How is the assessment scored?
Each leader's decisions in the inbox simulation are scored against an expert key built by I-O psychologists, and mapped to your competency model. The scoring is validated and consistent, never AI-generated.
Is it validated?
Yes. The inbox simulations are validated situational-judgment assessments. Scores predict on-the-job performance more accurately than traditional assessment centers (an r of about .43, versus roughly .37), with test-retest reliability of .86 to .93, built with I-O psychologists at DePaul University. Read the technical synopsis (PDF) →
If manager ratings are biased, why validate against supervisory ratings?
Because they're the field-standard criterion, the same benchmark assessment centers are measured against, and the study design answers the circularity. One manager rating one leader is shaped by visibility and likability. The validation spanned 398 experienced professionals and their supervisors, and each skill score correlated far more strongly with its matching performance dimension (r = .30) than with unmatched ones (r = .12), a pattern a halo can't produce. In practice the score never rests on ratings anyway: organizations pair it with their own outcomes, like pre-and-post measurement and tracking who advances.
What does it actually measure?
Judgment: how a leader weighs incomplete information, cross-functional tradeoffs, and consequences when the call is theirs. It's captured as behavior, not a personality profile or a knowledge test.
How is this different from the Leadership Accelerator?
The Assessment is the scalable instrument: leaders take an inbox simulation individually to produce readiness evidence. The Leadership Accelerator is the facilitated cohort program where leaders build that judgment, and where the measurement goes deepest, adding live observer scoring and decisions across a full business simulation.
How long does it take, and how does it scale?
Inbox simulations adapt to your use case, and can be made as short or as long as you need. An average one runs about 30 minutes, and some custom builds are as short as 15 to 20. Each leader takes it individually and online, so you can assess a whole population of leaders, not just a cohort in a room.
Can you map it to our competency model?
Yes. We map the inbox simulation to your competency model, so each leader's score reads in the language your talent process already uses, the same competencies your reviews, 9-box, and succession planning are built on.
Does it replace our existing talent tools?
No. Your performance data, 9-box, and assessments stay. Capsim adds the one layer they can't see, how a leader actually decides under pressure, scored to the same model and dropped into the reviews you already run.
Should we base a hiring or promotion decision on the assessment alone?
No. No single assessment should be the sole basis for a hiring or promotion decision. Capsim gives you objective evidence of judgment to weigh alongside your other inputs, performance, experience, and interviews, so the call is better informed. The decision stays yours.
Do you use Comp-XM?
No. Comp-XM is our academic assurance-of-learning exam. Corporate readiness runs on the inbox simulation, plus the deeper observer and in-simulation measurement you add inside a Leadership Accelerator cohort.
Who is it for?
Identifying high-potentials, making promotion decisions with evidence behind them, and building a succession bench you can defend, before the role is real.
