David Hanrahan
SVP, People Success
SolarWinds
Episode 172
Individual reviews miss the mark: build high-performing teams through collective assessment.
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleMay 28, 2025 · 12:12
Thesis
“Focusing solely on individual performance reviews fails to accurately capture and improve organizational effectiveness; instead, a shift to team-based performance assessments is crucial for fostering high-performing teams and driving collective impact.”
Show notes
Redefining Team Performance with David Hanrahan on Built by People PodcastIn this episode of the Built by People Podcast, David shares his career journey from a psychology undergrad to a key player in HR and tech industries, highlighting significant roles at Twitter and Eventbrite.
He discusses the innovative implementation of team performance reviews at Eventbrite during COVID, which transitioned from individual reviews to a rubric-based team analysis, revealing actionable insights and optimizing team performance.
David provides valuable case studies, including the transformation of product functions through the new performance evaluation method.
He also offers advice on overcoming resistance to team-based assessments and emphasizes the importance of regular stakeholder feedback in HR roles.
The episode concludes with David's parting advice for maintaining curiosity and active engagement with business stakeholders.00:00 Introduction and Welcome00:47 David's Career Journey02:24 Implementing Team Performance Reviews02:41 Case Study: Eventbrite's Transformation04:21 Insights from Team Stack Ranking05:32 Case Study: Product Function Performance08:06 Transitioning to Team-Based Assessments10:38 Advice for HR Leaders12:05 Conclusion and Farewell
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What you'll take away
- 1Prioritize team-based performance assessments over purely individual reviews to gain a more accurate and holistic view of organizational health and output.
- 2Develop a clear rubric for defining high-performing teams, focusing on collective behaviors, outputs, and contributions rather than just individual metrics.
- 3Use team stack ranking as a diagnostic tool to identify high and low-performing teams, then investigate the underlying reasons to uncover actionable levers for improvement.
- 4Frame team performance discussions as executive coaching opportunities, emphasizing growth and improvement rather than shame or blame.
- 5Implement a regular feedback loop (e.g., quarterly touch-points) with internal stakeholders to assess the people function's effectiveness and gather insights for prioritization and continuous improvement.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Challenges the notion that a collection of high-performing individuals automatically constitutes a high-performing team, arguing for distinct team-centric evaluation.
- •Suggests that traditional performance reviews often obscure the true state of organizational performance rather than providing clarity for leadership.
- •Advocates for a simple, universal team assessment framework as a more effective coaching tool compared to complex, metric-diverse QBRs and MBRs that consume significant preparation time.
In David's words
“Would you rather have a team of high performers or a high-performing team?”
This quote encapsulates the core dilemma and the guest's thesis, highlighting the difference between individual and collective success.
“This isn't about shame. This is actually about giving those leaders almost like an exec coaching read-up. This is not the performance review.”
This addresses a key resistance point to team-based assessments by reframing their purpose as a developmental tool for leaders.
“I think oftentimes we feel as though we're doing a good job and we're supporting our businesses, but we're actually not. And we don't have a process by which we engage with them and like with the curiosity in mind, ask them there for their feedback.”
This emphasizes the critical need for HR functions to proactively seek stakeholder feedback to ensure alignment and build trust, rather than making assumptions.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Traditional performance reviews, focused on individual distributions, fail to provide accurate clarity into actual organizational performance for C-suite executives.
- •Companies struggle to define and measure what constitutes a 'high-performing team' versus merely a collection of high-performing individuals.
- •Team dysfunction, unclear strategy, disconnected go-to-market efforts, and loose shipping processes hinder product teams from achieving desired impact.
- •Leaders may resist public team performance rankings due to fear of 'shaming' or negative perception among peers.
- •HR functions often operate in silos, lacking a structured process to gather critical feedback from internal stakeholders on their effectiveness and priorities.
- •Quarterly and monthly business reviews (QBRs/MBRs) are often time-consuming, involve complex data presentations, and result in 'hand-wavy' conclusions rather than actionable insights.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
And as a starting question, I always love to ask about your career journey
How Did You Get Your Start in HR?
David Miller implemented team performance reviews at Eventbrite and Flare
The New Way of Looking at Team Performance
The CEO believed that the product function was our highest performing function
The Process to Raise the Product Function's Performance
David Miller has helped leaders transition from individual-focused performance reviews to team-based assessments
When Performance Reviews Go Team-based
David, what parting advice would you like to share with our community
CPO David Nitson on Built by People
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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