1. Performance reviews are broken — but not for the reasons you think

The problem isn’t just that the forms are outdated or the ratings feel arbitrary. The real issue is organizational misalignment. Execs want high performance, but they don’t invest in the systems or cultural clarity to support it.

Meanwhile, employees are stuck wondering:

What does “good” look like here?

How do I grow?

Does any of this feedback even matter?

Tiffany Stevenson called out the pressure to perform without support:

“You keep these athletes and then you burn them on all sides. They’re doing outsized jobs, with no additional resources — and we still expect them to deliver.”

And when boards start demanding “talent density” or revenue per employee metrics, that pressure rolls downhill — fast.

“Suddenly the board cares about performance, and now we’re the bad guys? We’ve had the same systems for a decade.” – Kelli Dragovich

2. HR leaders have become the glue bottle

Kelli dropped a gem that stuck: HR has become the glue bottle. Not the glue — the bottle.

You’re holding together founders who are anxious, boards who are impatient, employees who are disillusioned, and exec teams who want results without friction.

Everyone wants different things. Everyone’s moving fast. And HR is expected to translate it all into a coherent experience — without breaking.

“It’s like someone threw a bucket of water in the air. Burnout isn’t the issue anymore. It’s anxiety, tension, and being pulled in a million directions.”

3. CEOs are obsessed with performance — and HR has to meet them there

Tiffany nailed it: performance is the word dominating every CEO’s brain right now. But they’re not just thinking about individual output — they’re thinking about survival, capital efficiency, and strategic execution.

She outlined the three questions CEOs are asking:

1. How do we operate at the lowest cost base possible?
2. How do we assess talent fairly, when the context is messy?
3. Are we over-rewarding high-output people who are cultural liabilities?

“Shareholders want receipts. They don’t want hope. CEOs are feeling that pressure — and HR needs to help them respond.”

4. A rating isn’t the answer. But neither is no system.

Pendo’s Chief People Officer JR Rettig shared how they’ve evolved their performance process — not by overhauling it overnight, but by going back to basics.

They asked:

• What does our CEO actually want to know about performance?
• How do we make that easy for managers to deliver?
• Can we build something light that still drives clarity?

The result? A quarterly cadence that asks just three things:

• What’s expected of you this quarter?
• Are you on track or off track?
• What support do you need?

“You don’t need a 5-point scale, but you do need a shared language. Most employees don’t even know what’s expected of them this quarter — that’s the real problem.”

5. Want to rebuild performance? Think like a product team.

Kelli made a strong case for treating performance like a product.

That means:

• User research: talk to managers, execs, and employees
• Beta tests: pilot in one org (like G&A or engineering)
• Clear hypotheses: what are we solving for, and how will we know if it worked?
• Willingness to kill it: if it’s not working, move on

You don’t need a perfect system. You need a relevant one. And that means building with your org, not just for them.

“Start with nothing. Ask: ‘What matters here right now?’ You’ll be surprised how many sacred cows you don’t actually need.”

6. Don’t filter everything for your CEO — show them the raw data

One of the realest moments: Stephen asked whether HR over-curates what gets to the C-suite — and whether we’re unintentionally hiding the mess.

All three panelists agreed: CEOs can handle more than we think.

Let them read the unfiltered comments. Show them the raw performance trends. Tell them what managers are struggling with.

The only thing worse than bad data? No trust.

“Stop trying to be the Chief Editor of Everything. Be the Chief Translator. Let the business see what’s really happening.”

See you next week!

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