Use Talent Box in Small Improvements to create a traditional 9-box by comparing performance and potential on two 3-point scales. You can also use different scales or dimensions to support other talent discussions.
Talent conversations matter to everyone involved, so clear questions and shared definitions help managers assess fairly.
All questions, scales, definitions, behavioral examples, and timeframes below are illustrative, not Small Improvements default ratings. Adapt them to your roles and talent process.
Choose Questions That Fit Your Purpose
Performance assesses results and behaviors in the current role. Potential assesses capacity for defined future growth, with development and support. Strong current performance doesn’t automatically establish potential for different work.
Growth may mean deeper expertise, more complex work, broader ownership, or people leadership where relevant. Define the growth path, timeframe, and assumed support. Discuss career aspirations separately. Preferring the current role doesn’t mean low potential.
Use Your Existing Performance Rating When It Fits
If your overall rating already measures current role expectations, use it. A separate rated question may help if you want to assess a different dimension, such as results alone, or deliberately use three points for a 9-box. If you add a separate question alongside your overall rating, tell managers why both are needed.
Choose a Scale
Three points offer broad distinctions and create a 9-box when used on both axes. Five points may help when you already use that scale or need distinctions that change your decisions. Managers should be able to distinguish adjacent options using evidence.
The axes can use different scales. Five performance options and three potential options create a 5×3 grid. Talent Box shows each response option as its own row or column.
Example Question Options
Overall performance: “Considering the employee’s results and how they achieve them, to what extent have they met current role expectations during this review period?”
Results only: “How consistently has the employee delivered the outcomes expected in their current role during this review period?”
Potential: “Based on observed learning, judgment, and adaptability, how much potential has the employee demonstrated to succeed with [greater scope, complexity, or specialist expertise] over [timeframe], with [development and support]?”
For example, you might focus on more advanced specialist work over the next 12 to 24 months, supported by coaching and relevant assignments. Potential describes capacity. Readiness describes preparation for a specific responsibility within a stated timeframe.
Example Performance Scales
Assess performance against role and level, considering priorities and resources. Exceeding expectations shouldn’t depend on managing people, visibility, or longer hours.
Three Points
Response option | Definition | Behavioral example |
Below expectations | Doesn’t consistently meet important expectations. | Repeatedly misses commitments or needs substantial corrections despite clear expectations and support. |
Meets expectations | Reliably meets expected results and behaviors. | Produces quality work, meets commitments, and collaborates effectively. |
Exceeds expectations | Consistently contributes beyond expectations while meeting core responsibilities. | Delivers stronger outcomes than expected and improves a process that benefits others. |
Five Points
Response option | Definition | Behavioral example |
Significantly below expectations | Falls substantially short of essential expectations. | Essential work regularly remains incomplete or unusable despite clear expectations and support. |
Partially meets expectations | Meets some expectations, with meaningful gaps. | Handles routine work well but repeatedly needs intervention on an important responsibility. |
Meets expectations | Reliably meets expectations for the role and level. | Delivers agreed outcomes with expected quality and independence. |
Exceeds expectations | Frequently contributes beyond expectations while meeting core responsibilities. | Improves a process and delivers beyond expectations across several assignments. |
Significantly exceeds expectations | Sustains exceptional contribution with substantial impact appropriate to the role. | Repeatedly delivers unusually strong outcomes and creates improvements others adopt. |
Capture the Evidence
Ask managers to note what the employee did, the outcome, and the available opportunities and support. You can add a comment box to any rated question except the overall rating. For the overall rating, existing review questions may already capture the evidence. A separate text question is another option.
Example Potential Scales
Ratings apply to the growth path and timeframe you defined, not the employee’s overall capacity to grow. Lower ratings require evidence. They aren’t substitutes for uncertainty.
Three Points
Response option | Definition | Behavioral example |
Limited demonstrated potential | Evidence supports growth mainly within familiar scope. | Across supported opportunities, still needs substantial guidance to transfer learning to unfamiliar work. |
Moderate demonstrated potential | Shows capacity for increased scope with targeted development. | Applies feedback to a new assignment and handles parts independently, seeking support appropriately. |
Strong demonstrated potential | Repeatedly shows capacity for substantially greater scope or complexity. | Transfers learning across assignments, uses sound judgment, and takes on broader ownership successfully. |
Five Points
Response option | Definition | Behavioral example |
Limited demonstrated potential | Evidence supports growth mainly within familiar scope. | Still needs substantial guidance outside familiar work after several supported opportunities. |
Some demonstrated potential | Shows capacity for a modest extension of scope with substantial development. | Applies a new skill to a related task with frequent coaching. |
Moderate demonstrated potential | Shows capacity for a meaningful increase in scope with targeted development. | Handles more complex work, applies feedback, and makes routine decisions independently. |
Strong demonstrated potential | Repeatedly shows capacity for substantially greater scope or complexity. | Succeeds across unfamiliar assignments, anticipates risks, and adapts with decreasing guidance. |
Very strong demonstrated potential | Shows sustained capacity for considerably broader or more complex contribution. | Combines learning across contexts, resolves unfamiliar problems, and helps others apply the approach. |
Support Consistent and Fair Assessments
Agree on shared criteria, such as applying learning, judgment, adaptability, and a broader sense of ownership. Before ratings open, have managers discuss the same sample cases to ensure alignment. Consider whether employees had similar access to opportunities. Confidence, charisma, and visibility aren’t substitutes for evidence.
Limited evidence isn’t low potential. Agree in advance on how managers should handle uncertainty. If a manager skips either rating, the employee won’t appear in Talent Box. If you add “Unable to assess” as a response option, it gets its own row or column in the grid. Review these employees separately and discuss what evidence or opportunities would help.
Use placements to support conversations and next steps alongside review evidence and employee aspirations. Revisit assessments as evidence changes.
For step-by-step instructions on setting up Talent Box, see Performance Reviews: Talent Box.