Best examples of mid-year performance review examples for project managers

High‑performer examples of mid-year performance review examples for project managers

Let’s start with what everyone secretly wants: glowing mid-year review comments that still sound honest. These examples of mid-year performance review examples for project managers are written for someone performing at the top of their role.

Example: Exceeds expectations in delivery and results
“Over the first half of the year, you consistently delivered complex projects on time and within budget. The Q1 Customer Portal Upgrade launched two weeks ahead of schedule and came in 6% under budget, while still meeting all agreed scope. You used clear sprint goals, visible Kanban boards, and weekly risk reviews to keep the team aligned and focused. Your ability to translate technical tradeoffs into business impact has helped senior stakeholders make faster decisions and has increased trust in our delivery commitments.”

Why this works:
It calls out specific projects, quantifies impact, and focuses on behaviors (risk reviews, sprint goals) that can be repeated. When you’re writing your own examples of mid-year performance review examples for project managers, always ask: Can someone outside the project understand what was achieved and how?

Example: Outstanding stakeholder and client management
“You have become a go-to project manager for high-visibility, cross-functional initiatives. On the Global Pricing Alignment project, you facilitated alignment across Sales, Finance, and Legal, each with conflicting priorities. Your structured weekly stakeholder updates, clear decision logs, and calm handling of escalations helped us avoid scope creep and kept executive sponsors confident in the plan. Feedback from our VP of Sales specifically highlighted your ‘rare ability to balance empathy with firm boundaries.’”

This kind of example of high performance shows who noticed the impact, not just the PM’s own view.

Balanced examples include strengths and growth areas

Most project managers fall into the “strong, but with a few clear growth areas” category. That’s where balanced examples of mid-year performance review examples for project managers are especially helpful.

Example: Solid performance with scope and prioritization feedback
“During the first half of the year, you managed three simultaneous projects: the CRM Migration, the Internal Helpdesk Redesign, and the Q2 Marketing Campaign Launch. You delivered the CRM Migration on time and with high quality, and the Marketing Campaign Launch met all deadlines after you escalated a resource constraint early. The Helpdesk Redesign, however, experienced delays due to late scope changes and limited pushback on additional requests.

Going forward, I’d like to see you hold firmer boundaries on scope and use change-control processes more consistently. When new requests arise, continue to clarify impact on timeline and budget and document tradeoffs before agreeing. This will help you protect the team’s focus and avoid last-minute crunch periods.”

Notice how this example of mid-year feedback is specific, fair, and future-focused. It doesn’t label the PM as “bad” at scope; it describes what happened and what to adjust.

Example: Strong collaboration, opportunity in data-driven reporting
“You’re a reliable partner to Engineering and Design, and multiple team members have praised your responsiveness and willingness to jump in and unblock issues. Daily standups are well-run, and your calm tone helps the team stay focused during crunch time. One area to strengthen in the second half of the year is your use of data in status reporting. Executive stakeholders are increasingly asking for metrics such as cycle time, risk burn-down trends, and forecast vs. actual velocity.

I encourage you to leverage our project analytics tools more fully and incorporate at least two key metrics into your weekly reports. This will help you tell a clearer story about project health and make it easier for leadership to allocate resources.”

In 2024–2025, data literacy is showing up in many PM role profiles. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics highlights analytical skills and reporting as core management capabilities, and that trend carries across industries.

Development-focused examples of mid-year performance review examples for project managers

Sometimes the mid-year review is a wake-up call. That doesn’t mean the tone has to be harsh. Strong examples of developmental feedback are clear about the gap and equally clear about support.

Example: Performance below expectations with a clear improvement plan
“During the first half of the year, several of your projects have struggled to meet agreed timelines. The Payroll System Upgrade missed its initial target by six weeks, and the Website Refresh required two additional sprints to address quality issues. In both cases, risks were known early but not escalated until deadlines were already at risk.

At this point, your performance is below expectations for a project manager at your level. Over the next three months, I expect you to:

• Hold weekly risk reviews and document top risks in each status report.
• Escalate any risk that may impact scope, timeline, or budget more than 10% within 48 hours.
• Partner with your mentor to practice difficult stakeholder conversations.

We’ll meet biweekly to review progress and adjust support as needed. If you apply these practices consistently, I’m confident you can get back on track.”

This example of a mid-year performance review doesn’t sugarcoat the issue, but it also doesn’t leave the PM guessing about what “improvement” actually looks like.

Example: New PM still building core skills
“As a first-year project manager, you’ve shown strong curiosity and a willingness to learn. You’ve taken ownership of smaller workstreams within the Data Warehouse project and handled task tracking reliably. At the same time, you’re still developing skills in proactive planning and stakeholder communication.

For the second half of the year, I’d like you to lead a full, low-risk project end to end, with support from a senior PM. Focus on writing clear project charters, defining success metrics up front, and running structured kickoff meetings. I also encourage you to complete at least one formal training course on project planning or agile fundamentals through our learning platform or an external provider such as MIT OpenCourseWare.”

Here, the mid-year review examples include very specific next steps and a development resource the PM can actually use.

Real examples of mid-year performance review examples for project managers by competency

Another helpful way to think about examples of mid-year performance review examples for project managers is by competency. That way, you can mix and match phrases depending on what your form asks for: communication, leadership, risk, etc.

Delivery and execution

Positive example:
“You consistently break down large, ambiguous initiatives into clear, manageable phases. On the Data Privacy Compliance project, your phased approach allowed us to achieve 90% of the required controls before the regulatory deadline, reducing legal exposure. You maintain realistic timelines and proactively renegotiate scope when new requirements appear, which has reduced last-minute overtime for the team.”

Constructive example:
“You are committed to meeting deadlines, and you often work extra hours to keep projects moving. However, several projects this year have relied on last-minute heroics rather than early planning. In the second half of the year, I’d like to see you invest more time in risk-based planning and scenario analysis at project kickoff, so we can avoid repeated crunch periods.”

Stakeholder management and communication

Positive example:
“Your communication style is clear, concise, and tailored to your audience. Executive sponsors receive short, decision-focused updates, while team members get detailed task-level information. During the ERP Implementation, your weekly executive summary helped leadership quickly understand tradeoffs and approve decisions without delay.”

Constructive example:
“You share a high volume of information, which shows your commitment to transparency. However, several stakeholders have commented that it can be hard to quickly see what decisions are needed. Going forward, please include a brief ‘Summary and Decisions Needed’ section at the top of your updates to make it easier for busy leaders to respond.”

Leadership and team culture

Positive example:
“You’ve created a psychologically safe environment where team members feel comfortable raising risks and admitting when they’re blocked. During the AI Pilot Project, you encouraged open discussion about concerns around new tools, which helped the team experiment without fear of failure. This aligns well with research from organizations like Harvard Business School highlighting the link between psychological safety and high-performing teams.”

Constructive example:
“You are highly task-focused and always know the status of each deliverable. At times, this can come across as transactional, and some team members have shared that they’re unsure how their work connects to the bigger picture. In the next quarter, I’d like you to spend more time connecting project tasks to business outcomes and recognizing individual contributions in team meetings.”

Risk management and adaptability

Positive example:
“You demonstrated strong adaptability when supply chain disruptions impacted the Manufacturing Modernization project. You quickly organized a cross-functional working session, identified alternative vendors, and updated the project plan within three days. This responsiveness helped us avoid a projected four-week delay and maintain our launch date.”

Constructive example:
“You identify risks in your project plans, but mitigation actions are sometimes vague or not tracked. For the remainder of the year, please ensure that each high-priority risk has a clear owner, target date, and specific mitigation steps. We’ll review your risk register together in our monthly one-on-ones.”

2024–2025 trends to reference in your mid-year review examples

If you want your examples of mid-year performance review examples for project managers to feel current, it helps to reflect what’s actually changing in project work right now.

Here are a few trends you can explicitly reference in your comments:

1. Use of AI and automation in project work
More PMs are using AI tools to draft project plans, summarize meetings, and analyze risks. You might write:

“Over the past six months, you’ve experimented with AI-based tools to speed up project documentation and risk analysis. Your use of AI to summarize stakeholder feedback reduced meeting prep time by an estimated 30%, allowing you to focus more on decision-making and coaching the team.”

If the PM hasn’t leaned into this yet, you could say:

“In the second half of the year, I encourage you to explore AI-assisted tools for meeting notes and risk analysis. This can free up time for higher-value activities like stakeholder alignment and strategy.”

2. Remote and hybrid collaboration
Many mid-year review examples include comments on how well PMs handle distributed teams:

“You have effectively led a fully remote project team spanning three time zones. Your use of clear agendas, recorded updates, and written decision logs has helped maintain alignment despite limited overlapping hours. Team survey results show a 15-point increase in perceived clarity of priorities since you introduced weekly written summaries.”

This kind of detail shows you understand modern work patterns and are not just reusing generic phrases.

3. Focus on well-being and sustainable pace
Organizations continue to care about burnout and sustainable work. You can acknowledge that directly:

“You’ve become more intentional about pacing work to avoid burnout. On the Q2 Release, you rebalanced scope across sprints and actively pushed back on weekend work, which the team called out positively in the post-mortem. This aligns with our company’s focus on sustainable performance and employee well-being, consistent with broader findings from sources like the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.”

Tips for writing your own best examples of mid-year performance review examples for project managers

You don’t need to copy these word-for-word. Instead, treat them as patterns. When you create your own best examples of mid-year performance review examples for project managers, keep three simple habits in mind:

Anchor feedback in specific projects and outcomes
Instead of saying, “You’re a strong project manager,” say, “You led the X project, which resulted in Y outcome, by doing Z.” That structure makes your feedback more believable and more useful.

Balance “what happened” with “what next”
Strong mid-year reviews are not just a report card; they’re a roadmap. After describing a behavior, add a sentence like, “In the next six months, I’d like you to…” so the PM knows how to grow.

Match your tone to your message, but stay respectful
Even when performance is weak, keep the tone professional and specific. Avoid labels like “bad” or “lazy.” Focus on behaviors, impact, and expectations.

As you adapt these examples of mid-year performance review examples for project managers, read your comments out loud. If they sound stiff or robotic, rewrite them in the way you’d actually speak to the person in a one-on-one.

FAQ: examples of mid-year performance review examples for project managers

How detailed should a mid-year review be for a project manager?
Aim for enough detail that someone outside the project could understand what went well, what didn’t, and what’s expected next. Most strong examples of mid-year performance review examples for project managers include 2–3 concrete project references and at least one clear development focus.

Can I reuse the same example of a project across multiple review sections?
Yes, as long as you highlight different aspects. The same project can illustrate delivery, stakeholder management, and leadership, depending on what you emphasize. Just avoid copying the same sentence in multiple sections.

What are some examples of goals to set for project managers at mid-year?
Real examples include goals like: leading a cross-functional project end to end, improving forecast accuracy by a certain percentage, reducing average cycle time, increasing stakeholder satisfaction scores, or completing a specific training or certification (for example, a course on agile or risk management from a reputable provider such as a university or PMI.org).

How can project managers write strong self-review examples?
Use the same patterns you see here: name the project, describe your actions, and quantify results where possible. For instance: “I led the X rollout, which increased adoption by Y%, by doing Z.” Be honest about misses and pair each one with what you learned and what you’ll do differently.

Are these mid-year performance review examples only for software project managers?
No. While some language here fits tech and digital projects, the structure works for construction, healthcare, education, and nonprofit projects as well. You can adapt the wording to your industry while keeping the same focus on clear outcomes, behaviors, and next steps.

Use these patterns as a starting point, plug in your real data and stories, and you’ll end up with mid-year review comments that feel fair, specific, and genuinely helpful—for you and your project managers.