---
description: >-
  We emphasize quality over quantity by measuring and comparing individual
  performance among team members, allowing us to Staff with Stars.
---

# Rank and Review

> _If you can't measure it, you can't improve it. \~_ Peter Drucker

## Introduction

A pioneer of modern management theory and practice, Peter Drucker is well known for his quote above. His insight is simple - managers can't enhance team performance if their activities aren't defined and tracked.

At traditional or _"_&#x6F;n-prem" (short for _on-premise)_ jobs, managers usually don't define or track their team's work. The constant interaction with team members gives managers enough opportunities for evaluation.&#x20;

However, when you manage people remotely, you don't experience these regular physical interactions. This is why you must quantify your people's performance

If you don't, your team can become stagnant. Thus, creating a mediocre work culture. To prevent this, you should take advantage of **Rank and Reviews.**&#x20;

## Rank and Review: What It Is and Why You Need It&#x20;

A Rank and Review is our process of measuring and comparing employee performance. This system identifies top performers, people who need coaching, and those who require further training via RemoteU.

It reinforces our core value of creating teams with the best performers, or a Staff with Stars. At RemoteU, we emphasize quality over quantity. Small teams with high-performers can achieve more than a large group with average employees.

### What Makes a Rank and Review?

A Rank and Review has three parts:&#x20;

* Clear stack ranks&#x20;
* Unit-specific coaching
* Data-driven decision-making

A stack rank is a scoreboard showing who produces the most value or has the most quality, and who needs improvements.&#x20;

Unit-specific coaching is the act of giving feedback to every team member to hold them accountable and improve their skills.

Data-driven decision-making is the process of using stack ranks and coaching to categorize team members into performance groups.

Here’s how to use these parts to create your Rank and Review:

## Step 1: Stack Rank Your Team by Quality

The value your team brings to customers is more important than the units they produce.

As a manager, you should stack rank your employees based on the quality of the deliverables they create.&#x20;

If you’re seeking to improve your team’s quality, we’re assuming you’re performing a  Rank and Review based on quality _(see note #2 at the end of this chapter)._ If not, please read the **Enforce Quality Bar** chapter before proceeding with this chapter.&#x20;

Like scoreboards, stack ranks shouldn’t be a secret. Explain how this ranking system will be used to evaluate your team’s performance and help them grow.&#x20;

Discuss with each employee their duties, your expectations, and where they stand in the ranking.

After you’ve completed your stack rank, pay attention to the dispersion. This is the ratio between the top performer and the lowest. Teams shouldn’t have a dispersion greater than 1.5x. If the dispersion between the two employees is too high, like 3x, you should be concerned.&#x20;

## Step 2: Perform Unit-Specific Coaching

_**If you’re starting Manager RemoteU on or after 3/18, your first Rank and Review (R\&R) should have unit-specific coaching. But, your second R\&R should have a prioritized list of things each IC is doing differently than the top performer (see**_ [_**playbook**_](https://workflowy.com/s/manager-remotecamp-p/GcBTAu0q67NNTjr8) _**for more details).**_&#x20;

To be a great manager, you shouldn't only give orders. Offer your team resources and advice needed to improve.

After stack ranking your team, you’ll identify the flaws of every member. For example, if a person has a 75% internal FTAR, this means 24% of their units are below quality and needs improvement. You must take opportunities to coach this person.

However, before you coach, be conscious of your management style. We’ve noticed that the worst-performing managers provide high-level or solely data-driven coaching.

Vague advice like, “You need to do better,” isn't helpful. Neither is feedback like, “You’re at the bottom 50%."

### How to Give Effective Feedback

It’s your duty as a manager, to give your team proper guidance. You can start by creating conversations about a specific unit of work or deliverable.&#x20;

Hold the member accountable by discussing their performance and explaining your expectations of them. Give examples of failure.

Next, provide specific and actionable advice on how to improve that skill. Here’s an example of good advice:&#x20;

_“Configure your coverage tool to catch these cases of switches without default statement, and also casts prone to null pointer exceptions. Have the discipline to apply your coverage tool to both production and also Unit Test code._ [_Case1_](https://drive.google.com/open?id=14t4cUBcDzEc7zdmYHhR2BC8pz6rfPYbz) [_Case2._](https://drive.google.com/open?id=13PQSbHavlDRyeVvapMHf-1_6cMXN0BGm)_”_

## Step 3: Use Data for Categorization and Decision-Making

The next step in Rank and Review is to categorize your team into three groups:

* **Meets Quality Bar** - Perfect or near-perfect performer. Could still benefit from coaching.
* **Coach** - Not a top performer, but a week or less of coaching would improve their skills.
* **Send to RemoteU** - Needs more than a week of extensive and systematic coaching.&#x20;

To make these categorizations, you must use data collected from your stack rank and coaching.&#x20;

To classify IC’s in the Meets Quality Bar group, decide on what the acceptable quality level is and determine if they passed it or not.&#x20;

For the second group, review each team member’s unit. Take note of areas that need improvement. Then, determine how many hours you need to help them satisfy the quality bar.

Repeat this same process for the third group. If these team members need more than a week of coaching, then consider sending them to Remote Camp.

## Step 4: Set Realistic Expectations for Engineering RemoteU

Many managers make the mistake of relying on RemoteU to correct their bottom performers. It isn’t the place to transform your bad IC’s into great ones.

It won't save an IC who produces low-quality units because of their lack of technical knowledge.

However, it can help fix specific and less intense problems. Like, an IC who struggles to get rid of their "productivity-first" approach after your coaching.

Another mistake you should avoid is automatically sending low performers to RemoteU. Instead, you should do intense research on why your IC is a low performer.&#x20;

Once you found the root cause, you can decide whether or not Engineering RemoteU will fix this problem.

To better determine if RemoteU is the best place, identify 2 specific skills that will help fix your IC’s root issue. The complete list of skills is available in the [**What is the WSPro Framework Matrix**](../../day-2/readings/wspro-framework-matrix) chapter.&#x20;

_To learn more about Engineering RemoteU, please read also the_ [_**Engineering RemoteU playbook**_](https://docs.google.com/document/d/17uOUMykeDrnw28RtoOjY9wPl9ZYGvO4m2oY4FuXAF_A/edit?usp=sharing) _for reference._&#x20;

## When RemoteU Isn’t Enough: Letting People Go

Occasionally, you’ll work with an IC that doesn’t fit among any of the three categories. Maybe, they don’t have the right skills for the role. Or, it seems like neither your coaching or RemoteU can help them.&#x20;

When you encounter this situation, don’t be tempted to send the IC to RemoteU. Instead, let the IC go with a [Mother Teresa’s](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YxMYdYd9gfrvD9vKJ9jY-Jl84N4CEaMX/view) touch.&#x20;

To prevent this incident from happening again to your organization, you must collect information on this lost IC to better the hiring process. Here are the steps:

1. **Create a document highlighting skill gaps** - Discover what skills that this IC lacked that others didn’t.
2. **Double-check your list** - Ensure that the IC’s root problems couldn’t be fixed with a reasonable amount (max. of 2 hours/every week for a month) of coaching or RemoteU.
3. **Send this list to your team or higher-ups** - Show your list to your VP or the Crossover Marketplace team to brainstorm ways on how to change the recruitment process to avoid hiring more people like this IC. Consider finding out how this person was initially hired.&#x20;

As stated earlier in this chapter, we promote the idea of creating Staffs with Stars. There's enough data to prove that understaffed teams of top performers achieve more than teams with less quality members.

## **Important Notes**

1. When giving feedback, prioritize honesty over politeness. However, this doesn't mean being aggressive. Calmly explain your team's mistakes and offer advice on how to fix. For more tips, read: [Why Being Polite Is Killing Your Company](https://www.inc.com/mikael-cho/why-being-polite-is-killing-your-company.html), [Stop Being Polite. Tackle Problems With Honesty](https://www.inc.com/betty-liu/if-you-want-to-lead-start-being-brutally-honest.html), and [The Problem with Being Too Nice.](https://hbr.org/2014/04/the-problem-with-being-too-nice)
2. Don't forget to coach your top performers. These IC’s usually seek continuous improvement. Help them by identifying problems stopping them from reaching the next level. Then, offer them resources and advice on how to get there.
3. When creating Rank and Reviews, you can use your team’s metric or an external FTAR. Both use data to create an “objective” evaluation. However, since the entire factory needs to improve quality, you should use external FTAR (or internal FTAR if you are in Manager RemoteU and meet the criteria). Only use your team’s metric if their quality is perfect.
4. If you’re looking at a stack rank and feel convinced that a person is a top performer but is in the bottom third, be very careful. Resist the urge to tweak your metric (or external FTAR) to “force” your Rank and Review to match your stack rank or opinion. This is called jerry-rigging. Instead, have a discussion with your VP about this specific person. Explain their potential and ask for advice on how to improve their performance to match the Rank and Review.
5. If your team has a poor external quality bar, use your internal quality bar (IQB) as the basis of your Rank and Review. The IQB component for this point reads: _“Ranking should be based 100% by external FTAR. However, if the manager decides that the existing or internal FTAR produces a more accurate quality stack rank, the manager can use this metric In this case, a link to the rationale behind this decision needs to be linked in the slide”_

## Conclusion

Creating teams of top-performers, or _Staffing with Stars_ is one of our core values. We emphasize quality over quantity, because we know that smaller teams high-performers can outperform larger teams of average performers.

Rank and Review is critical to the success of our enterprise because it measures and compares individual performance among team members. By doing so, we can identify next-steps for those seeking to advance their remote career.

### Quizzes

* **✏️** [Rank and Review Quiz](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdAt41IT2lfoJ2JsNQAlpZ0gJgiWLCNmUy0I5K_WO9ogNhlHQ/viewform)
* **✏️** [Rank and Review Refresh Quiz](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFAffnbpBmab7cqsIXLT0ldBDfYDSlDadIfr61kNEppNyEyQ/viewform)
