The by role lens answers: for one specific role, how does every person who fills it measure up against the role's required competencies, side by side? It is the lens you use when planning a team's development collectively rather than one person at a time.
Where to find it
/{slug}/app/grow/gaps. Choose the Role lens tab, then pick the role from the searchable dropdown. Roles are grouped under their sub-sector (bold headings), and each option is labelled <grade> · <job family> so grade names that repeat across families (e.g. "Staff") read distinctly. (If you are a line manager, only the people in your reporting tree appear as rows.) Picking a role switches the matrix instantly and shows the app loader until its data arrives.
What you see
A matrix (heatmap):
- One row per employee currently in that role.
- One column per competency the role requires.
- Each cell is a small coloured square showing how that person sits against the required level for that competency — green when the requirement is met (gap ≤ 0), the "close" hue when they are within one level, red when there is a larger gap (more than one level below). Hovering a cell shows the exact
current / required (gap: N)as whole numbers, on the competency's own scale (technical 1–5, general 1–3).
A short legend below the matrix maps the colours: Met · Close · Gap.
Reading it is fast in two directions:
- Scan a column to see how the whole team sits on one competency — a mostly-red column is a team-wide weakness.
- Scan a row to see one person's overall coverage — a mostly-red row is someone who needs broad development.
Use cases
This is the lens for cohort decisions:
- Team-wide training investment. A column that is red across most of the team — say System design — is a strong candidate for a group workshop.
- Hiring guidance. If the matrix is green on the data-engineering columns but red on infrastructure, the next hire should weight infrastructure heavily.
- Spotting who needs support. A row that is red across many competencies flags a person for a focused development plan.
Export to Excel
Export (.xlsx) beside the picker downloads the matrix as a spreadsheet: one column per required competency, a Required level row directly beneath the header so every person row reads against a visible target, then one row per employee carrying their current level. The job description's name is written into the first row; the header rows and the person column are frozen so a wide matrix stays readable. Column headers follow your interface language.
The export goes through the same scoping as the screen — a line manager's file contains only the people in their reporting tree. The file arrives as gap-analysis-role-<job-description>.xlsx.
AI capability brief
Above the matrix, HR admins and line managers see a Generate capability brief button. Clicking it (after a one-time cost confirmation) sends the role's aggregated gaps — per competency: how many people are below the bar, the average and largest shortfall, and how many already clear it (the internal bench) — to the AI, which returns a short read-only narrative. The brief names the 2-3 most material shortfalls and, for each, a recommended lever: Develop (upskill the current holders), Hire (bring in external talent), or Mobility (redeploy people who already hold the competency). It runs only on your click, never automatically, and grounds every rationale in the numbers on screen — it does not invent figures.
What this view does not show
- It is not anonymised. Rows are named employees — this lens is built for management decisions, not for sharing with the team.
- Performance data. This is capability against the role's requirements, not output.
- A forecast. The view is current-state; predicting how the matrix moves with training is outside v0.5.
Next
The third lens — by competency — looks at one competency across the whole organisation, and is covered next.