Performance Categories

Define Your Organization's Leadership Principles

Performance categories are the foundation of Aude's evaluation of engineering performance. Each category represents a key leadership principle or value defining your organization's excellence.

You can see these as templates:

Microsoft's Growth Mindset PrinciplesGoogle's Ten things we know to be trueAmazon's Leadership PrinciplesEngineering Excellence

Requirements

• Managing Performance Categories requires the Organization Administrator role

• Each category needs a clear title and measurable criteria

• Categories are visible organization-wide

• Changes affect all current and future evaluations

Understanding Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation criteria are measurable behaviors and outcomes demonstrating excellence in a performance category. Aude uses these criteria to:

• Automatically detect positive signals from integrated tools

• Create a consistent scoring baseline across teams

• Generate objective evidence for performance reviews

• Track improvement over time

Each signal contributes to a performance score, helping identify:

• Areas of strength and excellence

• Opportunities for growth

• Progress on development goals

• Overall performance trends

Creating a New Category

Performance Category Title

• Choose a clear, memorable name (e.g., "Technical Excellence", "Customer Focus")

• Use consistent naming conventions

• Keep titles concise but descriptive

Evaluation Criteria

Each criterion should follow the formula:

[WHO] demonstrates [WHAT] by [HOW], measured through [SIGNALS]

Example criteria for "Technical Excellence":

• "Engineers demonstrate code quality by maintaining >90% test coverage, measured through CI metrics"

• "Engineers demonstrate technical leadership by providing thorough code reviews within 24 hours, measured through GitHub activity"

Best Practices

• Create 5-7 core categories

• Include 3-5 evaluation criteria per category

• Ensure criteria are measurable through integrated tools

• Focus on observable behaviors and outcomes

• Consider your existing company values

Managing Categories

• Categories can be edited, but changes affect all future evaluations. Prior evaluations will remain unchanged.

• Review categories quarterly to ensure alignment with organizational goals