Often times the ratings, bonus and "calibration" is done at a senior manager / director level. So if you have no visibility in those circles, you'll not fare we

Often times the ratings, bonus and "calibration" is done at a senior manager / director level. So if you have no visibility in those circles, you'll not fare well. Often times, your direct manager won't have any say in this matter and the top bosses will need to take decisions based on politics and retention and other considerations. Another thing to keep in mind is that your manager might not want you to move around and giving you average ratings will help. I'm onto my third big project and each of them shipped with my solo effort (but on the backend). It's wildly successfully and impacted 10s of millions of people but the ratings always make it seem that what I thought was exceptional contributions were "expected"! Thankfully the bonus/money is decent.