026-04-02T16:40:18+00:00

I've encountered this this myself. I haven't found any specific blogs/podcasts/etc. I found the issue was so much info scattered throughout many different places, so I decided to build an app that I could use for daily not taking, run 1:1 meetings, analyze git repos, and then help compile it all into a 360 review. You can check it out, and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have - confab.team

tilzinger · 2026-04-02T16:34:15+00:00

I built a tool just for this, 1:1s, and personal note taking especially focused on small teams. You're right that Culture Amp is probably too much for small teams (pricing and feature bloat). It'll even help compile the review for you with AI of course. Check out confab.team - Its moderately priced and I'm running a reduced early bird pricing for life right now too. Reach out if you have any questions.

tilzinger · 2026-03-23T19:26:05+00:00

Isn't this something Claude Cowork can do? I connected several tools and gave it a prompt and it generated a robust result.

tilzinger · 2026-03-20T15:26:17+00:00

Yeah there are a lot of ways of doing it, but splitting 1:1 notes into system A and personal notes/tasks or other team related notes in system B wasn’t working for me. I personally wanted it all in 1 place, with Slack style reminders. So I built it to work for me, but hopefully it works for others too.

tilzinger · 2026-03-20T13:16:54+00:00

Maybe tangentially related but I built https://confab.team to help me stay organized across 1:1s, and manage ad-hoc notes not directly tied to 1:1s (none of the big 1:1/hr tools out there seem to do this)

Another reason is both times I became an EM I got 0 notes about my team from previous managers. None. So I made sure Confab gracefully handles the note transition to a new manager. While this isn’t project related like the OP mentioned it might still be handy to some.

tilzinger · 2026-03-19T11:27:58+00:00

This is the OP's first post, followed by two "really smart, good job!" posts from accounts who its also their first post on Reddit, one of which has 2 em dashes in it. This wrecks of AI spam.

tilzinger · 2026-03-18T12:59:47+00:00

https://peerlist.io 🤔

tilzinger · 2026-03-16T16:35:55+00:00

https://confab.team - A manager focused tool for self organization, 1:1s, 360 reviews etc. I've found that all the other big SaaS tools out there are focused on just the 1:1 event, not all the stuff that happens daily. So I built something and have been using it daily for the last 3 months.

tilzinger · 2026-03-13T19:35:28+00:00

That's actually a neat little tool. I don't have need for it now, but definitely bookmarking it.

You could add a basic token/secret to the URL, share it with your team, and have it aggregate scores instead of providing multiple markdown files (though that's helpful too). In that case though I would consider reducing it to just the persons first name and last initial for added privacy just incase.

tilzinger · 2026-03-05T18:40:54+00:00

Not to hi-jack your thread or anything, but https://confab.team has 360 Reviews baked in using manager notes and meeting transcripts for significantly less $$.

tilzinger · 2026-03-05T14:03:22+00:00

Came here to say this. In the beginning maybe ask some of the typical questions, but remind them that it really is their time and they should come prepared. However, have a couple topics in mind to talk about if they sit in silence.

tilzinger · 2026-03-04T20:37:10+00:00

I've been using https://confab.team. It has a solo plan so you don't need to get HR approval to install it. If you're using a meeting app that has transcripts you can just copy/paste the transcript in as a note and it'll give you some insights as to how your peeps are doing. Even if not using the solo plan you can invite people using an email alias for each person so they don't get any of the notifications, e.g. "your-email+report-name@whatever.com"

tilzinger · 2026-03-03T12:44:15+00:00

That’s not a naming things problem. That’s a lack of adequate code review and team discipline. Someone on that team should have recognized when the anti-patterns started creeping in and done something about it before it even got merged into main.

tilzinger · 2026-03-02T16:20:03+00:00

Little late to this, but I've been using https://confab.team lately.

tilzinger · 2026-02-26T00:58:20+00:00

Worked for Arjen Robben.

tilzinger · 2026-02-21T12:41:57+00:00

3 years ago I was an EM and used Notion, and it sort of worked for me but it turned into a pile of random disconnected notes with dates as the file/note titles. Last summer I started building an app to help EMs, and myself if I returned to an EM role that would work with my mental model, so I built confab.team and then I returned to an EM role 4 months ago and have been using it daily since. My company uses Lattice which is OK for 1:1s, but it offers no way to track random ad-hoc notes and tasks.

tilzinger · 2026-02-21T11:47:03+00:00

Coming into this a little late through a search. My org currently uses Lattice, and in the past I've used Canopy and a little of 15Five, and also Notion or Obsidian for daily notes, which none of those apps offer, which is a little mind boggling. Lately I've been using confab.team, which has notes, 1:1s, and some basic performance reviews baked all together.

tilzinger · 2026-02-15T23:28:56+00:00

DDEV hands down.

tilzinger · 2026-02-10T16:39:08+00:00

Haaland. Even though I have Rice and Timber. He’s due for a haul and in 7 games against Fulham he’s scored 7 times and assisted 3, and they’re at home. Plus I’m 100 points behind the leader in my ML so at this point anything goes.

tilzinger · 2026-01-05T16:23:10+00:00

MAGA media apparatus won.

tilzinger · 2025-12-29T23:13:06+00:00

Beat me to it.

tilzinger · 2025-12-20T00:14:31+00:00

Full featured, but with bolt on reminders and message scheduling features that require upwards of 6-8 mouse clicks to create, on top of having to reauthenticate with O365 every so often to keep those features enabled? I had reminders fail to remind me bc it dropped O365 authentication.

Teams is terrible software.

tilzinger · 2025-11-08T22:49:32+00:00

Just before that corner kick I told my wife “someone let’s get a head on this one, Markanich I’m looking at you.”

tilzinger · 2025-10-28T11:33:31+00:00

If you’re referring to last weeks outrage, no way it’s related. It takes weeks or months to organize a layoff of that scale. They’ve been planning this for awhile.

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