Three free, editable competency matrix templates: Product Owner / Product Manager, Product Designer and Sales Account Executive. Each has 7 or 8 role competencies across 4 levels, with behavioural descriptors a manager can actually observe. Below them is a practical guide to building a skills-based framework: who owns skills, how often to update them, who updates them and how many skills a role should have.
Free to copy and adapt: preview two competencies below, and get the full matrices plus the Excel and CSV files with your work email. These are starting templates written for this site, not a validated or industry-standard framework. Levels map roughly to the talent bar by seniority.
Preview: Product Manager matrix (2 of 7 competencies)
| Competency | Level 1: Developing Roughly Junior on the talent bar | Level 2: Proficient Roughly Mid | Level 3: Advanced Roughly Senior | Level 4: Expert Roughly Lead / Principal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer and problem discoveryInterviews, research, support tickets, usage data | Joins customer interviews and research sessions; summarises what was said accurately; writes problem statements with help. | Runs discovery independently; combines interviews with usage data; writes clear problem statements that the squad agrees with before solutions are discussed. | Sets the discovery plan for a product area; spots unmet needs others missed; kills weak ideas early with evidence rather than opinion. | Builds a continuous discovery habit across several squads; coaches PMs on research quality; reframes the strategy when evidence shows the market has moved. |
| Data, metrics and experimentationProduct analytics, A/B tests, dashboards | Reads the squad dashboard and explains movements with help from the analyst; defines simple success metrics for a feature. | Defines the primary and guardrail metrics for every initiative; designs experiments with the analyst and reads results correctly, including inconclusive ones. | Chooses the metric that best represents customer value for an area; links feature metrics to the company goal; challenges vanity metrics. | Designs the metric tree for a product line; sets experimentation standards; makes high-stakes calls under uncertainty and explains the trade-off. |
The full matrices (all competencies for Product Manager, Product Designer and Sales AE, 4 levels each) and the Excel and CSV files are free with your work email.
Get the full matrices
How to use a matrix in reviews
- Assess against the bar for the person's level, not against teammates. A Level 2 PM who fully meets Level 2 is on track, not “average”.
- Score each competency separately, with one line of evidence each: a deliverable, a decision, a piece of feedback. Rating competencies one at a time limits the halo effect (see reducing manager rating bias).
- Turn statements into yes/no checks if you want consistency across managers: “Defines primary and guardrail metrics for every initiative: yes / no”. That is the scorecard approach in the framework.
- Use the gaps: the lowest-scoring competencies become the growth plan. Low scores across a team that is also missing targets is the skill-gap pattern, and a training need rather than a hiring need.
Rolling skills into your review cycle? See what the cycle costs today, or talk it through on a 15-minute discovery call.
Building a skills-based framework
The questions below come up in almost every conversation about skills. The answers are recommendations: practical defaults to start from, with the reasoning, not rules or research findings. Adjust them to your size and structure.
Who owns skills?
RecommendationSplit ownership three ways. The function leader owns the content of each role's skills (the CPO for product and design roles, the CRO or Head of Sales for sales roles, the CTO for engineering), because they are accountable for what good looks like in their function. This matches the framework: the relevant leader defines skills per role. The People team owns the framework: the format, number of levels, rating scale, language standards and the calendar, so a “Level 3” means the same in sales as in product. Line managers own the assessment: scoring their people with evidence each cycle.
How often should you update skills?
RecommendationReview each role's matrix once a year, ideally just before the cycle where it will first be used, and never change it mid-cycle, so everyone in a cycle is assessed against the same version. Make an out-of-cycle change only when the role itself changes (a new tool, a new market, a reorganisation), and date it. Assess people against the matrix every review cycle (quarterly in the playbook's cycle), even though the matrix itself changes yearly.
Who updates them?
RecommendationThe function leader drafts updates with one or two strong senior practitioners in the role (people who do the work today, not only manage it). The People team reviews the draft for consistent level language and for wording that invites bias (vague traits like “presence” or “culture fit” instead of observable behaviour). The department head approves it. Keep a short changelog (what changed, why, from which cycle) so managers and employees can see the history.
How many skills should a role have?
Recommendation5 to 8 role-specific competencies, with company values assessed separately. The reasoning: a manager needs to write a line of real evidence for each competency in each cycle. Below about 5, each competency becomes so broad that it hides where someone is actually weak. Above about 8 to 10, managers start skimming, the scores cluster in the middle, and the review takes longer without adding information. If you have more than 8, check for overlap (for example “communication” and “stakeholder management”) and merge. Use the same competency names for similar roles across departments where you can; it makes calibration and internal moves easier.
Where to start
RecommendationStart with two critical job families, as the framework suggests: write their matrices, run one cycle with them, fix what didn't work, then extend. Templates above cover three of the most common starting points.
Related: scorecards for designers, juniors and interns · team performance diagnostic · rating scales explained · review template with worked examples.
Running skills in software
A matrix in a spreadsheet works for one cycle. It gets hard when you need scores for the same people over time next to their goals and engagement. Revolut People is a platform for goals, skills and culture (the talent bar), reviews, calibration and outcomes, where role skills are assessed in review scorecards and skills gaps can feed development decisions. See Revolut People performance management.
FAQ
What is a competency matrix?
A table of the skills a role needs, with a short behavioural description of what each skill looks like at each level. Managers use it to assess people consistently, and employees use it to see what the next level requires.
Can I use these templates for free?
Yes. Preview them on this page, and get the full matrices plus the editable Excel and CSV versions free with your work email. Copy, edit and use them inside your company. They are starting points written for this site, not a validated or industry-standard framework, so rewrite the descriptors in your own language.
How many levels should a matrix have?
These templates use four, which map roughly to Junior, Mid, Senior and Lead on the talent bar. Fewer levels blur real differences; many more make it hard for managers to tell neighbouring levels apart.
Should company values be in the matrix?
Keep them separate. Role skills differ by job; values apply to everyone. The framework scores deliverables, skills and culture as three separate lenses.
How often should we update the matrix?
Our recommendation: review it once a year, and change it between review cycles rather than during one, so everyone in a cycle is assessed against the same version.
Who should write it?
The function leader owns it (for example the CPO for product roles, the CRO for sales), drafted with one or two strong senior people in the role. The People team keeps the format consistent across departments.