Situation: A mid-level engineer on my team missed delivery commitments for three consecutive sprints, and their code reviews frequently required multiple rounds of fundamental corrections, causing frustration among teammates.
Task: As their manager, I needed to identify the root cause of the underperformance, provide direct and compassionate feedback, and establish a clear path for turnaround.
Action: In our 1-on-1, I laid out specific examples of missed milestones and review feedback neutrally. Rather than assuming lack of effort, I asked open-ended questions. The engineer shared that they felt completely out of their depth with our recent transition to TypeScript and asynchronous distributed tracing. We co-created a 30-day performance plan with explicit, measurable milestones: completing a targeted TypeScript course, pairing weekly with a senior engineer on complex PRs, and delivering two well-scoped bug fixes independently. I provided weekly progress feedback with complete transparency.
Result: By week four, the engineer's pull request cycle time improved by 50%, and they successfully shipped an independent integration feature by the end of the second month. By addressing skill gaps with concrete support rather than punishment, we turned performance around and retained a motivated team member.