# Performance review

A performance review is one row per line the plan had. Each row puts the planned spend and result beside what actually happened, states the variance, names the cause as specifically as the evidence supports, and ends in one decision with one owner and a date.

The three columns kept apart are the whole discipline: the variance is arithmetic, the cause is an explanation, and the decision is a choice. Reviews that blur them produce a conversation about the decision before anybody has agreed what happened.

## How to use it

1. Copy this file, or the CSV version if you would rather work in a sheet.
2. Take the planned figures from the plan, not from memory.
3. Write one row per line the plan had, including the ones that went as expected.
4. Separate the variance from the cause, and the cause from the decision.
5. Where a cause is not known, write that instead of a plausible story.
6. Give every decision an owner and a next review date, in the room.
7. Keep the finished reviews: a year of them answers questions no single one can.

## The columns

**Period** (Text). The window being reviewed, with its dates. Stated on every row because a review that mixes windows produces comparisons nobody can check afterwards.

**Line reviewed** (Text). What this row is about: a campaign, a segment, a channel, a phase. The same unit the plan used, so the two documents can be read side by side.

**Planned spend** (Integer). What the plan said this line would spend, in minor units. Taken from the plan rather than recalculated, so the comparison is with what was agreed and not with what anybody remembers.

**Actual spend** (Integer). What it actually spent, in the same units and the same currency. The gap between this and the planned figure is the first thing a review reads.

**Planned result** (Text). What the line was bought to produce, and how much: the primary metric and the target from the plan. Blank where the plan left it blank, which is honest rather than untidy.

**Actual result** (Text). What it produced, on the same metric, from the source the plan named. Not a different metric that reads better, and not a different source.

**Variance** (Text). The difference, stated plainly on both spend and result. A variance nobody has written down is a variance that will be described differently by everybody in the room.

**Cause** (Text). Why, as specifically as the evidence supports. Where the cause is not known, the honest entry is not known, which is more useful than a plausible story nobody can check.

**Evidence** (Text). What the cause rests on: an export, a date range, a test result, a recorded event. A cause with no evidence is a theory, and theories are what reviews turn into arguments about.

**Decision** (Text). What happens next because of this row: continue, change, stop, investigate. One of those, with the change named. A review that produces no decisions is a report.

**Owner** (Text). Who carries the decision, by name. Assigning it in the room, while everybody is present, is the difference between a review and a discussion.

**Next review** (Date (YYYY-MM-DD)). When this row is looked at again. Decisions without a follow-up date are decisions nobody checks, and the next review then starts from nothing.

**Notes** (Text). What the next reader needs: the event that distorted the period, the measurement change, the thing that was already known and decided against.

## The performance review

| Period | Line reviewed | Planned spend | Actual spend | Planned result | Actual result | Variance | Cause | Evidence | Decision | Owner | Next review | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |

## Before you commit it

- Every row has a planned figure taken from the plan, not from memory.
- Every line the plan had appears, including the ones that went as expected.
- Variance, cause and decision are in separate columns and not blended.
- Every cause names its evidence, or says the cause is not known.
- Every decision is one of continue, change, stop or investigate.
- Every decision has an owner by name and a next review date.
- Anything that distorted the period is recorded in the notes.