Reviewing, assessing and evaluating

At the end of a project, or the end of a quarter or year, it is very common to review, assess or evaluate. Here are some suggestions for language to help you do that:


Looking back:

Overall, X was successful/not successful because………..

We met all/most/some/none of our key objectives.

One/The main challenge we faced was…….

One thing we hadn’t anticipated/foreseen, was……….

​One thing that worked well was…….

One thing that didn’t work well was………

X didn’t go as planned…… (because of Y)

A key lesson learned was…….


Looking forward:

A key recommendation for future projects is……..

In future, we should…….


Useful questions for reviewing

Why do you think …….there were delays/ the client was unhappy/ the departments didn’t align?

What would you do differently next time?

What (key) lessons did you learn?

What aspects worked well/didn’t work well?

What was the biggest challenge?

What were the (key) objectives of the project? Did you meet them?



You can find a PDF of all the phrases here.