AI conversation practice · Built for first-time managers

    Your new managers are winging the conversations that decide who stays.

    iGrow for Teams gives every first-time manager a private AI practice room — realistic difficult-conversation roleplays that push back like real people, scored on a proven framework, with team-level skill analytics for L&D.

    25 seats · 90 days · $1,500 · live in under a week
    82%
    of managers stepped into the role with no formal management training — "accidental managers."
    CMI / YouGov, 2023
    70%
    of the variance in team engagement is explained by one variable: the manager.
    Gallup, State of the American Manager
    28%
    of employees have left a job because of a negative relationship with their manager.
    Unmind, 2024
    The new-manager training gap

    Promoted on Friday.
    Managing people by Monday.

    Your best individual contributor just became a manager. They got a laptop refresh, a compliance module, and a calendar full of 1:1s. What they didn't get is a single rep at the conversations that will actually define their team: the feedback that stings, the performance talk that's overdue, the comp question they can't answer, the resignation they didn't see coming.

    So they do what every untrained manager does — they avoid, soften, and improvise. And the cost of that improvisation doesn't show up on a training-completion dashboard. It shows up in engagement scores, in regretted attrition, in the exit interview that mentions "my manager."

    The first time your manager puts someone on a PIP shouldn't be the first time they've ever said the words out loud.
    How AI roleplay training works

    Reps, not modules.

    No LMS migration, no content library to maintain. Managers practice in the browser or on their phone, in ten-minute reps.

    01 · ASSIGN

    Pick the conversations

    Choose from a library of manager-specific simulations — feedback, underperformance, PIPs, comp pushback, layoffs, conflict — or we configure scenarios around your org's real moments in the kickoff.

    02 · PRACTICE

    Managers rehearse, privately

    Each manager faces an AI counterpart with a real personality that pushes back, gets defensive, goes quiet, or bargains — by voice or text, as many turns as it takes, with coaching on every turn if they want it.

    03 · MEASURE

    Watch readiness move

    Every rep is scored on Bill Eddy's B.I.F.F. framework — Brief, Informative, Friendly, Firm — and builds each manager's skill profile. Your dashboard shows team-level skill movement, not vanity completions.

    The simulation library

    Difficult conversations your managers
    can finally practice.

    Give feedback that might sting
    The conversation they keep rescheduling.
    Trains · Firm + Friendly
    Open a PIP with dignity
    Clear plan, zero mixed signals.
    Trains · Firm + Informative
    Deliver a layoff or termination
    The hardest sentence, said with respect.
    Trains · Brief + Friendly
    Re-engage a checked-out performer
    The numbers dropped and they went quiet.
    Trains · Informative + Firm
    Call out how they treat the room
    A top performer who steamrolls the team.
    Trains · Firm + Friendly
    Face the team after a reorg
    Honest answers for a burned-out room.
    Trains · Friendly + Firm
    The ReceptiveThe DefenderThe WoundedThe WallThe SteamrollerThe Cynic

    Every scenario runs against selectable counterpart archetypes at four intensity levels — because the skill isn't the script, it's staying composed when a real person pushes back.

    Skill analytics for L&D

    Readiness, not completion rates.

    Most manager training reports what people watched. iGrow reports what they can now do — and protects the privacy that makes honest practice possible.

    Team skill profile25 MANAGERS · WEEK 9 OF 13
    Brief+9 pts
    Informative+16 pts
    Friendly+6 pts
    Firm+11 pts
    Aggregate view (illustrative data): reps completed, skills moving, common blind spots — e.g. "your managers soften the ask under emotion" — so you know exactly what to coach next.
    The adoption unlock

    Managers practice honestly when no one is watching.

    Individual practice sessions are private to the practicing manager — full stop. That privacy is why they'll actually rehearse the conversation they're dreading instead of performing for a dashboard.

    L&D sees aggregate skill movement — never individual transcripts
    Practice data is never shared with a manager's boss
    We complete your security questionnaire before kickoff
    The math your CFO will ask for

    What winging it costs.

    Adjust the numbers to your org. This is directional, not a promise — but the asymmetry is the point.

    120
    employees reporting to untrained managers
    34
    at risk — 28% say they've left a job over a manager relationship
    $1.4M
    annual attrition exposure at your replacement-cost assumption

    Assumptions are yours to set: 28% manager-driven attrition risk per Unmind (2024) research reported by CMI; replacement-cost estimates across HR literature commonly range from 50% to 200% of salary depending on role. The pilot below costs $1,500 — ~963× less than the exposure above.

    PRICING — NO SURPRISES

    Start with a pilot. Stay because it works.

    Prove it on 25 of your managers for one flat price — or skip straight to the annual plan. Either way it starts with a 20-minute call, because we agree on your success metric before we take a dollar.

    MOST TEAMS START HERE
    The 90-day pilot
    $1,500
    FLAT · ONE PAYMENT · 25 SEATS · 90 DAYS
    Full access for 25 managers — every simulation, voice and text, in any modern web browser
    AI that pushes back — plays the defensive employee, the pushback, the hard 1:1, like the real thing
    A scored verdict on every rep — B.I.F.F. (Brief, Informative, Friendly, Firm — Bill Eddy's framework), plus what to fix next run
    A skill profile per manager — the practice adapts to each person over time
    A success metric we agree with you up front — e.g., sessions per manager, before/after readiness
    Live kickoff session to onboard your cohort — zero IT lift, no integrations required to start
    Monthly check-in + end-of-pilot report — usage, progress against the metric, and our honest read, walked through by the founders
    Direct line to both founders for the full 90 days
    No auto-renewal. No procurement gauntlet. If it didn't work, it ends at day 90 and we part friends.
    Book a 20-minute fit call
    Go direct — the annual plan
    $25 per seat / month
    BILLED ANNUALLY ($300/SEAT/YEAR) · 10-SEAT MINIMUM · EVERYTHING IN THE PILOT, ONGOING
    Skip the pilot and roll out to your managers now. Add seats anytime at the same rate.
    Run the pilot first and convert within 30 days of pilot end, and you lock the Pilot Partner Rate — $20 per seat / month ($240/seat/year) for your entire first year.
    The renewal that actually matters: you'll promote another class of managers this year. They shouldn't start from zero either — new seats can be added mid-contract as each cohort steps up.

    Replacing one employee who quits a struggling manager costs, by conservative estimates, half their salary or more. A full 25-seat year of iGrow costs a fraction of one bad exit — about what a single day of workshop training runs for two managers.

    One named manager with full access. When someone changes roles or leaves, reassign their seat to another manager at no cost.

    Nothing to start. Managers sign up with a work email; no integrations are required for the pilot or the annual plan.

    Pilot: one invoice or card payment of $1,500. Annual plans: invoiced annually. No hidden fees, no per-simulation charges.

    At day 60 we review results against the success metric together. By day 75 you get a written conversion offer at the Pilot Partner Rate, valid through 30 days after the pilot ends. If it's not a fit, nothing renews — by design.

    The pilot is built for 25 because it's a real cohort — enough to see signal. If your manager population is meaningfully different, raise it on the call and we'll shape it.

    Because the success metric matters more than the sale. We define what "working" means for your team on a 20-minute call first — then you decide.

    Why teams choose iGrow

    Purpose-built for people managers.

    vs. generic AI chat

    It pushes back.

    A chatbot agrees with your managers. iGrow's counterparts get defensive, go silent, and bargain — selectable archetypes at four intensity levels, because composure under pushback is the skill.

    vs. vibes-based feedback

    It scores on a framework.

    Every rep is graded on B.I.F.F. — Brief, Informative, Friendly, Firm — the conflict-communication framework developed by Bill Eddy, applied turn by turn with concrete rewrites, not "great job!"

    vs. sales-roleplay platforms

    It's built for this.

    Not a sales-enablement tool retrofitted for HR. iGrow's scenarios, archetypes, and scoring were designed for people-manager conversations from day one — and every rep compounds into a skill profile.

    Who's behind it

    iGrow is built in Chicago by operators from Google, Walmart, EY, and Salesforce — and shaped by an L&D co-founder who has run manager development inside real organizations. 400+ professionals already practice their hardest conversations on iGrow.

    Questions L&D asks us

    Frequently asked questions

    AI roleplay training gives managers realistic, spoken or typed practice conversations with an AI counterpart that pushes back like a real person — a defensive report, a hurt teammate, a checked-out performer. Managers rehearse difficult conversations privately, get scored feedback, and repeat until the skill is muscle memory.

    Traditional new manager training measures completion — videos watched, workshops attended. iGrow measures readiness: every manager actually practices the feedback, performance, and conflict conversations they dread, against realistic counterparts, and L&D sees skills move on a team dashboard.

    Three ways a generic chatbot can't match: iGrow's counterparts hold realistic personas that push back and get defensive instead of agreeing; every conversation is scored on Bill Eddy's B.I.F.F. framework (Brief, Informative, Friendly, Firm) rather than vibes; and every rep updates a longitudinal skill profile, so coaching compounds instead of starting from zero each session.

    No. Individual practice conversations are private to the practicing manager — that privacy is what makes honest practice possible. L&D and People Ops see aggregate, team-level skill analytics: which skills are moving, where the gaps are — never individual transcripts.

    Days, not months. iGrow runs in the browser and on mobile — no LMS integration required to start. A 25-seat pilot typically kicks off within one week of signing, including scenario selection with your L&D team.

    Two ways in. The pilot is $1,500 flat for 25 manager seats for 90 days — everything included, no auto-renewal. Or skip the pilot and go direct on the annual plan at $25 per seat per month, billed annually, 10-seat minimum. Teams that pilot first and convert within 30 days lock $20 per seat for their first year.

    iGrow for Teams

    The next hard conversation on your team is already coming. The only question is whether your manager practiced.

    A 20-minute call with the founders: we'll look at your newer-manager population, agree what success would look like, and you'll know by the end of the call whether the pilot — or going direct — makes sense.

    Or write to us: teams@i-grow.co
    iGrow Inc. · Chicago · Built by a sibling founding team — a decade of L&D at Meta, EY, and Manulife, and a builder who shipped it end to end.