1

API & System Design

Quality of API design, data modeling, and overall system architecture decisions.

Exceeds

API contracts are clean, well-documented, and enable frontend and partner teams to ship without blockers. System designs account for future scale.

Meets

APIs are functional and reasonably designed. Documentation is adequate. Systems work reliably.

Below

API contracts are inconsistent or poorly documented. Frontend teams frequently work around their APIs.

Example review phrases

  • "Designed the v2 API from scratch—zero breaking changes across 8 consumer teams, and the documentation became the org standard."
  • "Frontend team described their API as the cleanest they've worked with: consistent conventions, accurate docs, predictable error handling."
2

Performance & Scalability

Ability to build systems that perform under load and scale with product growth.

Exceeds

Proactively benchmarks and optimizes systems before performance becomes a production problem.

Meets

Systems handle expected load. Performance issues are resolved when identified.

Below

Systems degrade under load in predictable ways that were not caught in development.

Example review phrases

  • "Load-tested the checkout service before the Q4 campaign—caught and fixed a DB connection pool issue that would have caused an outage."
3

Data Integrity & Security

Correctness of data handling. Security hygiene in data storage and transmission.

Exceeds

Zero data integrity issues in systems they own. Security considerations are built in, not patched on.

Meets

Data handling is correct for standard cases. Security practices are followed.

Below

Data integrity issues have surfaced in production. Security gaps have required reactive patches.

Example review phrases

  • "Caught a race condition in the payment processing flow that could have caused double-charges—identified in code review before it shipped."
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Where do these examples come from in real reviews?

Most managers write performance reviews from memory—limited to what they personally observed. Confirm surfaces behavioral evidence from across the organization: who relied on this person, what they drove, how their impact extended beyond their direct manager's line of sight. Reviews written with Confirm's data are more accurate, more defensible, and faster to write.

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