Your Performance Review Feedback Makes No Sense. Here's Why.
An engineering manager breaks down the three most common feedback problems — and what to do about each one.
When I was a software engineer, my manager once told me during a performance review: “You’re doing a good job, but we expect you to have a bigger impact.”
That was it. No examples or direction.
I followed up. “So what should I do next?”
His answer: “That’s your job to find out.”
At the time, I felt confused but accepted it. I figured maybe it is indeed my job to figure it out myself.
Now that I’m a manager, I see it differently. Yes, engineers should own their careers. But a good manager gives you a direction: a role model or a concrete example.
I’ve watched other managers make the same mistake, and I’ve watched engineers walk out of their review more confused.
If that’s happened to you, this post is for you.
Here’s how to handle the three most common situations when the feedback feels off.
Issue #1: Vague Feedback
You sit down for your review, and your manager says:
“You could be more proactive.”
“You need to improve your communication.”
No example. Nothing to act on.
For managers, it usually means one of the following:
They know what they are saying but haven’t provided an example.
They have a “feeling”, but no concrete evidence.
Regardless, vague feedback is useless feedback. You can’t improve against a target you can’t see.
The first thing to do is to poke: ask them to walk you through a concrete situation.
If you hear: “You need to have more influence”, ask: “Which part did I not have enough influence?”
If you hear: “You need to pay more attention to details”, ask: “Based on which issues did you see that I need this?”
The objective is to dig deep enough until you have action items. They might push back with “it’s your job to figure that out” (I’ve run into this multiple times). If that happens, ask for examples of what others have done that you should be doing too.
Another scenario is that managers do not have concrete examples on the spot. In that case, request a follow-up after the meeting. Bring the topics back up. Keep going until you’ve turned vague impressions into clear action items.
The worst situation is that the manager fails to bring up any concrete examples. If the feedback is trivial, you can let it go and request better clarity next time. If it’s major, think about escalating to your skip-level manager, which I’ll discuss later.
Issue #2: Surprise Improvement Points
Your manager raises a concern you’ve never heard before. Something that happened months ago but was never discussed, and now it’s a formal improvement point in your review.
Honestly, I’ve found myself as a manager doing this more often than I expected. I was busy with high priority tasks, and when I finally had time to sit down and read through their achievements, I found some improvement points I should have raised 6 months ago.
It is an improvement point itself on the managers’ side, but it does not change the fact that it will show up in your performance review.
Start by asking when this was first observed and what specifically happened. This gives you context.
If the improvement point is legit, ask your manager to bring it up next time right after it happens, instead of waiting for months and bringing it up during the performance review.
For those who want to try pushing back, you can point out that this feedback never came up during the cycle, and that you deserved a chance to address it while there was still time. Keep the tone calm and factual, not confrontational.
However, it’s usually too late for managers to change their ratings. If the pushback doesn’t work, don’t push harder on the spot. You can choose to escalate later.
Issue #3: Rating Not as Expected
You went into the review with confidence. Then your manager gave you “Meets Expectations” when you were clearly performing above it.
There are multiple reasons why this could happen.
One is misaligned expectations. For example, you think everything is fine, but your manager is secretly thinking that you’re not meeting expectations.
My experience as a manager is that we do goal setting with members at the beginning of a cycle, and those goals are gradually forgotten as we move along. Then we pivot back to a “feel” for whether the members are meeting expectations. Some managers I know don’t even align goals with their members.
Another reason could be a forced distribution out of your manager’s control. In short, in the same team, only a few people can get “Exceeds Expectations”, and the rest will get “Meets Expectations”, disregarding their actual performance. This is for the company to manage the promotion budget.
Whichever case you run into, ask for specific criteria: “What would ‘Exceeds Expectations’ look like in this cycle?” This forces your manager to clarify the context.
If they can’t answer clearly, the bar was never well-defined to begin with. Clarify expectations early in the next cycle.
If you genuinely believe you deserve better, try turning the tide. Use data to support your performance: shipped projects, peer feedback, specific contributions. Then ask if the rating can be revisited. It usually can’t, but it’s worth asking.
Escalation is Your Last Resort
Most surprises can be handled within the conversation, but sometimes they cannot be resolved between you and your manager.
If the feedback is pushing you toward a PIP, escalating to your skip-level manager is a reasonable next step.
Here’s how to approach it:
Frame it as a request for clarification, not a complaint. You’re there to understand it better, instead of arguing the rating. They can get defensive when facing a complaint.
Don’t expect the result to change. Skip-level managers rarely step in to overturn a rating. But a second perspective can help you understand whether the feedback reflects a real pattern or it’s just a communication gap.
Know when to escalate. If the feedback is disappointing but within a reasonable range, escalating can do more harm than good. Save it for situations where something feels genuinely off.
Final Words
If you run into these issues, remember to act. Simply accepting the feedback won’t help.
Most managers I know want to do their job well and want the best for their team members. The problem is that most companies don’t invest much in helping managers run better performance reviews. They mostly learn as they go.
When you push back on vague feedback or a surprise improvement point, you’re advocating for yourself AND giving your manager something to learn. It helps them grow, and it makes the next review better for both of you.
I’m currently writing my Performance Review Survival Guide that goes deeper into all of this. The goal is simple: help engineers understand what their managers are actually looking at during reviews, so their work stops getting overlooked.
It’s a short ebook told from the manager’s perspective. What we look at, and what most engineers miss.
Before I finalize it, I have one question for you:
💡 What’s the one thing about performance reviews you’ve always wanted to understand from your manager’s side?
Drop it in the comments or reply to this email. I read every one.
Before we wrap up, I want to thank Ankita Gupta for inspiring this post :)
See you in the next post.
Adler from Tokyo Tech Lead