Microsoft retires employee feedback tool; seeks face-to-face conversations

Microsoft started ‘Perspectives’, in 2018. This was a way for Microsoft employees to ask their colleagues for feedback. When someone gave feedback both the employee and their manager got to see it. Now Microsoft has stopped using ‘Perspectives’. They are not letting people ask for feedback. If someone already asked for feedback, they can still get a response. Microsoft employees have time until September 15 to answer any feedback requests they got and to save their feedback history. After that ‘Perspectives’ will be closed for good.

The tool called ‘Perspectives’ is being stopped, the internal message said. Feedback is still a part of our way of growing; both workers and bosses have said that feedback is better when given in regular quick talks instead of official requests.

Although Microsoft has not said that these talks must happen in person, the company wants managers and employees to share opinions, through chats instead of depending on formal reviews. It thinks that even though feedback is a part of its way of working it is better when talked about during everyday tasks.

The retirement of ‘Perspectives’ happens at the time Microsoft is changing its whole performance review system. Microsoft is making the ratings for employees simpler by using five categories. They want to make it clearer who is doing a job and who is not doing so well. Microsoft is also telling managers to have people in senior engineering roles. This is part of Microsoft’s plan to make the company more efficient and have levels of management. Microsoft wants to make its organisation simpler and easier to understand.

This change in Microsoft’s way of evaluating employees matches a pattern in the tech industry. Companies have made their performance reviews more strict. Focused more on making sure people are responsible. In the few years Microsoft has also made several changes to make it clearer which employees are doing better than others. Notably Microsoft introduced Perspectives in 2018 to replace its feedback tool. That older tool had let managers gather and put together peer reviews. ‘Perspectives’ was different from the tool. ‘Perspectives’ was created to make the feedback process more relaxed and less intimidating. According to a 2022 report from Quartz Microsoft decided to avoid using the word feedback in the name of the tool. The executives felt the word feedback carried connotations. The platform was launched as part of CEO Satya Nadella‘s effort to create a growth mindset culture. The culture emphasised learning and working as a team. With the end of ‘Perspectives’ Microsoft is not completely stopping peer feedback. Instead, the company wants managers, employees and coworkers to exchange their opinions through real-time talks instead of formal requests, on a special platform.