This guide covers how to test a unified Performance Review Cycle end-to-end in the Culture Amp platform: launching a cycle; the self-reflection, manager review, peer/upward feedback and HRBP experiences; and calibrations. All perspectives are covered in one place. Run everything as a clearly labeled test and remove the test data when you're done (see Clean Up).

Before You Begin

You need Performance (Full Permissions) to administer a cycle. An Account Admin role on its own is not enough.
A Performance (Limited Permissions) user can administer within their assigned demographic scope only.
Keep all testing inside one clearly named test cycle, e.g., "TEST - Performance Review - Do Not Use".

Choose your testing approach

With colleagues - Add a small group who know it's a test, so you get the real experience for each role.
Solo, with Dummy users: Create 3 - 5 clearly named dummy users (e.g., TEST USER 01 - Do Not Use).
- To test each role yourself, reassign the reporting lines between each pass. This controls which perspective each dummy user takes on in the cycle:
  - Set one dummy user as the employee - they'll complete a self-reflection
  - Set one as the manager. They'll complete a manager review of a direct report
  - Place one within a scoped demographic group - this unlocks the HRBP view for that segment
- Since self-reflections, manager reviews, and visibility are all driven by reporting lines, rotating who reports to whom is how you cover each role without needing extra people.

Setting Up Dummy Users for Solo Testing

To test with dummy users:

Create test employee records directly in Culture Amp via Settings > Users > Add User, or via a partial import
Assign each dummy user a real email address you can access – e.g., a personal email or a +alias variant of your work email (e.g., yourname+test01@company.com) - so you can receive notifications and complete tasks as that user
Label them clearly (e.g. TEST USER 01 - Do Not Use) so they're easy to identify and remove after testing
Add dummy users to a dedicated demographic group (e.g., Department = TEST GROUP) to test the HRBP scoped view

Important Notes

Performance (Full Permissions) is required to administer cycles; Account Admin alone is not enough. Performance (Limited) is scoped to a demographic.
A manager review can no longer be edited once acknowledged; only a Performance Admin can edit after acknowledgment or cycle close.
Peer/upward feedback sharing is a separate toggle from manager review sharing.
Calibration view sharing = read-only, always. The Ratings Matrix only appears on in-scope, single-cycle views with admin access.
Published calibration views cannot be edited or deleted.
Deactivating a user does not remove their data - remove them from the cycle participant list.
Calibration and cycle emails cannot be customized; they are sent as-is by the platform.

Testing a Performance Cycle

Step 1: Launch a Test Cycle

Go to Performance > Admin and create a new cycle.
Name it clearly, e.g. "TEST - Performance Review - Do Not Use".
Select only the components you want to test – any mix of Self-Reflection, Manager Review, Peer Feedback and Upward Feedback. Self-Reflection plus Manager Review is enough for a light test.
Add your small test participant group.
Set a short launch window (a close date a day or two out is plenty).
Review the communications summary, then launch.

What to validate

The cycle goes live and only your test participants are included.

Step 2: Self-Reflection Experience

Have your test employee (or a dummy user set as the employee) open and complete their task.

What to validate

They receive a self-reflection invite by email from notifications@cultureamp.com, plus a task on their Home page and under Performance > Reviews.
If Slack/MS Teams is enabled, the invite also arrives there.
They can save progress and submit.

Step 3: Manager Review Experience

Rotate the reporting line so a dummy user (or colleague) is the manager, and have them complete and share the review.

What to validate

The manager receives a review invite and can see the employee's self-reflection (and peer/upward feedback, if included) as context.
The manager can share the review with the employee.
If acknowledgment is enabled, the employee can acknowledge it - and once acknowledged, the manager can no longer edit. After acknowledgment or cycle close, only a Performance Admin can edit.

Step 4: Peer & Upward Feedback

Only needed if you included these components at launch.

Peer feedback is requested through the cycle's feedback flow - employees nominate peers, or the manager selects reviewers, who are then notified to respond.
Upward feedback automation depends on the reporting line at launch. A user with no manager assigned at launch won't trigger automated requests and must be requested manually.

What to validate

Requests are sent to the right reviewers.
Peer/upward sharing is a separate toggle from manager review sharing. If shared, the employee sees the feedback with the reviewer's name attached.

Step 5: HRBP / Performance (Limited) Experience

Assign a test user the Performance (Limited Permissions) role, scoped to a demographic group (e.g., Department = People Operations).

What to validate

They see only in-scope employees, and draft cycles are hidden (they can see Scheduled, Live and Closed cycles in scope).
They can view cycle setup but not edit the configuration (it is view-only for them).
They can work with self-reflection and manager review data for in-scope employees.

Testing Calibrations

Calibration is the phase that runs after manager reviews are submitted. It needs a live cycle with at least one submitted manager review.

Step 1: Create and Share the Calibration View

Go to Performance > Admin: Calibrations and click Create calibration view.
Name it clearly, e.g. "TEST - Q3 Calibration - Do Not Use", and select your test cycle.
(Optional) Turn on Ratings Preview to test the pre-session task, and Compare with past cycles if you have an earlier cycle.
Click Save, then Share and add your test calibrator(s) with Admin or Read-only access.

What to validate

The calibrator gets a real-time email from notifications@cultureamp.com and the view appears under Performance > Calibrations.
Sharing always gives read-only access, even to another Performance (Limited) admin. Full admin access (including the Ratings Matrix) only happens automatically when every employee in the view is inside that admin's scope.

Step 2: Calibrator (Reviewer) Experience

With Ratings Preview on, the calibrator opens Respond to ratings and responds per employee.

What to validate

All three responses work - Support, Abstain and, Question (Question requires a comment).
They can open the manager's written review but cannot see full profiles or other calibrators' responses.
A read-only calibrator can view and filter the table but cannot edit any rating or note.
Visibility is correct - All Available Content for their own direct/skip-level reports, Limited Content for everyone else.

Step 3: HRBP Calibration Experience

Using the same Performance (Limited) test user:

What to validate

On a view where everyone is in scope: full admin access, including the Ratings Matrix (single-cycle views only).
On a shared view that includes out-of-scope employees: read-only, and the Ratings Matrix is hidden.
Scoping rule: multiple values in one demographic = OR; multiple demographics = AND.

Step 4: Publish (Optional)

To test publishing, click Publish and choose whether to notify managers.

What to validate

Direct managers are notified of rating or note changes; indirect (skip-level) managers are not.
After publishing, the view is locked – only column visibility stays editable.

Avoid publishing a test view if you can. A published calibration view cannot be deleted, and publishing writes the calibrated ratings back onto the manager reviews (see Clean Up).

Clean Up

The goal is to remove all test data so it does not persist in reporting, exports, or on employee profiles in future cycles. Your test creates data in two layers – the review cycle (self-reflections, manager reviews) and the calibration view (calibrator responses, notes) – so, clear both.

Delete the calibration view while it is still unpublished. This removes the calibrator responses and notes with it. To clear Ratings Preview responses specifically, remove the calibrator or disable Ratings Preview before publishing (this deletes all responses).
Do not publish a test view – published views cannot be deleted. If a test view was already published, be aware that the calibrated ratings have been written back to the manager reviews in the cycle; deleting the cycle (below) will remove those too.
Delete the test cycle. This removes the self-reflections and manager reviews backing it. Deletion is permanent (restoring a cycle is not supported).
- If you are not ready to delete the cycle (e.g. you want to refer back to test exports), keep the cycle closed and clearly labeled as TEST. Be aware the data remains visible on employee profiles until the cycle is deleted.
Remove the dummy users from the cycle's participant list - Deactivation does not remove cycle data or clear it from employee profiles. You must remove dummy users from the cycle's participant list first, and, then delete the cycle, before deactivating the users.