I work in a software company. We have 2 performance cycles annually where we are supposed to provide feedback for all our peers.
However, I struggle to find drawbacks/improvement-areas for my peers. I have tried hard enough. I tried to remember hard about the work I did with them and tried to find any instances where I think they need to improve. But couldn't come up with anything.
Recently, after the performance review cycle finished, my manager told me that the feedback that I wrote for my peers is not detailed enough and is not helping him evaluate them. He added that this behaviour will be detrimental for me in the longer run in my career.
My main question is: How do I get better at providing performance feedback for my peers?
Am I not a good software developer myself because I am not able to find the short-comings in other people's work? Or is it because I always tend to look for positive things in people? Is this a management trick by my manager for fishing for negative points?
Few other peers of mine have also mentioned about similar problems in casual conversations.
Note 1: I've tried to find for similar questions here, however, none of them focus on giving better feedback for peers in general. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.