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Features · Standards

How the AI knows
what good looks like.

Standards are the career frameworks Aspen coaches against. All feedback, reviews, and goals are contextually relevant and anchored to an employee's role and level. AI-generated from best-practice templates, tailored to your org, alive in Slack.

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The blueprint

Every role gets a framework. Every level has expectations. Both are explicit.

A Standard defines the role: levels from junior to staff, the competencies that matter at each level, and what "good" actually looks like. Aspen ships best-practice templates designed by IO psychologists; you tailor in minutes.

Anatomy of a Standard

Standards aren't one-size-fits-all rubrics. Each one is designed to align to the performance culture you set for your company.

  • Levels. A clear set of steps, from junior to staff. Aspen helps you design both IC and manager tracks.
  • Competencies. Align around the key dimensions that actually matter for each role: technical chops, AI fluency, ownership, values, and more.
  • Expectations per level. Org-wide alignment across teams and roles through concrete behaviors. Clarity around the differences between IC 5 and IC 7, or MGR 1 and MGR 2.
  • Promotion criteria. Employees know what it takes to move up, no ambiguity. Progression stops being a black box.
Engineering · IC Track
Senior Engineer
Level 4
L1
L2
L3
L4
L5
L6
L7
Technical depth
Leads design of complex systems. Reviews are thorough; tradeoffs are surfaced.
Scope of ownership
Owns features end-to-end across multiple sprints, including downstream effects.
Cross-team collaboration
Drives alignment across two or more teams on shared initiatives.
Mentorship
Coaches less-senior peers; sets quality bar through example and review.
Self-rate Request feedback Compare to L5
A framework, not a flat list

Competencies grouped by category. Expectations at every level.

Standards aren't just "what L4 looks like." They're a structured framework to reduce subjectivity, make performance inherently more developmental, and calibrate performance continuously. That structure is what lets Aspen coach both managers and employees on specifics, not generalizations.

Engineering · Full framework
Individual contributor track
IC Manager
L1
L2
L3
L4
L5
L6
Functional
Code delivery
Learns fundamentals
Executes scoped tasks
Owns features end-to-end
Leads complex systems work
Architects across teams
Sets technical strategy
System design
Reads designs critically
Designs scoped components
Owns subsystem design
Designs systems spanning teams
Sets system architecture
Designs org-wide platforms
How we work
Collaboration
Partners on assigned work
Reliable across the team
Bridges between teams
Drives cross-team alignment
Aligns multiple orgs
Builds company-wide trust
Communication
Asks clear questions
Writes clean updates
Explains tradeoffs well
Influences technical decisions
Shapes org thinking
Voice in industry conversations
Values
Ownership
Owns assigned tasks
Owns deliverables
Owns problem space
Owns outcomes across teams
Owns long-arc bets
Owns company-level systems
Mentorship
Asks for guidance well
Helps peers occasionally
Onboards new teammates
Coaches less-senior engineers
Develops team leads
Develops next-gen leaders
AI-native

From template to tailored, in minutes.

Most career frameworks take months, if not years, to create only to live in a doc no one reads. Aspen drafts yours from best-practice templates, adds company-specific context, then seamlessly integrates it into the touchpoints that matter.

01

Start with a template.

Best-practice leveling frameworks for ICs and managers across common functions, designed by IO psychologists. A real starting point, not a blank canvas.

02

Aspen tailors to your org.

Drop in your operating principles, role descriptions, and any existing rubrics. Aspen drafts a Standard that reflects how your company actually works.

03

Edit and ship in Slack.

Tweak competencies, expectations, levels directly. Once approved, the Standard goes live across feedback, reviews, goals, and 1:1s. Every team aligned, immediately.

Always-on

Standards live in Slack. So does the coaching.

Aspen references the Standard every time someone gives feedback, requests it, or rates themselves. Calibration stops being an event and starts being a continuous process.

01 — Feedback

Coaches feedback in the moment.

When someone asks Aspen for help giving feedback, the suggestion is anchored to the recipient's role and level. No more generic praise. No more vague critique. Just specific, actionable language tied to actual expectations.

Slack — DM with Aspen
SK
Sam K.2:14 PM
@Aspen help me give Marcus feedback on the migration project
a.
Aspen APP2:14 PM
Anchored to Marcus's Standard. He's L4 Senior Engineer, working toward L5. Strongest growth area: cross-team collaboration. Want to frame your feedback around that?
Pulled from Standard · Senior Engineer L4
Cross-team collaboration: drives alignment across two or more teams on shared initiatives.
02 — Growth

Self-rate continuously, see your gap to the next level.

Every employee sees their current Standard and the one above. They can ask Aspen to help them get to the next level, tie goals to specific growth areas, and request feedback from peers and managers anchored in context specific to them.

Slack — DM with Aspen
MT
Marcus T.10:08 AM
@Aspen what's my gap to L5?
a.
Aspen APP10:08 AM
You're solid on technical depth and ownership. The L5 jump is mentorship and cross-team. Recent peer feedback flagged "could pull others up faster." Want a few concrete moves you can make this quarter?
03 — Calibration

Managers calibrate against the same Standard.

When review season hits, every manager evaluates against the same Standard, with Aspen tracking how each rating compares across the team. Drift surfaces immediately. Calibration meetings stop being a fight over what "Exceeds" means.

Slack — DM with Aspen
a.
Aspen APPMon 9:00 AM
Calibration check. Across 7 managers rating L4 Senior Engineers this cycle, "Exceeds" rates differ by 23%. Three managers may be over-indexing on tech depth, two under-indexing on mentorship.
Standard alignment · Senior Engineer L4
Recommended: 15-min calibration sync before reviews finalize.
Why this matters

Most companies don't have this. That's why reviews feel arbitrary.

Without Standards

Reviews are vibes-based.

  • Every manager applies their own bar; ratings drift across teams.
  • "What's expected at my level?" is a question nobody can answer.
  • Feedback is generic praise or generic criticism, nothing anchored.
  • Promotions feel arbitrary, because they kind of are.
  • Building a framework takes months and dies in a doc nobody opens.
With Aspen Standards

Performance is legible.

  • Every manager calibrates against the same Standard, automatically.
  • Every employee sees what's expected and what advancement requires.
  • Feedback gets anchored to the Standard — specific, useful, fair.
  • Promotions reference observable evidence against criteria.
  • Frameworks go from blank doc to live in Slack in an afternoon.
Questions

Common questions about Standards.

What is a Standard in Aspen?

A Standard is the leveling framework for a role: the levels, the competencies that matter at each level, and what "good" looks like at every step. Aspen uses Standards as the substrate behind feedback, reviews, goal alignment, and calibration so guidance is consistent across the org.

Do I have to build Standards from scratch?

No. Aspen ships with best-practice leveling templates designed by IO psychologists, covering both individual contributor and manager tracks across common functions. Aspen drafts an org-specific version from those templates plus your operating principles and roles. You edit and approve in minutes, not weeks.

How does Aspen use Standards day-to-day?

Aspen coaches against Standards in every interaction. When someone asks for help giving feedback, Aspen anchors the suggestion to the recipient's role and level. When a self-review or manager review starts, Aspen drafts from real evidence mapped to the Standard. When calibration happens, Standards keep everyone judging the same dimensions.

Can employees see their Standard?

Yes. Every employee sees the Standard for their current level and the one above — what's expected today, and what advancement requires. It removes the guesswork that usually surrounds promotion conversations.

How is this different from Pando's career frameworks?

Same idea, AI-native execution. Pando frameworks are built by humans with templates and a strategist. Aspen Standards generate from templates and your context automatically, then live in Slack so they shape every coaching moment, not just review season.

What if our roles don't fit a standard template?

The templates are a starting point, not a constraint. Aspen drafts to fit your actual role definitions and operating principles. You edit any competency, expectation, or level directly. Custom roles are first-class.

Start today

Make performance legible.

Aspen is in early access. Request access and we'll set up your Standards together, free for 30 days.

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