Writing performance summaries | Documentation

A summary is a synthesized performance write-up about a single employee, covering a defined period. It pulls together the strengths and opportunities you have observed, the objectives in flight, and any 360 feedback collected — and ties them into a clear, evidence-backed narrative.

Summaries are the artifact your employee, your skip-level manager, and your org admin all read. They are not a replacement for ongoing observations — they are the synthesis layer on top.

When to write a summary

Most organizations write summaries on a regular cadence:

Mid-cycle check-in — usually quarterly, lighter weight, focused on momentum and adjustments.
End-of-cycle review — typically annual or semi-annual, the formal write-up that drives compensation, promotion, or development conversations.

Beyond the cadence, you might write a summary:

After a major project lands, to capture the moment while it is fresh.
When transitioning a direct report to a new manager.
When supporting a promotion case.
When an employee asks for one — for example, to use externally or to drive a development conversation.

Your org admin sets the formal cadence under organization settings. The cadence does not prevent you from writing additional summaries when useful.

Anatomy of a summary

Every summary in Performance Blocks follows the same four-section structure. The structure exists to keep summaries balanced and to make them easy to read.

Strengths

What the employee did especially well during the period. Each strength should be supported by one or more observations from the period. Aim for 2–4 strengths in a typical summary — fewer if the period was short.

Opportunities

Where the employee has room to grow. Opportunities should be coachable and forward-looking, not punitive. Aim for 1–3 opportunities. If you have more than three, you are likely stacking small issues that belong in conversations rather than in a summary.

Objectives

The status of the employee's objectives at period end. For each objective, the summary captures what was set, what was achieved, and any changes in scope. Off-track or missed objectives should be discussed openly — what got in the way, and what was learned.

Recommended actions

Concrete next steps for the next period. Not goals (those go in objectives) — coaching priorities, focus areas, or development moves you and the employee should align on. Limit to 2–4 items.

Drafting a summary

You can start a summary from several places:

Dashboard — open the employee profile and click New summary on the Summaries tab.
Summaries page — click New summary and pick the employee.
Henry panel — ask Henry to "draft a summary for [employee]" (Agentic plan).

The summary editor opens with the four sections pre-laid-out, the employee selected, and the period defaulted to the current cycle.

Step-by-step

Confirm the period. The default is the current cycle as configured by your org admin. You can adjust the start and end dates if writing an off-cycle summary.
Pull in evidence. Click Add evidence under any section to surface observations, 360 feedback responses, and conversation decisions from the period. Filter by Strength, Opportunity, attribute, or date range. Selected items are linked to the section.
Write the narrative. For each section, write 2–4 paragraphs that synthesize the evidence into a story. Don't repeat the observation text — interpret it.
Review balance. Use the Balance check indicator at the top of the editor — it warns if you have only strengths or only opportunities, or if the recommended actions section is empty.
Save. Drafts autosave every few seconds, and you can leave and resume freely.

The evidence panel

The evidence panel on the right side of the editor is the heart of the workflow. It lists every observation, 360 response, and decision from the period that has not yet been linked to a section. You can:

Drag an item into a section to link it.
Click an item to read the full content.
Filter by type, attribute, date, or author.
Mark as not used to remove items you have decided are not relevant — they stay in the period record but are excluded from the summary's evidence list.

When you publish the summary, every linked item is included as supporting evidence, viewable by the employee.

Drafting from scratch vs. AI-generated drafts

You have two paths to a first draft.

From scratch

Click Start blank in the new summary form. The four sections are empty and the evidence panel is populated with everything from the period. Pull in items, write your narrative, and save.

This is the right path when:

The employee's period was unusual or sensitive.
You want to think the structure through yourself.
You do not have AI-generated drafts available, or prefer not to use them.

AI-generated drafts

Click Generate first draft in the new summary form. Performance Blocks reads the observations, 360 responses, decisions, and objectives from the period and produces a draft of all four sections, with evidence already linked.

Plan availability: AI-generated summary drafts (aiGeneratedSummaries) are available on both the Team and Agentic plans. Henry-assisted refinement (chatting with the draft, asking for revisions, generating talking points) is Agentic only.

You always start with a draft, never a final. The model writes from your evidence — it does not invent observations, fabricate dates, or import outside context. You can:

Accept the draft as your starting point.
Regenerate any section if it feels off.
Ask Henry (Agentic) to refine wording, soften tone, sharpen recommendations, or add nuance.

Read the draft critically. The model can over-generalize, miss context that lived in conversations rather than observations, and occasionally pick up on patterns that are coincidental. Your judgment is the final filter.

Drafting tips with AI

Capture more, write less raw prose. AI drafts are only as good as the underlying observations. Periods with rich, specific observations produce strong drafts; periods with thin observation history produce thin drafts.
Regenerate one section at a time. If the strengths read well but the opportunities are off, regenerate just opportunities rather than the whole draft.
Don't accept the recommended actions wholesale. Recommendations are the most context-dependent part of a summary; expect to rewrite them yourself.
Read for tone. Even when content is correct, a draft can feel sterile or off-brand. Edit for the voice you would actually use with this employee.

A summary moves through three states:

Draft — only you can see it.
Submitted — sent for review (see below). Employee may or may not see it depending on org policy.
Shared — visible to the employee.

Some organizations share summaries with employees as part of the review meeting; some make them visible immediately on submission. Your org admin sets the default policy under organization settings.

To share a submitted, approved summary with the employee, open it and click Share with employee. Once shared, the employee can read the summary, view linked evidence, and post a clarification — see below.

Employee-facing view

When an employee opens a shared summary, they see:

The four sections in full.
Each linked observation, with the full body and your authored content.
Each linked 360 response, anonymized per the cycle's settings.
Any objectives and their status.

They cannot edit the summary. They can post a clarification on any section — see Revisions and clarifications below.

The review item flow

Every submitted summary becomes a review item for an org admin. The admin reviewer:

Reads the summary and the linked evidence.
Checks for balance, tone, and adherence to organizational norms.
Approves, requests changes, or rejects with comments.

Reviews protect both the employee and the manager — they catch unbalanced summaries, missing evidence, and language that does not serve a coaching goal.

Submitting for review

When your draft is ready, click Submit for review in the summary editor footer. You will be asked to confirm:

The period.
The reviewer (assigned automatically based on org policy, but you can pick a different admin if multiple are eligible).
Whether to share with the employee on approval (default per org policy).

After submission, the summary moves to the Pending review state. You will see it on your dashboard's pending review items panel.

Reviewer actions

The assigned admin can:

Approve — the summary is finalized; if the share-on-approve option was set, it becomes visible to the employee.
Request changes — the summary returns to draft state with reviewer comments inline. You revise and resubmit.
Reject — rare. Used when a summary is fundamentally not approvable (e.g., missing entire sections). You start a new draft.

Approval and changes-requested events trigger notifications to you immediately.

Revising after changes are requested

Open the summary from the pending review items panel. Reviewer comments appear inline beside the affected section. Revise the content, address each comment, and click Resubmit for review. The reviewer is notified and the cycle repeats.

You can ask the reviewer a clarifying question by replying to a comment thread on the summary before resubmitting.

Revisions and clarifications

After a summary is shared with an employee, two further interactions are possible.

Manager revisions

You can revise a shared summary if material new context emerges (a fact you got wrong, a missing achievement). Open the summary, click Revise, and edit. Substantial revisions go through the review flow again; small edits (typos, formatting) are tracked in the version history without re-review. Your org admin sets the threshold.

Employee clarifications

The employee can post a clarification on any section of a shared summary. A clarification is not an edit — it is an attached comment that becomes part of the summary record. Use clarifications when:

The employee's recollection of an event differs from yours.
The employee wants to add context that did not surface in observations.
The employee disagrees with a characterization and wants their position recorded.

Clarifications are visible to you, the reviewer, and any future reader of the summary. They do not require your approval to post.

When a clarification is added, you receive a notification. Reply in the conversation thread, address the substance of the clarification, and consider whether the summary itself should be revised.

Best practices

Be balanced

Aim for 2–4 strengths and 1–3 opportunities. A summary that is all strengths is not credible; a summary that is all opportunities is not coaching, it is a complaint. The Balance check indicator helps catch obvious imbalances.

Be specific

Every claim in a summary should map to evidence the reader can examine. "Strong communicator" with no linked observations means nothing; "Strong written communicator — see the Q1 architecture RFC and the design review notes from March" gives the reader something concrete.

Stay forward-looking

The "Recommended actions" section is the part the employee will reread most often. Make sure it gives them something they can do — not a vague "keep growing as a leader" but a specific "lead the design review for the billing project next quarter; partner with [colleague] on the rollout plan."

Don't surprise

Nothing in a summary should be the first time the employee is hearing about it. Every opportunity should already have appeared in a conversation. If you find yourself writing an opportunity for the first time, stop and have the conversation first.

Write for the multi-reader

A summary is read by the employee, the reviewer, the next manager who picks them up, and possibly an HR partner two cycles from now. Write so all of those readers can get value without context.

Period boundaries

Performance Blocks tracks the period you choose on the summary, not the date you wrote it. Evidence is filtered by the period dates, so make sure the dates match the cycle you intend to summarize. If you backdate evidence (write an observation today about something that happened last quarter), it appears in the previous period's evidence list.

Notifications

You receive notifications when:

A summary you submitted is approved or sent back.
An employee posts a clarification on a shared summary.
A reviewer adds a comment without changing state.
A summary cycle deadline is approaching (configured by your org admin).

Manage delivery channels under Settings → Notifications.

Troubleshooting

My evidence panel is empty

The evidence panel shows observations, 360 responses, and decisions from the selected period, scoped to your direct reports. If empty:

Check the period dates at the top of the editor.
Confirm you have authored observations in that period (drafts do not count).
For 360 responses, confirm a cycle was run and responses were submitted.

The AI draft button is missing

AI-generated drafts require the aiGeneratedSummaries feature. Both Team and Agentic plans include it, but it can be disabled by your org admin. Check Settings → Features or ask your admin.

The reviewer is unavailable

If the assigned reviewer is out, you can reassign by opening the summary and clicking Reassign reviewer in the overflow menu. Only org admins are eligible reviewers.