Method
The ABCD analysis
Every people decision in a small company comes down to one question: which bucket is this person in? The ABCD analysis answers it with four letters instead of a scorecard full of numbers.
You define once what A, B, C and D mean. From then on every manager uses the same four buckets, for every person, against the role that was written down first.
Four buckets, and nothing in between
Four is enough for every decision a growing company makes: who is ready for more, who carries the role today, who needs support, and who is in the wrong role. More categories only make two managers argue about the same person.
What each bucket means
Four letters, defined by you, then read the same way by everyone.
- A — above the role: the person delivers more than the role asks today, and the evidence is there. An A says the role can grow, not that a promotion is owed.
- B — the role, delivered: the work matches what the role owns. Most of a healthy team sits here, and B is a good answer.
- C — partly there: parts of the role are not met yet. The answer is support, a narrower scope or a clearer boundary — not a warning.
- D — not this role: even with support, the work does not match what the role needs. That is about fit, and it ends in an honest conversation about a different role.
The system makes sure it happens
A rating nobody repeats is worthless. Team Inflection runs the cycle for you: it reminds you when the next round is due, keeps the notes and the letters on the person, and shows what still has no rating. A quarter cannot quietly pass without a decision.
Then it compares with the talent pipeline
This is the part a spreadsheet cannot do. Every letter is read against the pipeline.
- An A and a role that can grow: the pipeline tells you which role that person could step into.
- A C or a D: the pipeline shows who is already written down for that role, so a change never starts as a search from zero.
- Where the coverage is thin, the gap is visible before it becomes an emergency.
One example
A Customer Success Lead comes out a B: renewals above target, one boundary crossed. The next action is a boundary conversation, not a document. In the same view, the pipeline shows two names for the role above — the decision and its consequence sit next to each other.
Make your next people decision in ten minutes.
You keep making the call; the record keeps itself. Put the four buckets to work with your team, let the cycle bring you back at the right moment, and see every letter against the pipeline beside it — so each decision lands this month and still holds a year later. Ten minutes a week, nothing to learn.
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