Templates and Questions
Build versioned review templates with rating scales and competency questions, and understand how the question set is frozen at cycle activation.
Why It Matters
The template is what turns a review from a free-form opinion into structured, comparable evidence. Every reviewer in a cycle answers the same questions on the same scale, which is exactly what an auditor means by “assessment against documented expectations” — and what makes review N comparable to review N+1 a year later. A blank Google Doc can’t do either.
Templates are versioned, and cycles pin the version they ran against. Your evidence records cite — and literally contain — the question set that was in force, even if you rewrite the template next quarter.
Creating a Template
Go to Performance > Templates and press New template. A template has:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | e.g. “Startup competency review” |
| Rating scale (max) | The top of the 1–N rating scale; any value from 3 to 10 |
| Questions | Any mix of rating and text questions, each with an optional competency tag |
Each question is a prompt plus a kind:
- Rating — answered on the template’s 1–N scale. Rating questions are required: a review can’t be submitted while any rating question is unanswered.
- Text — a narrative answer. Text questions may be left blank.
The optional competency tag (“Communication”, “Technical judgment”, “Security ownership”) groups questions by the capability they probe. Blank prompts are dropped on save, so you can sketch freely.
Tip
For CC1.4, include at least one question that assesses security responsibilities — e.g. a rating question tagged “Security ownership”: “Handles credentials, access, and customer data according to policy.” Job descriptions with security responsibilities are part of the CC1.4 evidence set, and this bakes the assessment into every review.
Publishing
A new template starts as a draft and can’t be used by a cycle until you tick Publish this template so cycles can use it — and publishing requires at least one question. Retire a template by archiving it; a template that any cycle has used can’t be deleted, because evidence records cite it by name and version.
| Status | Usable by new cycles | Editable |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | No | Yes |
| Published | Yes | Yes (bumps version once in use) |
| Archived | No | — |
Versioning: Snapshot at Activation
Two mechanisms keep evidence honest against template edits:
- Version bumps — once any cycle uses a template, changing its questions bumps the template’s version number. The form warns you: “Changing questions after a cycle uses this template bumps its version.”
- Snapshot at activation — when a cycle is activated, Kit stamps the template version and copies the full question set into the cycle. Reviewers answer the frozen copy; the finalized evidence record embeds those exact questions.
The practical consequence: edit templates whenever you like. Draft cycles pick up the latest questions automatically; active and finalized cycles are unaffected, and each evidence record shows “Template v3” style provenance an auditor can verify.
Note
Don’t create a new template per cycle. Reuse one template across cycles so ratings stay comparable period over period — version history handles evolution.
Role Expectations Complement the Template
Template questions are shared by everyone in the cycle; the per-person half of “documented expectations” is the Role expectations field set on each participant when you add them to a cycle. Together — shared competency questions plus a per-person role summary, both snapshotted into the evidence — they satisfy the auditor’s “assessment against documented role expectations” without maintaining a separate job-description system.
Quick Checklist
- Create one template with 4–8 questions — mostly ratings, one or two narrative prompts
- Tag questions with competencies, including a security-responsibility question
- Set a rating scale you’ll keep (1–5 is the convention auditors see most)
- Publish it
- Reuse it next cycle; let versioning track changes
Next Steps
- Review Cycles — put the template to work
- Writing Reviews — how reviewers answer the questions