Performance Philosophy and System

Our approach to performance

Our highly flexible and non-linear environment empowers individuals with significant autonomy and trusting you to direct your own work. Our Agency value pairs this autonomy with ownership and accountability. We expect true mastery in your craft and the personal drive to consistently achieve exceptional performance and results. This environment is designed for those committed to continuous growth and meaningful impact.

Maximum autonomy → shared mastery → legendary impact

Why do we need a Performance Philosophy?

We want to ensure there is a clear understanding and expectation company-wide that our amazing flexibility comes with great responsibility. Each Todoister’s performance fuels Todoist’s growth, innovation, and market leadership directly.

Consistent, sustainable performance shouldn't come at the expense of a life outside of work. When we work smarter, iterate continuously and drive results, we create more room for the things that matter beyond the job. We celebrate people who find better ways of doing things, who drives impact and results on our customers, their peers and the company, not people who works long hours or

What do we mean by "impact?"

Our performance reviews assess a Todoister's overall impact for the cycle, not input or output. The impact rating is a holistic assessment derived from three core components:

Alignment to Our Core Values and Mission: This evaluates how well a Todoister's actions and contributions embody Todoist's foundational principles and contribute to the overarching company mission.
Alignment to Expectations and Impact in Your Level and Role: This measures how consistently a Todoister meets or exceeds the defined responsibilities, outcomes, and performance standards for their specific role, level and squad work.
Ability to Adapt to Change at Todoist: This assesses how effectively a Todoister responds to evolving priorities, processes, or organizational shifts across business as usual and squad work.

The rating scale gives us a shared language for assessing impact, but the written feedback and conversation we have after the review cycle, is where the real value in this process lives. This meaningful 1:1 creates alignment between you and your leader.

Side quests and main work

Side quest is an experiment or improvement you pursue outside your agreed priorities and commitments.

We encourage experiments and improvements outside your main responsibilities. They count toward your impact, but your main contribution can’t become side quests. Your main quest is your squad’s priorities and the work you committed to. Some concrete guidelines:

Side quests only add value if your core work is solid and not impacted. Great work in a side quest won’t earn you a transformational rating if you aren’t delivering on your main responsibilities.
Squad goals belong to all squad members. Each member is accountable for delivering on their squad’s objectives, not just the squad lead.

How do we rate impact?

We utilize a four rating scale:

Performance Rating	Meaning	Key Characteristics	Examples
Not enough Impact	Your contributions fall short of expectations and do not adequately advance team or company objectives.	Work frequently requires significant revision or often needs to be completed by others due to incomplete or insufficient output. Consistently falls short of established expectations across multiple responsibilities.	Work frequently requires significant revision or completion by others. Requires frequent manager, peer, or squad guidance to complete standard job responsibilities. Actively resists company-wide shifts to new processes or tools, causing significant project delays. Routinely ignores feedback from quality reviews, leading to outputs that do not meet standards and require others to fix.
Inconsistent Impact	Your work demonstrates capability, but its quality and consistency vary, resulting in mixed results.	Achieves mixed results across different responsibilities, with some tasks performed well and others falling short. Work quality varies and is sometimes inconsistent, indicating a lack of uniform performance.	Delivers strong results on some projects while missing deadlines or quality standards on others. Shows excellent skills in certain areas but struggles with consistency in planning or communication. Struggles to adapt effectively when a project's requirements change mid-cycle, which leads to delays in deliverables. Delivers strong results on urgent, high-visibility tasks but struggles to consistently manage core responsibilities, which leads to backlogs.
Consistent Impact	You reliably meet expectations, delivering quality work that supports team and company goals.	Always meets established targets and deadlines. Work produced consistently requires minimal revision, indicating high accuracy and completeness.	Always meets deadlines and delivers work that requires minimal revision. Maintains positive stakeholder feedback and completes assigned responsibilities reliably, without needing to be prompted. Successfully integrates new requirements into existing processes within the required timeframe. Consistently produces high-quality work that aligns with company standards and strategic goals.
Transformational Impact	You create meaningful change and results that elevate outcomes beyond expectations. Your work drives lasting improvements that advance Todoist's mission and inspire others to build upon your contributions.	Work influences outcomes and strategies beyond their immediate scope of responsibility. Enduring impact and influence on future work. Squad, Team or Cross-functional impact that elevates our goals, values or mission.	Going above and beyond to increase efficiency in the team or squad. Measurably increase squad outcomes, team collaboration, communication and goal completion. Takes initiative beyond their role to drive significant results. Creates positive change that extends beyond their immediate responsibilities in alignment with the career framework for their level.

How we think about feedback

Performance reviews aren't the only place feedback should happen. Leads, Heads, and CXOs are expected to use our Feedback Compass to share feedback consistently throughout the year. The performance review cycle is a company-wide moment to reflect and realign, not the first time a Todoister hears how they're doing.

We also don't compare Todoisters to each other. Reviews are about your growth over time, measured against the expectations of your role and level.

For details on how the review cycle works in practice, see the Performance Review Cycle Guide . For answers to common questions, see Performance FAQ and Support Resources .