Readiness (Ready Now, 1 year, 2–3 years)

Readiness describes how soon a candidate could step into a target role and succeed. It is commonly expressed in windows — Ready Now, ready in roughly a year, and ready in two to three years — so a plan distinguishes people who could cover a role tomorrow from those who are promising but still developing.

Grouping candidates by readiness window turns a flat list of names into a pipeline. SuccessionStack maps each plan's bench across these three windows so HR can see, at a glance, whether cover exists today or only on the horizon.

The discipline that keeps readiness honest is a simple test: Ready Now means the organization would hand this person the role rather than open an external search. If the honest answer is that a search would still happen, the candidate belongs in a later window, and the plan is stronger for saying so.

Readiness windows are forecasts, and forecasts need engines. A candidate marked ready in one year should have development assignments underway that close specific scored gaps by specific dates; otherwise the window silently rolls forward every review cycle and the plan loses credibility.