This objectivity is important in removing any potential bias from both promotion and compensation conversations.
I call that tool a competency matrix.
This was a lengthy process, spanning eight months from inception to organizational adoption.
Along the way I learned a lot, including what steps we took were wasteful and which were useful.
So here I present to you the seven essential steps you need in building your own competency matrix.
I had initially taken on this project as one of my many side projects.
The only time I had to dedicate to the matrix were early mornings, late nights, and weekends.
Each one has consequences, and youll only get through them if the team is aligned.
(It took us about halfway through the process to explicitly agree it was a blend of both.)
Another key point of agreement is: who is going to be affected by this?
So ask these questions, and get explicit agreement.
Finally, we needed to agree on the goals of the matrix.
We decided the primary goal was performance evaluation and growth planning with individual engineers.
Knowing the potential uses, and the priority of those, guided certain decisions.
This is the part where you sit down and debate what matters to us?
These were not engineering-specific, and ranged from communication to political awareness.
We also utilized other publicized competency matrices to seed ideas of what could be in the running.
We also enjoyed coming up with our own values as a team.
Start wide, dream big!
Its better to cast a wide net up front and merge and cut later.
Then we explicitly agreed upon on generalized responsibilities for each title.
Career development, like all human pursuits, is messier in practice than in theory.
Step 5: Create the content
This step is definitely the most laborious.
Once the framework was in place, filling out the content became much more straightforward.
This is an opportunity to merge!
Ultimately, we ended up with 27 competencies.
However when we started 5.1 we had almost 50.
Defining the behaviors for each showed us where we had opportunities to consolidate.
During this step would be the best time to start wordsmithing.
I would suggest a similar approach.
Actually, not quite.
With our first pass done, we set out to garner feedback.
Step 7: Ship it!
The best step of all ship it!
However, even after you following a thorough process, it will never be perfect.
Be ready for feedback now, and on an ongoing basis.
However, pretending that it is perfect and will never change is foolhardy and unrealistic.
This provides a level of stability that is important, while also allowing for iteration and evolution over time.
I suggest you provide a mechanism to achieve the same goals.
