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Succession Planning Tool
Name the roles you can't afford to lose, who could step into each, ready now or in a year or two, and the next step to get them there.
This tool also runs as a stage in a playbook, which takes you through several tools in order:
- Delegate as your team grows Stage 6 of 6: who steps up next? Start at stage 1
Not following the playbook?
The people
Everyone who holds a key role, and everyone who could step into one. A name or a role.
The key roles
Your notes never leave your browser
Roles, names and plans stay on your computer and in your progress file. To write the diagnosis, only the readiness of each role is sent to our server. How it works
Who could step into each role?
Be honest about readiness. "No one yet" is a useful answer: it tells you whom to hire or develop next.
- Ready in a year or two should mean: you know what this person has never done, and when they will do it.
- The next step is a real piece of the work, done while someone can still catch them, not a course.
- Name a few people across roles rather than one heir per role: a runner-up who learns they are second may leave.
The key roles
Keeping it working
Save your progress
Download your progress file to continue from this point any time, on any computer: choose it under "Coming back?" at the start of the tool. Each new file includes everything so far, including the earlier stages when they are connected, so keep the latest one. Your work stays in this browser only until you close it.
Not saved yet.
Take your results with you
A PDF of the key roles, who could step in and the next steps. In the playbook, the full report of all six stages and how to keep it working.
About the tool
Why it exists
Who steps up when someone leaves
Succession planning names the roles a business can’t afford to lose and finds who could step into each: ready now, ready in a year or two, or no one yet. The third answer is the one that tells you whom to hire or develop next.
This tool works on its own, and as stage 6 of our playbook for delegating as your team grows, where the key roles start from the new owners of stage 3, and the playbook ends with a 90-day review. For the method, see our guide to succession planning.
The method
How the tool works
The key roles. In the playbook, the list starts from the new owners in stage 3, the tasks you kept in stage 2 while someone learns, and skills only one person holds in stage 1. Add, rename or remove any.
Readiness. For each role: who could step in now, who in a year or two, or "No one". Then what they still need, and the next step, with a date.
What the tool flags. A role nobody could step into (it goes into the hiring plan), a successor with no next step (a chart, not a plan), and one person named for several roles.
The end of the playbook. A review 90 days out, checking three things: whether your time changed, whether decisions land with their owners, and whether the OKRs are met; and when to run the playbook again. Then "Playbook complete", the full PDF report and the final progress file.
What leaves your computer. Roles, names and plans stay in your browser and your progress file. To write the diagnosis, the page sends our server only the readiness of each role, and the server keeps nothing.