Welcome to the Underperformance Early Warning Checklist!
This Notion page is your go-to tool for spotting underperformance early in your startup or scale-up team, using continuous performance principles.
Designed for People Ops folks and managers, it helps you identify red flags, analyse them with GenAI tools (like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini), and create actionable plans to support your team—all while saving time and boosting output.
Spotting underperformance early isn’t just about fixing problems—it’s about empowering your team to grow and succeed. In fast-paced startups, small issues (like a drop in communication or missed deadlines) can quickly snowball, impacting morale, productivity, and even business outcomes like customer satisfaction.
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Research shows that addressing underperformance prior to giving a PIP can improve team engagement metrics by up to 20%
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This checklist gives you a proactive system to identify risks, analyse them with AI, and take action—whether you’re a solo People Ops leader or a manager juggling a million tasks.
Below is a research backed checklist of underperformance red flags.
Use this to observe your team over a 1-4 week period. Check off any signs you notice, and add notes in the “Observations” column for context.
Warning Signs Checklist
| Warning Sign | Check if Observed | Observations (Add Notes) |
|---|---|---|
| Missed deadlines 3+ times | [ ] | |
| Negative peer feedback trends | [ ] | |
| Drop-off in communication quality (e.g., vague, incomplete responses) | [ ] | |
| Drop-off in communication quantity (e.g., fewer Slack messages, emails) | [ ] | |
| Change in tone (e.g., more negative, withdrawn, or disengaged in meetings) | [ ] | |
| Decline in meeting participation | [ ] | |
| Reduced initiative (e.g., fewer ideas, less volunteering for tasks) | [ ] | |
| Increased errors in deliverables | [ ] | |
| Visible frustration or disengagement (e.g., body language, tardiness) | [ ] | |
| Slower response times to tasks/comms | [ ] |
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Manager Tip: Look for patterns, not one-offs. If someone misses a deadline once, it could have myriad caused — but if they’re also disengaged in meetings and their tone has shifted, it’s time to dig deeper.
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Use these GenAI prompts to analyse the warning signs you’ve identified. They’re structured to ensure clear, actionable outputs, inspired by the “Anatomy of an 01 Prompt” framework.
Copy-paste these into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini (free versions work fine) along with your insights from above.
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MAKE SURE TO NOT JUST USE THE OUTPUT - As a manager it will always be critical to use GenAI tools responsibly, so ensure you anonymise personal information, think critically, using your own mind, and compare and contrast the outputs to your own knowledge.
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