1 min lesson
The maturity ladder: stage capabilities, not users
Respond to "What axis does the maturity ladder stage on and why is that better than staging on seat count?" Give the answer first and the evidence second.
Step 1 of 3
The most common adoption failure treats rollout as a headcount ramp: 'get 200 seats live.' Wrong axis. You stage capabilities by trust, not users by quantity. Each rung is a more autonomous way of working and you only climb when the org has earned the trust to hold the rung below.
Interactive diagram. Tab through its regions; each focused region shows its detail in the panel below.
Climb by trust, not by seat count. Each rung is earned by the control beneath it: guardrails earn governed workflow, a PR review gate earns repository workflow, and isolation plus human review earns pipeline/SDK.
Learn more
Optional practice
Test yourself on The maturity ladder: stage capabilities, not users
QAn org has SSOSingle Sign-On. One company login (usually via SAML or OIDC) instead of a separate password per tool. Press Enter for the full definition., model and repo allowlists and Privacy ModeCursor's setting that guarantees code data is not used for training by Cursor or its model providers, and that an admin can enforce org-wide; data-retention terms are a separate, contractual layer. Press Enter for the full definition. enforced, but agent-proposed changes don't pass through a PR review gate yet. Which rung do you pitch next?