Best Practices for Documenting Performance Throughout the Year

Career advice I’d give my younger self: Keep a record of your wins Document your accomplishments as you go - not just what you did, but the real impact. (Keep this in a personal repository, not at work.) Most of us move from project to project, thinking we’ll remember the details when we need them. Then, when it’s time for a job search or a performance review, we struggle to articulate our impact. Instead, whenever you start a new project, ask yourself: “How will my future self talk about this?” Think in terms of a story - a problem worth solving, a difficult and challenging solution, and a meaningful transformation. You don’t have to wait until the project is finished to start writing it. Step 1: The problem What problem are you solving? A (business) problem worth solving has the problem itself, which lead to symptoms that, if they aren't addressed, can lead to disaster. For example, you might be replacing a legacy workflow. The old workflow is slow and includes manual steps. This results in errors and customer dissatisfaction, which leads to financial risk (due to errors) and churn, resulting in stagnant revenue and declining market share. You'll get more insight over time, but just start at the start. Write down what you know. Step 2: Document the outcomes you (or your leadership) are expecting or hoping for You may not know the final impact yet, but you have a hypothesis. What will change if your project succeeds? More revenue? Higher efficiency? Customer satisfaction improvements? Write that down. The transformation is often the opposite of the problem: if revenue is stagnant, the goal is growth. If churn is rising, the goal is retention. Define the ideal outcome early. Step 3: Capture the key components of the solution As technologists, we naturally document what we built. That’s fine, but remember—hiring managers and execs care less about features and more about impact. And how you collaborated and persuaded stakeholders to create and keep alignment. Step 4: Update your story as you go As your project progresses, go back and update: ✔ What you learned about the real problem ✔ Changes in your approach ✔ The actual results once customers started using your solution Often, the results blossom in unexpected ways - leading to social proof like customer stories, awards, or internal recognition. Capture those. These stories become the basis of a resume that gets interviews and they're great for performance reviews.

Have a shitty memory like me and struggle to talk about your accomplishments? Try this: I used to blank during 1:1s. Not because I wasn’t doing anything impactful - but because I couldn’t remember the details. So I started keeping a simple “running doc” of my accomplishments. By creating a running doc, I was able to log my accomplishments in real time so when it came to 1:1s or quarterly reviews, I had talking points and quantifiable data I could easily reference and speak to. My doc was never highly organized or complicated, so if you’re not a Notion pro, don’t worry. I’d simply create mine in Google Docs and name it “Q2 2023 Accomplishments,” for example. Then, each quarter, as soon as I: Hit a new goal Improved a process Completed a project Reached a milestone Met with a XFN partner Took an internal training Networked with a colleague Made progress on an initiative Mentored and trained a new hire Exceeded expectations on an SLA …I’d create a new bullet point with that accomplishment, any relevant data, include the date, and move on. By incorporating this into my daily routine, each update would take less than 3 minutes of my time and was super manageable. Then, each week during my 1:1s with my manager, I would come prepared with an agenda that included my weekly: Wins Opportunities Challenges Updates (projects, general, personal) Questions Without a running doc, I can say with confidence it wouldn’t have been as easy for me to communicate my value and the impact I had during our 1:1s and at the end of the half going into performance reviews. As a result, I’d highly recommend creating one if it’s not already a part of your routine! Plus, if you ever find yourself looking for a new role, having something like this is super helpful when it comes to job searching and updating your resume. Do you do something similar?

Good work you forget is good work wasted. Track it and write it down. Lesson 19: Make a brag document. One of the biggest game changers for my career was writing a brag document. A brag document is simple. Once a week, you write down everything you did. Big launches. Small design feedback. Bug fixes. Mentorship. Process improvements. Anything that moves the team, the product, or the culture forward. When I was chasing my E4 to E5 promotion at Meta, I was religious with my brag doc. Every week, I would write down what I contributed across our main axes — Project Impact, Direction, Excellence, People. Then I would review it with my manager regularly. This gave me early feedback on what was strong, what was missing, and what needed course correction before it was too late. Most people only start thinking about their work at the end of the year, when performance reviews are due. By then, it is too late to fix the gaps. You cannot go back in time and generate impact. You can only capture it in the moment. Keeping a brag document forces you to see the full picture. You realize how much value you are actually creating and you also spot where you need to do more. And when the time comes to package your work for promotion, you are not scrambling to remember what you did. You have the receipts. It is tedious. It is annoying. But it is one of the most powerful tools if you are serious about leveling up. Make a brag document. Start today. I am sharing 40 lessons from 10 years of software engineering. Follow along so you do not miss the next ones.

Next time you start a new job, do this in your first month: Create a personal accomplishment tracker. It doesn't need to be fancy. 👉 A blank section of a notebook 👉 An empty Excel spreadsheet  👉 A new OneNote or Notion page Just make it something you'll be able to find and access easily. Then set a 15-minute block somewhere in your week to come and record wins. "Wins? But I literally just started, I'm still training." That's okay! Write down the small stuff. ✅ Finished onboarding paperwork!  ✅ Conversation with skip manager!  ✅ Ran my first report in the new CRM! The idea is to build the weekly habit of writing down wins BEFORE you get busy. In time, you'll have ever-growing list of all the awesome stuff you've done and the progress you've made in your new job. This is immensely helpful for several reasons: 🤝 Supervisor Updates & 1:1s It's SO much easier to prepare for these when your past self is reminding you of the most important things you did last week. 💼 Performance Reviews & Promotions Justify your raise by showing your leaders all the ways you added value this year. Advocate for yourself and prove that you're ready for that next role. 🖹 Resume Updates It's hard to remember your metrics from years ago. Start writing your future self's resume NOW. Just make sure your tracker is saved somewhere you'll still have access to when you leave. 😊 Confidence Whenever you're discouraged or feel imposter syndrome creeping in, go read your list. Remind your present self that you ARE adding value. You ARE good at your job. Starting this habit early on in your new role is super helpful, and it's something I regret not doing more of throughout my career. And to everyone who's reading this and saying, "I started my job ages ago, I guess I missed the boat, huh." There's no reason you can't start this habit today. How do you track your professional accomplishments? 

I’ve been interviewing candidates for a new role and there’s one thing I’ve seen 90% of them struggle with: sharing the story of their career achievements. But don’t worry—I’ve got a simple hack that can help you overcome it: ✏️ Create a monthly ritual to review and document every significant work win, and turn each into a mini-case study. Documenting your wins regularly will save you HOURS when you prep for your next interview—plus it’s great fodder for: ⤷ your annual performance review ⤷ your 1x1s with your manager ⤷ your resume Here’s my 3-step process: 1️⃣ Weekly Check-in: Turn work ➡️ wins ⤷ Start a weekly habit of documenting your wins (grab my free template in the comments). ⤷ Block 30 minutes on your calendar every Friday to hold yourself accountable. ⤷ Ask yourself, “What did I accomplish this week that moved the needle?”   2️⃣ Monthly Recap: Turn wins ➡️ headlines ⤷ Identify 1–2 significant achievements and summarize them using this formula: [Action Verb] + [Specific Metric] + [Timeframe] + [Business Impact] ⤷ Make a bullet-point list (so you can stay organized and repurpose it for your resume later!) ⤷ Include dates and timelines for your own records—you’ll use them in step 3.   3️⃣ Quarterly Story-Building: Headlines ➡️ stories ⤷ Identify your top 3 quarterly wins. ⤷ Start a fresh document and map out each of those wins using the STAR method: ️ ⭐ Situation: What was the context? ️⭐ Task: What was your specific responsibility? ⭐ Action: What steps did you take? ⭐ Result: What measurable outcome did you achieve? ⤷ Ask AI to help you share that information as a story. Here’s the prompt I like to use: ✍ Can you help me turn this achievement into a story using the STAR framework for an upcoming interview for a [title here] role? Please keep it concise. [paste win]   Here’s what this looks like in action 👇 ⤷ Weekly win: March ’23 → Decreased CPA by 28% & increased conversion by 15% ⤷ Monthly recap: Optimized paid search campaigns in March 2023 that decreased CPA by 28% while increasing conversions by 15%, resulting in higher profit margins for the company. ⤷ Quarterly story: When I joined the marketing team in January 2023, our paid search campaigns were generating leads but at a high CPA, with budget constraints approaching in Q2.I was tasked with reducing CPA without sacrificing lead volume. In March 2023, I audited our campaigns and implemented three key changes: restructured ad groups with tightly-themed keywords, refined match types with strategic negative keywords, and A/B tested value-focused ad copy. By month-end, these optimizations decreased cost-per-acquisition by 28% while increasing conversion volume by 15%, saving budget and creating a scalable framework for future campaigns. What are your tips for storytelling in your interviews? I’d love to hear them.