What these skills are
A full review cycle, as installable Claude skills. Performance software charges you per seat to store forms nobody reads. This pack takes the opposite bet: the work of a review cycle is thinking and conversations, and both happen better in Claude than in a workflow tool.
There is one rule the whole pack is built on: Claude structures, humans judge. No skill in this set writes a performance assessment, assigns a rating, or makes a people decision. They organize evidence, sharpen language, prepare conversations, and remember what matters. The judgment about people stays with people, because your team can tell the difference between a manager who prepared and a manager who generated.
Mechanically, each skill is one folder with a SKILL.md file. Install only the ones for your role: 6 for the founder or people lead who runs the cycle, 3 for managers, 4 for the people getting reviewed. They share files through Claude Projects, and files travel between people the way trust does: by a human, on purpose.
Download all 11 skills. One zip, one folder per skill, plus templates and a README. Free, no signup. The same eleven skills are open on GitHub: polar-bear-org/claude-skills.
The 11 skills you get
The set is grouped by who installs it. Everyone starts with the same skill:
0. Cycle Setup (everyone)
Use when: You've installed your skills and want your workspace ready in ten minutes
Output: Your Claude Project created, the right files in place, your first skill test-run
If you run the cycle (founder or people lead)
1. Cycle Planner
Use when: Review season is coming and you need a plan people can actually follow
Output: A week-by-week cycle calendar, your team context file, and a one-page company direction everyone can read
2. Growth Matrix Builder
Use when: Your team keeps asking what "senior" means here and you keep improvising
Output: A two-part growth matrix: transferable competencies shared by everyone, craft competencies per role, pressure-tested against your real team
3. Review Form Builder
Use when: You need review questions people will answer honestly
Output: A self-review form and a manager form, 6 to 8 questions each, every question with a reader and a reason
4. Comms Drafter
Use when: You need to announce the cycle without sounding like an HR department you don't have
Output: The kickoff memo, manager briefing, reminders, and wrap-up note, in your voice, under 200 words each
5. Cycle Retro
Use when: The conversations are done and you never want to repeat this year's mistakes
Output: A shareable one-page retro and the corrected input next year's cycle starts from
If you manage people
6. Review Prepper
Use when: You have reviews to write and a pile of notes, transcripts, and impressions
Output: An evidence sheet where every claim has an example, and a one-page growth memo built on three circles: what they want, what the company needs, where the market is going
7. One-on-One Companion
Use when: You're about to talk to one of your people, this Tuesday's 1:1 or the annual review
Output: A five-line brief with open threads, checkpoints due, and the right questions, or the full review conversation plan when it's the big one
If you're the one getting reviewed
8. Brag Doc Keeper
Use when: Something worth remembering just happened
Output: A dated, concrete entry in your pinned Brag Doc chat, so December stops being archaeology
9. Self-Review Prepper
Use when: The cycle opened and the blank self-review form is staring at you
Output: A self-review in your words, built from an interview about your real year, with a pass against underselling yourself
10. Growth Navigator
Use when: You want to understand your level, your next one, or where you actually want to go
Output: A personal growth profile: where you are with evidence, your aspiration where what you want meets what the company needs and where the market is going
How the cycle flows
The skills run in the order a real cycle does. The founder plans and equips (skills 1 to 4), employees log and reflect (8, 9), managers build their view and hold the conversations (6, 7), the founder closes the loop (5), and skills 7, 8, and 10 keep working all year, because reviews fail in December when 1:1s failed in April.
Setup guide
- Download the pack. One zip, one folder per skill, plus the README and templates. Keep the whole set or pull the folders for your role.
- Install your skills. In Claude, turn on code execution in Settings, Capabilities, then go to Customize, Skills and upload one zip per skill from the pack's install folder. Prefer working from files? Add the SKILL.md files to your Project knowledge instead; it works, just less cleanly.
- Say "run cycle-setup". It asks who you are, walks you through creating your Project (Review Cycle HQ, My Team, or My Growth), places the right files, and ends with a test run. Ten minutes.
- Follow the calendar. The founder runs cycle-planner first; everything else flows from the calendar it produces.
Where to start
| Your situation | Skill to run |
|---|---|
| Review season is 8 weeks away and nothing exists | Cycle Planner |
| The team asks about career growth and you improvise | Growth Matrix Builder |
| Six reviews to write, notes everywhere | Review Prepper |
| A 1:1 in twenty minutes | One-on-One Companion |
| A self-review form and a blank mind | Self-Review Prepper |
| Something great happened at work today | Brag Doc Keeper |
The quality bar
Every skill in the pack holds the same standard, the one we hold in client work:
- Claude structures, humans judge: no skill writes an assessment or makes a people decision
- Evidence before claims: nothing goes in a document about a person without a concrete example
- Full transparency: no manager-only questions, no hidden sections, everything passes the "could you say this to their face" test
- Levels are scope of trust, not performance rankings
- Growth conversations separated from money conversations
- Files travel through humans, never automatically
- Honest about limits: serious matters (legal, conduct, health) get pointed to humans, not processed
Who made this
Polar Bear is a people ops consultancy for human-size teams (20 to 200 people). Built by ex-McKinsey founders with a dream to make AI work for People, not instead of them. We design career frameworks and run review systems for our clients, and we run our own company on Claude. This pack is the free, self-serve version of how we work.
The matrix and the cycle this pack builds are a working v1. When promotions and salaries start hanging on them, the framework deserves real design, and that's what we do with clients.
Meet Pauline. Bring your review season, your framework question, or just your team's situation. Book a 30-minute call · Pauline on LinkedIn