Latest / The Internal Move Podcast with Fexingo: Lateral Roles, Internal Transfers, and Staying at Your Company / How to Map Your Internal Move with a Career Lattice
Transcript
- Lucas: You've probably heard the advice to 'climb the corporate ladder.' But what if the ladder is the wrong metaphor? What if you should be thinking about a lattice instead? Luna: A lattice — like, moving sideways, diagonally, even down a rung to go somewhere better later? I've heard that term, but it always felt a bit abstract. Lucas: Exactly. And that's what we're digging into today — the career lattice as a practical tool for internal mobility. Not just theory, but how you actually map one out inside your own company. Luna: So give me a concrete example. Who actually did this well? Lucas: Let me tell you about a marketing manager at Procter & Gamble — I'll call her Sarah, though that's not her real name. Sarah had spent six years in brand management on the Tide team. She was good at it, but she wanted to move into the supply chain side — specifically, demand forecasting and analytics. Luna: That's a big jump. Marketing to supply chain — those are totally different skill sets, different departments, different everything. Lucas: Right. And a traditional ladder thinker would say, 'You can't. There's no promotion path from brand manager to supply chain analyst.' But Sarah didn't try to jump straight across. She used a lattice approach. Luna: What did she do first? Lucas: She mapped her current role's skills against the skills required for the target role. Marketing requires data analysis — she was running A/B tests on ad copy, analyzing market share data. Supply chain forecasting also requires data analysis, just on different data sets. That's an adjacent skill. Luna: So she found the overlap. Then what? Lucas: She identified a 'bridge role' — a position that sat at the intersection of marketing and supply chain. At P&G, that's something like a 'customer demand planner' inside the marketing organization. It's technically still in marketing, but you're working with supply chain data every day. Luna: So she took a lateral move into that bridge role first, then pivoted from there. Lucas: Exactly. She spent 18 months in that customer demand planner role, built relationships with the supply chain team, learned their systems — SAP, forecasting models — and then applied for an internal transfer to a supply chain analytics role. She got it. Luna: And her total time from start to finish? About two years? That's commitment. Lucas: Two years, yes. But she avoided the trap of applying cold for a role she wasn't ready for. She built the credibility first. Luna: So how does someone listening today start mapping their own lattice? I imagine most people don't have a clear bridge role in mind. Lucas: Start by drawing your current role's skill set. Write down the top five technical skills and top five soft skills you use daily. Then pick a target role — maybe one you've seen in internal job postings — and list its required skills. Compare the two. Luna: And look for overlap and gaps. The gaps are where you need to build experience. Lucas: Right. But don't just look at the gaps — look for 'adjacent skills' that are 70 percent similar. There's a concept called the 70-20-10 rule for skill adjacency. If a new role requires 70 percent of what you already know, you can realistically learn the other 30 percent on the job. Luna: So if the overlap is less than 70 percent, you probably need a bridge role first. Lucas: Exactly. And that's where most people mess up — they apply for a role that's only 40 percent aligned and wonder why they get rejected. The hiring manager sees risk, not potential. Luna: What about the 'diagonal trap' you mentioned earlier? I've seen people move diagonally — say, from a senior individual contributor role to a junior manager role in a different function — and it backfires. Lucas: The diagonal trap is when you jump too far in one move. You're changing function AND level at the same time. That's two dimensions of uncertainty. The lattice approach says change one dimension at a time. Luna: So first move lateral within your function, or move up within your function, but don't try to do both at once. Lucas: Precisely. Sarah changed function but stayed at the same level in her bridge role. Then, after proving herself, she moved to a slightly higher level in the new function. Two moves, two years, but low risk. Luna: I want to bring in a data point. A 2023 LinkedIn survey found that people who made internal lateral moves were 40 percent more likely to stay at their company for three years or more compared to those who stayed in the same role. So the lattice isn't just good for career growth — it's good for retention. Lucas: That makes sense. Companies that encourage internal mobility keep talent longer. But the lattice approach requires the employee to be proactive. You can't wait for HR to hand you a map. Luna: So give listeners a step-by-step. What's the first thing they should do this week? Lucas: This week: pull up your company's org chart — if you don't have access, ask a friendly colleague in HR. Identify three roles that are one or two steps away from yours, in terms of skill adjacency. Don't just look at titles; look at the job descriptions. Luna: And if you can't get the org chart? Lucas: Use LinkedIn. Look at people in your company who have the role you want. See what skills they list, what previous roles they held. That's your unofficial lattice map. Luna: Then what? You've identified a target role. How do you make the move without alerting your current boss prematurely? Lucas: This is critical. You want to build relationships in the target department before you apply. Start with informational interviews — 'I'm curious about what your team does.' Don't mention you're looking to transfer. Just learn. Luna: And volunteer for cross-functional projects that put you in touch with that team. Sarah did exactly that — she joined a supply chain optimization task force. Lucas: Exactly. That's how you build the network and the resume at the same time. By the time you formally apply, the hiring manager already knows you, and you already know the work. Luna: One thing that often gets overlooked is the 'reverse lattice' — moving to a role that's technically a step back in seniority but opens up more future options. Have you seen that work? Lucas: Absolutely. I've seen a senior engineer move to a product management associate role. It was a demotion on paper, but within two years, she was a director of product. The lattice sometimes requires a temporary step back to go further later. Luna: That takes ego management. You have to be okay with a lower title for a while. Lucas: It does. But if you're playing the long game, it's often the fastest path. The key is to make sure the bridge role really does bridge to something better, not just a dead end. Luna: So how do you know if a bridge role is a real bridge or a dead end? Lucas: Look at where people who held that role went next. If the last three people in that role moved into the target function, it's a proven bridge. If they all stayed in the same role for years, it's a trap. Luna: That's a great heuristic. Okay, let's talk about the actual mapping exercise. I want to do one live, hypothetically. Say I'm a finance analyst at a large bank, and I want to move into FinTech product management. What's my lattice? Lucas: Good example. Your current skills: financial modeling, data analysis, stakeholder communication. Target skills for FinTech product management: user research, product roadmap, agile methodology. The overlap is data analysis and communication — probably about 50 percent. Luna: So not 70 percent. I need a bridge role. Lucas: Right. A possible bridge: 'product analyst' or 'data product manager' inside the bank's digital division. That role uses your finance skills but also teaches you agile and product thinking. Then from there, you can move to a pure product role at a FinTech. Luna: And that bridge role is internal, so you don't have to leave the company. You're building the lattice inside before you potentially go external. Lucas: Exactly. And even if you eventually leave, you're a much stronger candidate with that internal lattice experience. Luna: This is really practical. I think a lot of listeners get stuck because they only think about the next promotion, not the next move that builds toward a different future. Lucas: That's the ladder mindset. The lattice mindset says: every role is a node. Your career is a network of connected experiences, not a single upward line. Luna: If this episode helped you see your own internal moves differently, honestly, if it was worth a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. We keep the show ad-free, and listener support is what makes that possible. Lucas: Yeah, and it's a small way to say this kind of career deep-dive is valuable. No pressure, just if it lands. Luna: Alright, back to the lattice. One last question: what about someone who's been in the same role for five years and feels stuck? Can they still build a lattice, or is it too late? Lucas: It's never too late. In fact, being in one role for a long time means you have deep expertise — that's valuable. The lattice for them might be a 'skill extension' — add one new skill through a project, then use that to open a door. The key is to start small. Luna: So start with one informational interview, one cross-functional project, one skill gap to fill. Don't try to map the whole lattice in a weekend. Lucas: Exactly. The lattice is built one node at a time. And the best time to start is now, even if you're not ready to move yet. Luna: Good advice. I'm going to map my own lattice this week, honestly. Lucas: Me too. I think we all have moves we haven't considered.