What you can put to work
From the next conversation to a working document.
Choose one useful growth move
Read the six-axis assessment as a map and identify the kind of experience the person needs next.
Make room for the assignment
Name the decision, protected hours, displaced work and any approved spending. Make the manager’s commitment explicit.
Follow through each quarter
Make a short plan with commitments for the person and their manager, and recognize when growth has stalled.
Editable templates included
Growth map, quarterly plan, stretch brief, pairing agreement, development signals and funded development, plus a worked example.
Where to start
Bring the last review to a quarterly conversation. Use the growth map to choose one move and write the assignment and manager commitment together.
Across the three workbooks
Run the cycle with People and Finance teams.
Functional leaders
Define strong work, bring the evidence and own the development commitments.
People
Make standards consistent, connect values to behavior and give disputed evidence a clear review route.
Finance
Agree the limits, compare proposed and approved costs, and reconcile the decision before release.
One case, from assessment to action
Follow a fictional team through calibration, a pay proposal that exceeds the period budget, an approved timing change and a development plan with protected time.
Keep the assessment honest
A funding constraint produces a documented pay decision and effective date. It does not rewrite the evidence about someone’s work.
Written by Renato Valdés-Olmos
Built from running the cycle.
I have run leveling, compensation and development cycles at companies of 25, 250 and 2500 people. These workbooks turn those mechanics into documents you can use with your team. The shared six-level framework is new in v1.
More about my work
One complete chapter · No email required
Read section two.
02Which of the six axes can be grown, and how
The leveling document grades on six axes. They are not equally teachable, and a development plan that treats them as though they were will spend a quarter on the wrong one.
| Axis | Growable? | By what | What does not work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decision rights | Granted, not grown | A manager handing over a named decision and not taking it back. Growth here is the manager's move. | Telling somebody to "take more ownership." Rights are given; they cannot be seized politely. |
| Judgment density | Slowly | Being in more rooms where decisions are made, and being asked afterward what they would have decided. | Courses. Judgment is pattern exposure, and the patterns are in the rooms. |
| Opinions held | Yes, with cover | Being asked for a position, in writing, before the decision, and being protected when it is wrong. | Asking for opinions in a culture that punishes the wrong ones. The person will learn to have none. |
| Range | Yes, fastest | Work in a neighboring lane with somebody from it. The overlap band makes this cheap now. | Reading about the other lane. Range is trust earned by being right in it, not familiarity. |
| What survives them | Yes, by assignment | Being given something to encode: a standard, a pattern, a constraint, and the time to do it. | Expecting it to happen alongside delivery. Encoding is work and needs a quarter. |
| Ownership | Barely | Environment. People become invested in places where investment is visible and safe. | Coaching it directly. The triad is a disposition, and disposition responds to conditions, not to feedback. |
Two things fall out of this table. First, the fastest-growing axis is range, which is why lateral exposure is the single highest-return development move available. Second, the axis the leveling document weights most — decision rights, which carries the veto — is the one the person can do least about alone. Which means a development plan that does not include a move by the manager is not a plan for promotion.
Try it
Build a real development opportunity.
Choose where the person needs to grow. The tool turns that into a clear assignment for them and a matching commitment from their manager, ready for the next one-to-one.
Axis to grow
Before you start
Your entries stay in this browser.
Choose what you need
Start with a workbook, or use the whole set.
Leveling
For EPD leaders extending one credible standard across Engineering, Product, Research, Design and Marketing, with People as the partner who makes it fair and durable.
Compensation
For CFOs and Finance teams setting pay for Engineering, Product, Research, Design and Marketing, with EPD leaders supplying the role and market evidence behind every decision.
Development
For Engineering, Product, Research, Design and Marketing leaders and People teams to run together: turn review evidence into funded growth work, protected time and explicit manager commitments.
The new standard
Leveling, compensation and development in the age of AI.
A shared standard for levels, pay and growth. All three workbooks, their printable documents, 24 editable templates and reference sheets, plus three worked examples. Save $18 compared with buying separately.
$117$99
Team license
All three workbooks and their templates for one leadership team or function at one company. Already bought a single copy? Its price is credited toward the team license. License details.
Enterprise license
Company-wide, multi-division or portfolio-company use, with the licensed entities and rollout scope agreed before purchase. Suitable when procurement, legal, security or implementation support needs to be part of the work. License details.
From $2,500
Contact about enterpriseBefore you buy
A few practical questions.
What do I receive?
The workbook unlocks on this site. You also get a printable pdf and editable .xlsx templates. The set includes all three workbooks and their templates. These are digital downloads; no physical book is shipped.
Do I need the other workbooks?
The growth map uses the six axes defined in Leveling. Start with Leveling, or get the set, if those axes are new to your team.
Will this work with our HRIS and AI tools?
Yes. The spreadsheets are designed for field mapping, and every online workspace can export versioned JSON. Put only the approved record into your HR system, keyed by a stable employee ID; keep private notes and draft reasoning outside it. An approved AI client or MCP connection can read the exported file, check completeness and prepare drafts through your own file or drive connector. The site does not expose a hosted MCP endpoint or receive employee records, and an AI tool should never approve a level, pay decision or development commitment.
Why not use the framework built into our HR package?
Use it when it fits. An HR package is good at forms, permissions, workflow and storage. These workbooks help your leadership team decide what the fields mean, which evidence counts, who owns the judgment and how exceptions work. Treat the workbook as an acceptance test for the package; if the package preserves the standard and the three separate decisions, configure it there instead of rebuilding the forms.
How do I get access?
After checkout, an email goes to the address you paid with. Its private reader link opens the complete workbook. You can also open the reader from this page and enter the access key from the email. The sample remains a separate public chapter.
Can I use it with my team?
A single purchase covers one person, with sharing permitted with your own manager and managers who report to you while running a cycle. The $499 team license covers one leadership team or function at one company. Company-wide, multi-division or portfolio-company use needs an enterprise license. A single purchase can be credited toward the team license. Read the license.
What if we need an enterprise rollout?
Enterprise licenses start at $2,500 for company-wide, multi-division or portfolio-company use, procurement requirements and an agreed rollout scope. Contact me with the organizations, approximate audience, countries and timing for a quote.
Can I get a refund?
Read the complete sample chapter before buying. Because the workbook, PDF and editable files are delivered immediately, checkout asks you to acknowledge that the purchase becomes final when digital access begins. Duplicate charges, persistent access failures, material differences from the description and mandatory legal remedies remain covered. Read the access and refund terms.
Are updates included?
Every revision of v1 is included and sent to the address you paid with. Your purchase does not subscribe you to the essay newsletter.
Can I get a company invoice?
Stripe sends a receipt after purchase. Reply to it with your company name and tax number if you need a company invoice. Any applicable tax is shown at checkout.
Turn the review into a growth plan.
Engineering, Product, Research, Design and Marketing leaders supply real decisions and stretch work. People makes the opportunity, funding and follow-through visible across teams. Both own whether development actually happens.
One payment · Immediate digital access · v1 updates included
Read the sample before buying · Access and refund terms
© 2026 Renato Valdés-Olmos