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It isn't clear to me from the article, but has this ladder been implemented somewhere or is it a theoretical framework?

My issue with many such articles is that they propose and idea without having tried it in practice. Unless you have implemented this and seen it working well for a period of time, it's only "armchair leadership".

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It’s not mentioned directly in the article but this is the typical Big Tech IC ladder and levels. Eg ones at Google, Meta, Uber, Databricks, Amazon, Dropbox etc all like up like this, including the level numbers (L6, L7 etc). Though there at small differences on the interpreting and focus points at each level.

I agree the article could have been more clear.

this is pretty typical stuff these days for a typical well to do SaaS org.

I've seen it work well. It can help facilitate the conversation between a manager and direct report when trying to understand what the gaps are between their current role, and where they want to go next. It also helps keep those discussions aligned across different managers/directs across the organisation.

It also has it's down sides. There's no perfect solution to soft skills.

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