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Best Practices: How to Create a Role Play in Brevity (Manager–Rep Performance Review Scenarios)

How to design realistic, coachable performance‑feedback scenarios in Brevity using simple prompts and scoping questions

Table of Contents

  • How to Create a Manager–Rep Role Play in Brevity (Step‑by‑Step)
  • Core Structure: tailoring contexts and personas for manager‑rep simulations
  • Configure the Context: description, AI instructions, milestones, and scripts
    • Context Description – what the manager sees
    • Instructions to the AI – how the “rep” should behave
    • Progress Milestones – objectives and success criteria
    • Optional Scripts – suggested language and key moves
  • Persona Prompt – best practices and a template
  • Scoping Questions to Guide Role Play Design
  • Evaluating and Refining Your Role Plays
  • Summary
  • FAQs

Overview

Manager–rep performance reviews, performance improvement talks, or other “HR‑type” conversations are some of the most sensitive and impactful role plays you can build in Brevity.

This guide shows you how to:

  • Create a role play in Brevity using Contexts, personas, milestones, and scripts
  • Configure a realistic performance feedback scenario using a simple prompt structure
  • Gather the right context from stakeholders with a few high‑leverage scoping questions
  • Build strong personas so the AI “rep” responds in believable, coachable ways
  • Collect feedback on whether the conversation is actually helping people get better

If you’re looking for how to make a role play in Brevity, this article walks through exactly how to create and configure a Manager–Rep performance review.

How to Create a Manager–Rep Role Play in Brevity (Step‑by‑Step)

  1. Create a Context for the performance review

    • Define the meeting type, objectives, and how success is measured.
    • Configure progress milestones and (optionally) scripts.

  2. Create or select a Persona for the AI “rep”

    • Capture their role, achievements, gaps, goals, and temperament.
    • Use the best‑practice persona template below.
    • For UI steps, see: Creating Personas.

  3. Use the Context and Persona in a Course or assignment

    • When you build a Course, select your Manager–Rep Context and the appropriate Persona.
    • Assign it to managers or leaders who need to practice the conversation.

The rest of this article focuses on how to configure the Context and persona content so the role play feels realistic and coachable.

Core Structure: Tailoring Contexts and Personas for Manager–Rep Simulations

For Manager–Rep performance reviews (and similar HR‑type conversations), you’ll get the best results by separating your design into two layers:

  • Context – the meeting description, AI instructions, milestones, and optional scripts
  • Persona – the rep’s identity, wins, gaps, goals, and personality

In Brevity:

  • The Context Description is what the manager sees in “What Are You Talking About?” when they start the assignment.
  • The Instructions to the AI, milestones, and scripts shape how the AI behaves and how success is scored.
  • The Persona record defines who the AI is (role, experience, style) and can be reused across multiple contexts.

Configure the Context: Description, AI Instructions, Milestones, and Scripts

Creating a Context

To create a Manager–Rep performance review Context:

  1. Click Create New in the Contexts area.
  2. Enter a Name for the context.
    • Use something descriptive and reusable, e.g., Mid‑Year Review – Senior AE or Performance Improvement Check‑In – SMB Rep.
  3. Enter a Description for the context.
    • This appears in What Are You Talking About? when a manager starts the role play.
    • Use this to tell the manager what kind of meeting they’re in and what “winning” the conversation looks like.
  4. Enter Instructions to the AI.
    • Outline the AI “rep’s” situation, goals, and demeanor for this specific conversation.

The sections below give best‑practice content for each of these fields, plus guidance on milestones and scripts.

1. Context Description – What the Manager Sees

Goal: Frame the meeting, clarify success criteria, and set expectations for how the conversation should unfold.

Use this template in the Description field and customize the bracketed sections:

I am a [Manager Title] at [Company / Division] conducting a [frequency] performance‑feedback meeting with one of my [seniority level] sales reps. By the end of the call I must: • acknowledge at least two recent accomplishments, • address one specific improvement area with data‑backed examples, • co‑create two measurable goals for next quarter, and • confirm follow‑up dates or checkpoints.

You can substitute the bullets above with your own coaching framework (e.g., company‑specific review structure) if needed.

Best practices for the Description:

  • Be explicit about the manager’s objectives. Spell out what “good” looks like (praise + coaching + next steps).
  • Name the meeting type and cadence. “Mid‑year review,” “Monthly 1:1,” “Performance improvement check‑in,” etc.
  • Set expectations about tone. You can add a final line like:
    • “The rep will be professional but candid—ready to explain recent deals, accept constructive feedback, and negotiate next‑step commitments.”

Sample Description

I am a Regional Sales Director at NovaTech running a mid‑year review with a Senior Account Executive. My objectives are to: (1) praise at least two achievements, (2) diagnose one pipeline management issue, (3) agree on two SMART goals for H2, and (4) schedule a follow‑up in 30 days.

2. Instructions to the AI – How the “Rep” Should Behave

Goal: Tell the AI how to play the rep in this specific review: what’s going well, what’s not, and how they tend to respond.

In the Instructions to the AI field, summarize:

  • The rep’s current performance picture (wins + gaps)
  • Their goals for the next quarter
  • Their personality and likely reactions in a review

You can pull directly from the Persona content (below) or use it to add context on top of your Persona record.

Example Instructions to the AI

You are Jordan Lee, a Senior Account Executive in the Mid‑Market segment (3 years at NovaTech). You’ve had strong wins recently but inconsistent pipeline hygiene.

Behave like a high‑performing but slightly defensive rep in a mid‑year review: • Share details about recent wins when asked, including deal size and what you did well. • Acknowledge that late‑stage churn has hurt your forecast accuracy, but initially attribute some of it to “market conditions.” • When the manager uses data and specific examples, gradually open up and collaborate on concrete goals for improving qualification and pipeline health. • Push back lightly if feedback feels vague; ask for specific examples and suggestions.

3. Creating and Managing Progress Milestones

Goal: Turn an open‑ended conversation into a structured, winnable role play with clear objectives.

Progress milestones in a Context:

  • Provide objectives within the conversation
  • Determine whether, and to what degree, each conversation is successful
  • Include one target milestone, which is the ultimate win condition

To add and configure a progress milestone for a Manager–Rep review:

  1. In the Context editor, click Add New under Progress Milestones.
  2. Enter a Milestone Name.
    • Examples: Acknowledge Achievements, Address Development Area, Agree on Next-Quarter Goals, Confirm Follow-Up.
  3. Enter a Duration.
    • This controls the progress bar shown to users during the conversation.
    • The rep does not need to complete the milestone within that time to “win” it, but the timer helps them pace the discussion.
  4. Enter Notes about how the user can win the milestone.
    • Write this from the manager’s perspective.
    • Example for Acknowledge Achievements: “Call out at least two specific recent wins by name or metric, and ask one follow‑up question about what the rep did to achieve them.”
  5. Indicate whether this milestone is the Target Milestone by enabling the toggle.
    • Each Context must include a single target milestone, which determines whether the overall conversation is won or lost.
    • For performance reviews, this is often something like Agree on Next-Quarter Goals or Align on Improvement Plan.
  6. Click Save Milestone.

Recommended milestones for a mid‑year review

You might configure something like:

  • Acknowledge Achievements – call out at least two specific wins with follow‑up questions
  • Address Development Area – describe one performance gap using data and invite the rep’s perspective
  • Set SMART Goals (Target Milestone) – co‑create two measurable goals and confirm owner + timeline
  • Confirm Follow-Up – agree on a date and format for the next check‑in and how progress will be measured