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Award-winning · 148,000+ teams · ★★★★★ Google

Skills gaps, made visible.

In an age of AI disruption, the only sustainable edge is what your humans can actually do.

The award-winning Excel skills matrix template managers and HR teams use to spot capability gaps and plan training in 30 minutes. No subscription. No IT department. No drama.

Heat map Roadmaps 0 to 5 policy Dashboards 30-min setup
£199 one-off save £200 + £1 PulseAI Launch price held through 30 September 2026. After that, £249.
Get the template, £199 → Try the free 5x5 → Watch the 2-min story
148,000+ Teams using the framework
106.5M+ Skills assessments to date
20 yrs Of research behind the method
Downloaded by 312 teams this month
Real Skills Matrix Template populated for a finance team, showing colour-coded heat map, current vs target capability chart, capability gauge and team summary. A real customer matrix. Same file you'll download.
The 2-minute story

The whole team on one page. In thirty minutes.

An award-winning Excel template that turns gut feel into evidence. Single team. Lifetime updates. £199 one-off. £1 upgrade to PulseAI.

Populated 5x5 skills matrix in Excel with green, amber, red heat-map cells showing each team member's capability against each skill
A real screenshot. Yours in 30 minutes.
  1. 1

    The whole team on one page, in 30 minutes.

    Pre-built rows, columns and the 0 to 5 rating method. Type names, type skills, score, done.

  2. 2

    Heat map + automated roadmaps + Speedo dashboards.

    All inside Excel. No accounts, no logins, no per-seat fees. The visuals do the talking.

  3. 3

    Single team, lifetime updates, £199 one-off.

    Upgrade the same team to PulseAI any time in your first 12 months for £1.

Get the template, £199 → Try the free 5x5

Award-winning method · Single-team digital licence · Instant download

The 2026 reality

AI is automating tasks, not people. The value of your team is now what AI can't replicate.

Judgment. Coaching. Customer empathy. Cross-functional synthesis. Regulated decision-making. You can't manage what you can't see, and right now, most managers are flying blind.

44% WEF Future of Jobs Report 2025

Of workers' core skills will be disrupted by 2027.

Almost half of every team's skill set is on the move. Without visibility, you cannot prioritise which to invest in.

87% McKinsey Skills Survey 2024

Of organisations know they have skills gaps, or expect them within 5 years.

Knowing you have a gap is not the same as knowing where, in whom, and at what cost. That's what the matrix delivers.

#1 LinkedIn Workplace Learning 2024

Skill development is the leading driver of employee retention.

Visible roadmaps are not a nice-to-have. They are the most-cited reason high-performers stay.

Read the full thesis → See the 12 new AI-era skills
Watch the longer thought piece

Close the skills gap in the AI era.

A deeper, ten-minute walk-through on why visible skills are the most defensible advantage you have in 2026.

The problem

You can't fix what you can't see.

Most managers run on instinct. They guess what training their team needs, throw budget at courses that don't quite fit, and hope someone tells them when there's a gap. That's not a strategy. That's a risk.

A confident mixed-heritage manager in a bright modern office staring thoughtfully at a glass wall of colourful sticky notes with hand-drawn question marks, illustrating how invisible team skills make planning impossible without a skills matrix

Skills are invisible

You know who's good and who's struggling, but you can't prove it, measure it, or share it. Capability lives in your head, not on paper.

A diverse cross-functional team meeting in a modern office around a laptop showing a kanban board, with a colleague glancing at her phone, illustrating reactive scramble for training when skills gaps surface only after a project slips

Training is reactive

You only spot the gap when something breaks, a project misses, a key person leaves, an audit goes badly. By then, you're playing catch-up.

A focused Black female Learning and Development lead reviewing a colourful analytics dashboard on a large monitor in a modern glass-walled office, illustrating how training budget gets wasted without a clear skills picture

Budget gets wasted

Generic courses, tick-box compliance, training no one needed. Without a clear picture, your training spend isn't an investment, it's a hope.

The solution

One spreadsheet. Total clarity.

A skills matrix gives every manager and HR team a single, clear view of who can do what, where the gaps are, and what training will deliver the biggest impact. Ours has been refined over 20 years of real-world use.

Every skill, every person, on one page.

Rate each team member 0 to 5 on every skill that matters. The matrix instantly shows you where your strengths sit, where the red zones are, and who is ready for the next step. Built in Excel, so it works on day one with zero IT involvement.

  • Capability heat map across whole teams
  • Auto-generated individual development roadmaps
  • Industry-recognised 0–5 framework — fixed levels and maths, editable narrative
  • Current vs target dashboards and analytics
Get the template — £199 Try the free 5×5
Populated 5x5 skills matrix in Excel showing five team members along the rows and five skills along the columns, with cells colour-coded green, amber and red to surface skill gaps at a glance
A real screenshot from the template. Heat-map on, opinions off.
From gut feel to evidence

Same team. Same week. Different clarity.

Most managers can name their team's skills gaps in conversation, but cannot point to them on paper. The matrix turns gut feel into evidence.

Skills, in your head

  • Sarah J. · ratings unknown
  • Mark T. · ratings unknown
  • Priya R. · ratings unknown
  • James W. · ratings unknown
  • Aisha K. · ratings unknown
  • Tom G. · ratings unknown

Skills, on one page

0–5 capability framework Industry-recognised · doctoral-research-backed · fixed levels · editable narrative

Red zone flagged for James and Aisha across Coaching, Planning and Data Analysis. Training priority visible at a glance.

How it works

From blank page to training plan.
Four steps.

No consultants. No software rollout. No training. Open the file, follow the instructions, and your team's capability picture is on screen by the end of the morning.

1

List your team and skills

Add each person, then list every skill that matters for the work, hard skills, soft skills, regulatory, leadership. Use the four-trait test if you're unsure what counts.

2

Rate everyone, 0 to 5

Score on the doctoral-research-backed 0-5 scale. The six levels and the underlying maths are fixed (so Excel and PulseAI agree); the narrative descriptor at each level is editable to match your industry, regulator, and language.

3

Read the heat map

The matrix instantly highlights strengths, red zones, single points of failure, and where to invest first.

4

Build the plan

Auto-generated roadmaps for each person. Add training, mentoring, or stretch projects. Review next quarter.

Included with every purchase

Buy the template. Upgrade to AI for £1.

Get the Excel template today for £199. Within your first year, upgrade to PulseAI®, the same skills matrix on web and mobile, powered by AI, for just £1. Same methodology you already trust. Real-time insights. Automatic skill suggestions. Roadmaps that update themselves.

The recommended path: run the £199 Excel template as your internal proof-of-concept. Take the heat map to your line manager / IT / procurement, get the green light, then upgrade for £1.

See what PulseAI does → Get the template, £199
Recognised excellence

Corporate Training Program of the Year.

North England Prestige Awards, back-to-back winner. This is the methodology behind the template you're about to download.

★ Winner 2023/24 ★ Winner 2024/25
Read the press release →
Used by teams who can't afford to guess

Trusted across industries and continents.

The solution is fantastic. Once I inserted all my team members, there were gaps in training identified that I was not aware of.
Process Engineer TE Connectivity
Implementing the Skills Matrix has revolutionised how we develop individual and team capabilities. It has streamlined our developmental approach.
Sam Robinson & Naeem Mulla McCormick & Company
An effective way of identifying skills gaps and improving our ability to invest in our team members. We highly recommend it.
Jordan Cooper Director of Bid Services, Carley Consult
We run the team capability sheet every week now. Training priorities are obvious within minutes, not buried in separate spreadsheets and side conversations.
Peter W. Team Leader, Siemens
The £1 upgrade path

Your first year, mapped.

How your template purchase connects to PulseAI when you choose to upgrade.

Day 1

Buy template, £199

Instant download and the same methodology thousands of teams already use.

Months 1 to 11

Run as internal proof of concept

Populate your team, generate the heat map, build the case for PulseAI internally.

Month 12 or earlier

Upgrade to PulseAI for £1

First-year PulseAI access for template owners who choose to activate it.

Year 2 onwards

PulseAI £199/year (your call)

RRP £199 per year afterwards. Continue only if it stays valuable.

Compare options

Free template, paid template, or PulseAI.

Feature Free template £199 Template
Most popular		 PulseAI
Excel-basedyesyesno, web + mobile
Heat mapbasicadvancedadvanced + AI
Auto roadmapsnoyesyes, AI-generated
Editable narrative descriptors on a fixed 0-5 scalenoyesyes
Speedo dashboardsnoyesyes
Matrix analyticsnoyesyes, real-time
AI skill suggestionsnonoyes
Mobile accessnonoyes
Auto compliance remindersnonoyes
Price£0£199 one-off£1 first year, £199/yr after
Try the 5x5 online → Get the template → Start PulseAI →
  • Excel-based yes
  • Heat map basic
  • Auto roadmaps no
  • Editable narrative descriptors on a fixed 0-5 scale no
  • Speedo dashboards no
  • Matrix analytics no
  • AI skill suggestions no
  • Mobile access no
  • Auto compliance reminders no
Get the free mini-matrix
  • Excel-based yes
  • Heat map advanced
  • Auto roadmaps yes
  • Editable narrative descriptors on a fixed 0-5 scale yes
  • Speedo dashboards yes
  • Matrix analytics yes
  • AI skill suggestions no (use PulseAI)
  • Mobile access no (use PulseAI)
  • Auto compliance reminders no (use PulseAI)
  • £1 PulseAI upgrade in year one yes
Get the template, £199
  • Excel-based no (web + mobile)
  • Heat map advanced + AI
  • Auto roadmaps yes, AI-generated
  • Editable narrative descriptors on a fixed 0-5 scale yes
  • Speedo dashboards yes
  • Matrix analytics yes, real-time
  • AI skill suggestions yes
  • Mobile access yes
  • Auto compliance reminders yes
See PulseAI
Stays in your browser. Nothing saved. Nothing tracked. Try it now, no sign-up

See your team's capability, in 60 seconds.

Five people. Five skills. One number that changes how you plan training. The same fixed-maths 0–5 framework behind 106.5 million skills assessments. Default target is Level 3 (Capable), so a blank team reads 75% target out of the box.

Current 0.0%
Target 0.0%
Gap 0.0%

Weighted on the industry-recognised, doctoral-research-backed Upleashed 0–5 framework. 0 excludes a skill from that person. 1=25%, 2=50%, 3=75%, 4=100%, 5=100% (purple flag = strategic ownership variance). Default target is Level 3 (Capable, 75%). See the maths →

Add a person and a skill to start, or quick fill to see what it looks like.

The 0 to 5 capability framework
0

No skill required or desired Excluded

No expectation that the individual or role requires the specific skill(s) within the next year (take a longer-term view when assessing skills requirements and do not use this measure for short-term assessments). When the rating is 0 and the target is 0, the skill is excluded from that individual's capability calculation.

1

In training / Trainee 25%

Expectation to be proficient within a year. Completed up to 75% of training. The individual does not fully understand the quality requirements.

2

Developing capabilities 50%

Completed more than 75% of training. Is likely to be able to perform the task alone, although consistent quality and productivity requirements not yet evidenced. Complex output will require checking / verification.

3

Capable 75%

Has completed 100% of the training. Has demonstrated consistent quality and productivity standards. Where not mandated by regulation, checks can now be omitted, releasing capacity back into the business. Default team target.

4

Subject Matter Expert / Trainer 100%

Has prolonged experience at a consistent quality and productivity level. This individual is motivated, works autonomously, and is ready to accept responsibility for skill ownership and training. Is likely to be able to train others to a high standard. If the specific skill has not been completed in last 3 months then the 'skill level' should drop back to Level 3 for the individual to reconfirm competence standards.

5

Strategic ownership / Leadership 100%

Can define and develop new processes and skills requirements. Can demonstrate cross-function subject matter expertise. Can demonstrate leadership capabilities. Same numeric weight as Level 4; the purple cell flags strategic capability variance and surfaces succession candidates.

Compared to the alternatives

Same outcome. Different order of magnitude.

Most ways of "getting visibility into team skills" cost thousands per year, or thousands per audit. Ours is once, £199, yours forever.

Enterprise LMS

Cornerstone

~£40 per user / month
HR Suite

Workday HCM

£100+ per user / month
Consultant

Skills audit engagement

£8-15k one-off, per team
Most popular Our template

Excel + £1 PulseAI

£199 once, yours forever

Pricing for Cornerstone and Workday is indicative based on publicly advertised SMB starting rates; actual deals vary. We're not knocking them, they're great enterprise tools. We just have a different shape.

Simple pricing

One price. No subscription. Yours forever.

Pay once. Use it forever. Then, if you want to upgrade to AI, do it for £1 in your first year.

Save £200

Excel Skills Matrix Template

£199 £399 one-off
50% off, launch pricing held through 30 September 2026
Includes £1 PulseAI upgrade
  • The full Excel Skills Matrix template (instant download)
  • Capability heat map across whole teams
  • Auto-generated individual development roadmaps
  • Industry-recognised 0-5 framework with editable narrative descriptors
  • Current vs target analytics and dashboards
  • Step-by-step setup guide and tutorial
  • £1 PulseAI upgrade in your first year (RRP £199/yr)
  • Single-team licence, up to 30 people and 30 skills
  • Lifetime updates to your version
Get the template, £199 →

Secure checkout via PayPal. Instant download. Single-team digital licence, lifetime updates.

Award-winning method. We help you set it up.

Want help getting it right? Book a free 15-minute walkthrough before or after you buy. We will share screen, answer questions, and make sure your first capability picture is on screen the same day. Prefer to try first? The free 5x5 builder lets you map a team in your browser, no email needed.

Get the template, £199 Try the free 5x5 first
Common questions

Quick answers.

Anyone responsible for a team's capability. That includes managers, team leads, HR business partners, learning and development specialists, operations leaders, and small business owners. If you need to know what your team can do and where to invest in growth, this is for you.

Just Microsoft Excel. No installation, no IT department, no training course. Most users have their first matrix populated within 30 minutes of opening the file.

Every template purchase includes a £1 upgrade offer to PulseAI® at any time during your first year of use. PulseAI is the AI-powered, web and mobile version of the same skills matrix you'll already be using. RRP £199 per year. Your first year, just £1.

The Excel template is a one-off £199 payment. No subscription. No renewal. You own the file and can use it for as long as you like. PulseAI, if you choose to upgrade, is a separate annual subscription (£1 in year one, RRP £199 per year afterwards).

See all FAQs →

Stop guessing.
Start mapping.

148,000 teams already use this approach to find skills gaps and plan training that actually works. Yours could be next, in 30 minutes.

Get the template, £199 →

Not sure which is right for you?