Who a First Release graduate is.

The profile describes who the programme is for. It guides the intake, sets the starting point on the competency framework, and makes clear what each graduate is being developed toward.

The profile on the competency framework

A typical graduate joins at Starting to Assisted on most competencies, and is released at Contributing, with Independent on two or more competencies as the signal of a fast track.

What First Release is designed to achieve.

1. Faster first contributionEvery graduate merges a first change in week two and releases a real change by day 90, with time to contribution measured for every intake.
2. Mission critical habitsBuild the habits that mission critical products demand: reading before writing, testing, and designing for failure.
3. Engineers who work across sitesPrepare graduates to work with teams at other sites, time zones, and acquired companies from their first quarter.
4. Engaged managers and buddiesMake managers, buddies, and mentors active developers of graduates, with a clear role, protected time, and simple tools.
5. Graduates who stayGive every graduate a 12 month plan and a reason to stay, in a market where engineers are hard to replace.

The Release Pipeline: one framework, built like engineering work.

First Release runs like a release pipeline. What Motorola Solutions already has feeds in at the top. Each graduate moves through five stages from left to right, with a key conversation at each gate. Inside the Build and Release stages, the Version Path takes them through five versions, driven by a learning loop based on Kolb's experiential learning cycle that repeats every two weeks: build, reflect, learn, and try. Underneath, one yardstick of 12 competencies is used at every build check, evaluation runs along the base, and released outcomes come out on the right.

A T shaped engineer, with clear ownership.

Good engineers are T shaped: broad craft across the top, deep product knowledge down the middle, standing on a solid foundation. First Release develops the foundation and the craft. Product and technical depth stays with each engineering team, as it does today, and is written into each graduate's Release Plan so the whole engineer is developed.

What each stage does, and what it produces.

It fills the gap between induction and real work.

First Release keeps the hiring process and HR induction as they are, fills the weeks where graduates usually wait for real work, and replaces a late probation judgment with evidence from week two.

Practical by design: learning through Kolb's experiential learning cycle.

First Release is not a course that comes before real work. It is built on David Kolb's experiential learning cycle: people learn best when they go around a loop of doing something real, reflecting on what happened, making sense of it, and trying again. Every two weeks, each graduate goes around this cycle on their own backlog item, so in 90 days they complete six full cycles on real engineering work.

Each stage of Kolb's cycle has a named activity, an owner, and evidence.

Two weeks in the Review version, step by step.

An example with fictional details, to show how one turn of the cycle changes what a graduate does.

Each 45 minute drill is a small Kolb cycle of its own.

Drills are short and hands on. Most of the time goes into practice and feedback on real or sanitised engineering artifacts, not into presentation.

Eight principles, and what each one means in First Release.

Every design choice traces back to established research on how adults, and engineers in particular, learn at work.

How the 90 days are spent.

Planned programme time per graduate, about 52 hours over 13 weeks, on top of their normal backlog work.

Measured at four levels, from reaction to business results.

Evaluation follows the four levels of the Kirkpatrick model, so the programme shows not only that graduates learned, but that they work differently and the business sees the result. The full KPI list is in the Measurement tab.

Five levels, the same for every competency.

Graduates, buddies, mentors, and managers rate on the same five levels, using real work as the evidence. Raters are calibrated at the first build check, so a level means the same thing in every team.

What each competency looks like at each level.

Each indicator describes observable behaviour at work, so ratings rest on what graduates do rather than on impressions.

Mostly through real work, then people, then formal learning.

The blend follows the widely used 70 20 10 model: most growth comes from challenging work, a good share from other people, and a smaller share from formal learning. First Release plans all three.

Five versions, ten drills, each building on the last.

The Build and Release stages follow the way engineering work actually ships: check out the code, read it, get reviewed, integrate with others, and release. Each version has two bench drills, a harder piece of real work, a smaller role for the buddy, and a build check at the end.

The capstone in four checkpoints

Build, reflect, learn, try. Every two weeks.

The learning loop is Kolb's experiential learning cycle, applied to engineering work. The full design behind it is in the Learning approach tab.

One structured conversation in each part of the journey.

Not everyone is released at the same level. Feed forward makes that useful.

By day 90 every graduate has shipped a real change, but they arrive at different levels across the 12 competencies. Instead of a pass or fail verdict, the release review produces a Feed Forward Report: insight that looks ahead, for the person who owns the graduate next. It names their strengths, their two growth priorities, the support they need, and the next level of ownership they are ready for, so learning support continues where it is needed most.

Feedback looks back. Feed forward plans the next step.

The idea comes from Marshall Goldsmith's work on feed forward: people improve faster when the conversation is about what to do next, rather than only about what went wrong. First Release uses both: feedback during the 90 days, and feed forward at the handover.

One page per graduate, written for their next owner.

Prepared from the Release Log, the five build checks, buddy and mentor notes, and the pulse. Agreed with the graduate before it is shared. An example with fictional details:

Different starting points, one direction: more ownership.

The pathway decides how much learning support continues after day 90, who provides it, and how fast the graduate takes on more ownership. Pathways are reviewed at month 6, and graduates move between them as they grow.

The next level of ownership, step by step.

The Feed Forward Report names the next rung for each graduate. Each pathway climbs the same ladder, at its own pace.

The manager toolkit

Three short labs for buddies

Who sees what

When each measure is taken.

A simple cadence, with clear decision rights.

Escalation when a graduate is struggling

From Discovery to the month 12 report.

About 15 months for the first intake, starting with a four week Discovery that tailors this blueprint to Motorola Solutions' teams and graduate calendar.

Every action, who leads it, and what it uses.

From Discovery to month 12, each action has an owner, a timing, an output, and the materials it uses. Wordsburg prepares every material, in English and the agreed languages, and reuses Motorola Solutions' existing induction, tools, and learning platform. Select any material to see a larger preview and where it is used.

What could get in the way, and how the design handles it.

Three steps to the first intake.

1. 1

   Review

   Walk through this blueprint with L&D and an engineering director, and agree any changes to scope or emphasis.

2. 2

   Agree

   Confirm the first intake's timing, teams, and the start of Discovery.

3. 3

   Discover

   Four weeks to set baselines, confirm competencies and KPIs, screen the first starter backlogs, and finalise the detailed design and plan.