Individual development plans built on work projects
Each plan turns the skills a role requires into work projects, with a mentor, learning resources and a deadline for every skill.
From skill gap to an actionable, measurable development plan
Career Bird suggests the plan. Employees and managers customize it.
Most development plans get filled out once and forgotten.
Plans rarely connect to the skills a role requires, and managers have little time to follow up. Yet employees grow mostly through their work and the people around them.
Every skill gets a work project, a mentor and a deadline
- One skill from the employee’s role, with a goal.
- A work project from the employee’s own job where the skill gets used.
- A mentor rated Expert or Advanced in that skill.
- Learning resources mapped to the skill, and a target date.
50,000 learning resources, attached to the work
- Courses, videos, books, podcasts and articles, paid and free, mapped to skills.
- Courses the company already licenses map to the same skills.
- Career Bird integrates with an existing LMS. For teams without one, the library often meets the need on its own.
Every plan starts from the skills the role requires
- Plans start from the gap between what the role requires and each person’s measured proficiency.
- Plan for the current role, or for a target role on the career path.
- The Growth Profile shows goals, proficiency and every active plan.
Progress managers and HR can see all year
- Managers and HR see every card, project and learning resource across the team, with engagement and completion.
- Mentors accept or decline, and stay on the card while the work happens.
- Specific cards give managers something concrete to discuss, instead of a blank form.
- Link cards to team and organization goals.
Group development plans
- One plan for new hires, new managers or a sales team.
- Each person gets their own copy, and one edit updates everyone.
- Track progress by department, job family and role.
“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 PartnersFits 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.
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Questions buyers ask
What is an individual development plan?
An individual development plan (IDP) is a written plan for the skills an employee will develop, how they will practice them, who will help and by when. In Career Bird, each plan starts from the skills the employee’s role requires and their measured proficiency, and each card in it is one work project with a goal, learning resources, a mentor and a deadline.
What should an individual development plan include?
A useful individual development plan includes the skills to develop, a goal for each, the work where the employee will practice it, a mentor, learning resources and a target date. Each Career Bird development card covers all six.
What is an example of an individual development plan?
A customer success manager working toward a senior role might have a card for executive communication. The goal is to present quarterly business reviews to customer executives, the project is leading the next two reviews, the mentor is a senior manager rated Advanced in the skill, and the resources include a course and a book, with a 90-day deadline.
Why do most development plans fail?
Most development plans fail because they are filled out once a year, aren’t tied to the skills the role requires, and depend on managers who have little time for development. Career Bird ties every plan to the role’s skills, turns each skill into a work project, and keeps progress visible to managers and HR all year.
How does the 70-20-10 model apply to development plans?
The 70-20-10 model is a rule of thumb that most development happens through work, some through other people and a smaller share through formal learning. It comes from executives’ own reports rather than controlled research, but research on the value of work experience points the same way. Each Career Bird card follows that balance: a work project, with a mentor and learning resources attached.
How is this different from a development plan in a performance tool?
Most development plans in performance tools are high level and hard to track. A Career Bird development plan starts from the measured gap between what the role requires and the employee’s proficiency, and each card is a work project tied to one skill, with matched learning resources and a mentor who already has the skill. It runs all year, progress is visible to managers and HR, and if a performance management system is in place, Career Bird sends development plans to it.
Can we run a plan for a whole cohort?
Yes, a development plan can run for a whole cohort. Group development plans use the same card structure for new-hire onboarding, manager training, leadership development or any group working toward the same capability.
Create a sample individual development plan.
Choose a role and Career Bird suggests a work project, a mentor and learning resources for each skill. Customize it from there.