Development plans that build skills
Career Bird suggests work projects, mentors and learning resources that help employees build the skills their role needs.
Bring learning into the flow of work
Career Bird suggests the plan. Employees and managers customize it.
Development works best when it happens on the job.
“I’ve followed Career Bird’s evolution from the start, and it’s clear this platform was built by people who truly understand how organizations and talent grow. What stands out most is how Career Bird makes skills the common language across job design, learning, and mobility.”
Don CarterEVP of People & Culture, Kiva“What impressed me most is the depth. It’s not just a checklist of features — there’s a real understanding of how organizations evolve, how skills shift, and how people learn and grow in their careers.”
Heather VeldmanVP of Total Rewards, Go Health“You can tell Career Bird wasn’t just thrown together by software engineers. It’s clear that IO psychologists and HR leaders played a significant role in developing it — the frameworks are thoughtful, practical, and grounded in science.”
Kira MeinzerChief People Officer, Envoy Global“Career Bird connects the dots between job design, skills, learning, and mobility. Instead of separate systems and spreadsheets, we now have a single platform that ties everything together.”
Gail RodmanVP Talent Strategy & People Experience, Unite Us“So many platforms claim to be skills-focused, but Career Bird is actually built that way. It treats skills as the foundation for job design, learning, and career paths. That matters right now because AI is rewriting roles faster than most companies can respond.”
Ted EmersonVP, Head of People“Career Bird is one of the few HR platforms that feels like it was built for the end-user. Teams won’t need a lengthy rollout or training — it’s intuitive, clear, and something managers and employees actually want to use.”
Maureen CalabreseFormer Chief People Officer, Sprout Social and Modern Health“Career Bird helps companies prepare for the future by turning skills data into human growth, organizational agility, and real impact.”
Rishad TobaccowalaFormer Chief Strategist and Growth Officer, Publicis Groupe“Career Bird was selected to participate in the competitive PeopleTech Partners Growth Program as they are building meaningful solutions for Talent and People Leaders aligned with what’s next in work.”
Cara Brennan AllamanoFounding Partner, PeopleTech PartnersStart every plan from the skills the role needs
- Plans start from the gap between what the role requires and each person’s proficiency.
- Plan for the current role, or for the role someone wants next.
- Learning time goes to the capability the business needs.
Develop skills in the flow of work
- Every plan is made up of development cards, each pairing one skill with a project from the employee’s own work.
- Career Bird suggests the project, goal and learning resources; employees and managers edit them.
- Development works best when learning can be applied to work challenges.
An open library of 50,000 resources, mapped to skills and roles
- Every card suggests learning resources mapped to its skill, next to the project and mentor.
- Courses, videos, books, podcasts and articles, paid and free, from many providers.
- Add the courses you already license, from your LMS or any provider, and map them to the same skills.
Match employees with mentors and keep managers informed
- Career Bird suggests mentors rated Expert or Advanced in the card’s skill.
- Mentors accept or decline, and stay on the card while the work happens.
- Managers see every card, project and resource across their team.
Group development plans for cohort-based learning
- Build one plan for new hires, new managers or a sales team.
- Each person gets their own copy, and one edit updates everyone.
- Link every card to team or organization goals.
Learning sticks when it is tied to the role and applied in the work.
Go deeper on Skill Development
Why course-based learning falls short
The 70-20-10 model explains why most L&D budgets fund the smallest slice of how people actually develop.
Read more
Why your L&D budget isn’t working
How to connect learning investment to skills data, apply 70-20-10, and show ROI a C-suite can act on.
Read more
Upskilling and Reskilling
How mid-market organizations prepare for AI and emerging roles by targeting real skill gaps.
Read moreFits the HR stack you already run
Career Bird pulls employee data from your HRIS. If you run an LMS or a performance management system, Career Bird integrates with it.
+150 moreBuilt for employee data
SOC 2 Type II audited, with a GDPR-aligned data processing agreement and role-based access for every user. Your data is never used to train AI models.
Questions buyers ask
What is a development plan?
In Career Bird, a development plan is a set of development cards that help an employee identify projects that will help them build skills as part of their job. Each development card is one work project, mapped to a skill the role requires. The card carries a goal, learning resources, a mentor who already has the skill, and a deadline. Because the cards are drawn from the skills the role requires and the employee's measured proficiency against them, the plan targets the growth that matters for that person's current role and next step. Managers and HR can see every card, project and learning resource across the team, along with engagement and completion, so progress is visible throughout the year.
How are individual development plans created?
Individual development plans are co-created by the employee and their manager, starting from the measured gap between what the role requires and the employee's current proficiency. Together they choose the growth opportunities to target, whether that means strengthening a skill for the current role or preparing for the next one, and turn each into a development card with a project, a goal, learning resources and a mentor.
How are group development plans created?
Group development plans are set up for a whole cohort at once, such as new hires, new managers, or a sales team. They use the same card structure as individual plans, aimed at a capability the whole group needs, and every member's progress is visible to their managers and HR.
Where do the learning resources come from?
The learning resources come from publicly available sources across the internet — courses, podcasts, books, and articles — and Career Bird maps each one to the skills it develops. The library is open, rather than a closed catalog, with 50,000 resources today and more added as new content appears online. Most skills carry about ten resources, and each employee is recommended the ones that fit the skills their role requires and their proficiency in each. Content you already own or license sits alongside them, including what is in your LMS.
How do you ensure the quality of the learning resources?
Career Bird manages the quality of learning resources, starting with ratings collected from the platforms they come from — Coursera, Udemy, and others — which the library then sorts and filters. Career Bird designates the most credible sources, favoring well-known brands like Microsoft, Google, Coursera, and McKinsey, as well as accredited colleges and universities. Clients can customize this by prioritizing the sources they trust and blocking the ones they don't. Employees can upload resources they recommend and save what works into their own collection. Anyone can flag a resource for review.
How is this different from our performance management software or course library?
A performance management system is used to set goals and review past performance at review time, and a course library offers courses by topic. Career Bird starts from the skills each role requires and each person’s measured proficiency, then identifies a work project for each gap, with a mentor and learning that managers can see between reviews. Most development plans are more general and aspirational. Career Bird’s development plans are skill-specific, focused on learning in the flow of work, mapped to a goal, and progress can be tracked.
Create a sample development plan.
Choose a role and Career Bird suggests a work project, a mentor and learning resources for each skill. Customize it from there.