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Write peer feedback that actually helps
A simple exercise to write a peer review that's specific, fair, and useful to the person who reads it
Why it’s worth your time
Written peer feedback helps when it points at real moments and what they caused. “Great team player” tells your colleague nothing they can repeat or change, while a specific example and its effect tells them both. Two strengths and one suggestion keeps the balance honest, and writing the suggestion as advice for next time makes it easier to act on.
How to write peer feedback, with examples
You’ll come away with a short written review built on three real examples.
We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.
- Gather your examples first.
Look back over the period: shared documents, project channels, meeting notes, your calendar. You're looking for moments you saw yourself, not things you heard about.
Tip: Start with what they were trying to achieve. Their review will be read against it, and it helps you see which moments mattered.
- Fill in two things that worked and one thing to try.
Each one is a moment, what they did, and what it caused. Short answers are fine; specific is what matters.
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Tip: If you can only find one strength you saw firsthand, use one. An invented second example is worse than none.
- Turn it into plain sentences.
Move it into the review form, strengths first. Keep the effect in every sentence. It's the part a reader can't guess, and the part their manager can use.
- Read it as if it were about you.
Would you recognize every moment? Could you act on the suggestion? Cut anything that describes their personality rather than their work.
Tip: If you'd be uncomfortable saying it to their face, rewrite it until you wouldn't be.
- Consider telling them directly as well.
If the review goes only to their manager, the thing to try may be more useful said in person, where they can ask you about it. A review shouldn't be the first place someone hears it.
Good moments for this: whenever you're asked for peer feedbackat review timewhen a project wraps and someone asks how it went
We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.
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Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Reviews tend to be written from the last month's memory. A line jotted when you see something good, or something to try, makes the review fair to the whole period.
What might make this harder
Say so in the review and keep it short. A brief, honest note about the little you saw is more useful than a padded one.
Questions people ask
What should I write in peer feedback?
A couple of specific examples of what worked and one thing to try, each tied to what it caused. Real moments and their effects are far more useful than adjectives.
What's a good example of constructive peer feedback?
Name a moment, what happened, and the effect, then suggest what to try next time. For example: in the last two handoffs, the testing notes were missing, so QA reran everything; a short handoff checklist would save a day.
How long should peer review feedback be?
Often a short paragraph or two is enough. Three specific examples usually say more than a page of general praise.
Why this works, and where it comes from
Peer review requests tend to arrive in a batch, at the busiest time of year, as a set of empty boxes. So people fill them with adjectives: reliable, collaborative, a strong communicator. Adjectives are easy to write and almost impossible to use. Your colleague reads that they're a strong communicator and learns nothing about what to keep doing, or what to change.
Think about who else reads it. Their manager is usually looking for something to point to: evidence for a rating, a line for a promotion case, a reason to believe the self-review. A specific example does that job, and vague praise mostly doesn't. Each example here takes its shape from the Center for Creative Leadership's Situation-Behavior-Impact model, applied in writing: the moment, what the person did, what it caused.
The one thing to try works best written as advice for next time rather than a verdict on last time. It looks forward, it's easier to act on, and it's easier to read without flinching. Two strengths to one suggestion isn't a formula; it's a way of making sure the review reflects what's actually true about most people's work, which is that more of it went right than wrong.
Some things don't belong in a form at all. If you've seen something serious, like a pattern of missed commitments that's hurting the team, talk to the person, or their manager, before the review does it for you. Where reviews rank people against each other, your words may carry more weight than you'd guess, so stay strictly with what you saw.
Other simple things to consider
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Written by Truest, based on Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) feedback model (Center for Creative Leadership). Last updated September 25, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.