The Keeper Test
Ask monthly: if this person quit today, would I fight to keep them? If not, have the conversation now.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 95%
A recurring mental check every manager runs on every direct report: if this person resigned today for another opportunity, would I do everything in my power to keep them? A 'no' — or worse, a flicker of relief — is the signal to have the hard conversation about fit or role immediately, not at review season. It exists because letting someone go is not natural human behaviour, so the culture installs a forcing question that makes the avoidance visible. Netflix runs it in place of performance reviews entirely.
Origin
A core element of Netflix's culture, originating with founder Reed Hastings and the Netflix culture deck (later expanded in the book 'No Rules Rules'). Elizabeth Stone describes how it is actually operationalised day-to-day by managers at Netflix, including its inversion — reports asking their manager 'am I passing your keeper test?'
Core principles
- 01The test is a forcing device against a known human bias: nobody wants to conclude someone should leave, so the question must be asked deliberately.
- 02Talent density is the means, not the end — the bar is kept high so that candour, freedom and low process are safe to run.
- 03Nobody should ever be surprised by a keeper-test conversation; that only holds if feedback has been continuous.
- 04The test runs both ways — reports are encouraged to ask their manager where they stand.
- 05Knowing is less stressful than not knowing; ambiguity about your standing creates more anxiety than a direct answer.
How to run it
- 1
Run the question on each report on a regular cadence
For each person on your team ask: 'If they told me today they were leaving for another opportunity, would I do everything I could to keep them at the company?' Note honestly whether any part of you would feel relieved.
Pro tip Relief is the highest-signal answer. If you would be even slightly relieved, you already know the answer and have been avoiding it.
Watch out Do not run this as a once-a-year ritual bolted to a review cycle — the whole point is that it surfaces the issue in weeks, not quarters.
- 2
Convert a 'no' into a specific, timely conversation
If the answer is no, open the conversation about whether this is the right role or the right company for them — while being explicit about what the gap is and what closing it would take.
Pro tip Frame it as a mutual observation about fit, not a verdict handed down.
Watch out If the person is surprised, the failure was yours — it means the continuous feedback never happened.
- 3
Invert it — let reports ask you
Normalise reports asking 'am I passing your keeper test?' in 1:1s. It becomes a lightweight, repeatable way to ask 'am I meeting your expectations, what's going well, what isn't' without the conversation feeling loaded.
Pro tip The heavy-sounding label paradoxically creates lightness — it gives both sides permission to raise the topic without ceremony.
- 4
Remove the crutch of the periodic review
Drop the rating-based performance review entirely so there is no process to defer the conversation into. Keep an annual 360 feedback cycle purely for the value of the feedback (not as an input to a rating or a promotion decision), and handle performance through the compensation and promotion cycle plus the day-to-day rhythm.
Pro tip Treat any feedback in the 360 that describes something from six months ago as a culture failure, not a useful data point — it should have been said at the time.
Watch out Removing reviews only works if the real-time feedback muscle actually exists. Delete the process without building the habit and people simply never learn where they stand.
In the wild
Stone reports that people ask her frequently 'am I passing your keeper test?' — it has become a routine part of manager/direct-report 1:1s rather than a dreaded event. It functions as another way of asking whether expectations are being met and what is and isn't going well.
→ A regular, low-drama channel for performance conversations that would otherwise feel loaded to raise mid-project.
Netflix has no rating-based performance review process. There is an annual 360 cycle where you request and receive feedback (Stone gets around 300 pieces), but it is not an input to an output — it exists for the feedback itself. Performance flows through promotion and compensation decisions and the day-to-day operating rhythm.
→ Feedback has to happen in real time because there is no scheduled process to hide behind; Stone flags any six-month-old feedback in the 360 as something that should have been said at the time.
Common mistakes
Springing the conversation on someone
You can only have the 'I don't think this is the right fit' conversation if you have been giving feedback along the way. Without that trail, the keeper test becomes an ambush and the culture reads as arbitrary.
Letting it become Hunger Games
If the test exists without the accompanying continuous feedback and support, it produces a permanent low-grade fear of being fired. Stone's counter is that knowing beats not knowing — the anxiety comes from ambiguity, not from the high bar.
Adopting the test without the talent density and support underneath it
The keeper test is one component of a system (high talent density, candour, freedom and responsibility, help closing gaps). Lifted out on its own it is just a licence to fire people faster.
Is it for you?
Best for
Managers and executives at high-performance companies who want continuous performance clarity and are willing to give continuous feedback to earn it
Not ideal for
Organisations that cannot or will not give direct feedback continuously, or where legal/works-council constraints require a formal documented review process
From the transcript
“that's where we refer to the keeper test which is really just a mental framing to make sure we hold ourselves accountable for this”
“would I do everything I could to keep them at Netflix if not then I should be having that tough conversation about should you really…”
“you can only get to that conversation around I don't think Netflix and you are the right fit for one another if you've been giving…”
“people ask me frequently am I passing your keeper test so it becomes part of a regular manager direct report oneon-one and it is just…”
“we don't have performance reviews”
From the episode
How Netflix builds a culture of excellence
Elizabeth Stone (CTO)