● Business Transformation · Instrument 04 · v1.1
The Nine Box
Potential against performance, nine boxes, one page — the fifteen-minute talent review that replaces weeks of the other kind. The manual, and the roster-and-grid template that is the instrument.
Why it matters
A review process should answer three questions about every person: are they in the right role, are they being challenged, and are they being rewarded — in growth and in money — in proportion to what they do and what they could do. The annual review I inherited in 2017 answered none of them in weeks of paperwork. The nine box answers all three in fifteen minutes, with the team’s managers in the room, and leaves with one move per person. It is the instrument that joins the Competency Model, which is how potential is read, to Objectives and Key Results, which is how performance is scored.
What’s inside
Fifteen minutes. The three questions, and why the annual review does not ask them.
Two axes. Performance as results against the role, from the key results; potential as the three unteachable competencies against the next role. Three rules that keep them honest, and why three levels and not five.
Nine boxes. The grid, numbered, with the three bands: the top right, the diagonal, the bottom left.
What each box asks of you. A placement is an instruction to the manager — the read and the move for all nine, from the crucial conversation to “never promote into misery.”
Invest, selectively invest, divest. Where development time, stretch, promotion and pay go, box by box; why growth should be predictable; and why the distribution is a diagnosis of the manager.
The fifteen-minute review. Score before, argue only the disagreements during, hold the conversations within two weeks after; the agenda in order; quarterly, and never alone.
The template, and the checklist. The roster that computes the box, the grid that counts the team, and the checklist to print.
How to use it
Name the next role for each person before you score potential. Score performance from the quarter’s key results. Enter both in the roster before the meeting, read the grid aloud, argue the disagreements as “which role, which competency,” and leave with one move per person. Run it every quarter.
Provenance
First used as Senior Director of Customer Success at a Vista Equity portfolio company in 2017, to re-measure whether each person was in the right role and was being challenged and rewarded through their growth; redrawn in 2026 for a portfolio talent review. Rebuilt here as a Juan.co instrument: the two axes tied to the Competency Model and to key results, the review written down, and a template with invented names and scores.