tl;dr: IDPs should be in the flow of work to enhance your learning curve and not a structured checklist.

Disclaimer: Whenever I say Individual Development Plan here you can replace by PIP, ADP, or
whatever Action Plan focused on development you want. It turns out the same.
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Every six or twelve months, managers and employees endure the same test of patience: the Performance Cycle. In theory, it's a moment for reflecting on individual professional performance, aligning expectations, and crafting an action plan for the next cycle. This action plan is called the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). It’s essentially a checklist of skills, behaviors, and results that the employee is expected to deliver by the end of the next cycle to secure a promotion, a raise, or a lateral move.

In practice, here’s what happens: within a few weeks, no one remembers the lengthy and vague list meant to be reviewed at the end of the cycle. By the time the next Performance Cycle rolls around, you have no idea what you needed to accomplish to earn that promotion (which, yet again, didn’t happen).

The way the PIP is implemented is outdated: there isn't a single company in the world today that can sustain a rigid six-month plan without adjustments. Start-to-finish, no changes allowed? Impossible. Strategies need to adapt quickly to the macroeconomic context, technological advancements, and constant competition. If a company’s broader strategy can pivot sharply when necessary, why on earth should employees be locked into a long-term plan to succeed?

They shouldn’t. Individuals should leverage their agility to keep pace with the relentless demands of the market. And to make that possible, we need to reimagine how people develop: we need to reimagine the PIP.

Here’s our proposal:

IDPs should evolve at the pace of work. Managers and employees should periodically establish new development agreements. And by “periodically,” we mean roughly every month—or three months at most, if your company operates within a more rigid, slower structure.

Not sure where to start? Here’s an example:

In the meeting following the Performance Cycle, the employee and manager sit down to identify what should become the focus of the next cycle. Together, they:

1. Prioritize one topic to begin with.

2. Define the frequency/format for follow-ups.

3. Complete the checklist below:

   
   

• Goal:

• Skill:

• Practical Application:

• Success Verification:

Here’s a filled-out example for a junior developer:

• Goal: Learn Remix (level 1) for frontend applications over four weeks.

• Skill: Remix.

• Practical Application: Code a page for project X.

• Success Verification: Commits on GitHub.

Throughout the development month, both meet to review progress and define what still needs to be done. Internal expert referrals, videos, courses, projects—everything is fair game for development. Because, in the end, the only thing that matters is whether the objective is achieved.

Goal achieved? Define the next objective and move forward, using the same checklist model and follow-up meetings.
Not yet? No problem. Reassess the agreements and try different development approaches.

The most important thing here is not to cling to a fictional checklist agreed upon months before the success verification. By completing a development cycle in a particular skill, both parties will have greater clarity about the next step and what needs to be learned next.

If you’re already using Kipon with your team, you know that the objective, frequency, format, documentation, and resources for development are all stored in one place: Bond.

Here you can bond with people all over your organization to develop yourself. Bond with peers, managers, mentors, whatever. Just keep going, all in one place.

Because that's important.

Manager, you should not have to deal with different platforms just to roll out a IDP - or a 1:1 -, it's ridiculous. You probably use a HR platform to see people's performance, and Notion to document the agreements, and slack to send references links, and Google Calendar to send invites to the meeting. Right?

And employee, you should not have to be blinded regarding what your manager is documenting about your performance! This should be a shared document where you both work and agree upon it. And finding people to mentor you, how hard is that? Would not just be easier if you could simply tap the skill you need to develop, see all the experts and invite them to bond with you?

Yeah, that's how we reimagined IDPs. All in one place, fully shared between the two individuals involved, in the flow of work.