| Design Craft & Execution |
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| Design quality | - Displays an expert level in their core design discipline - typography, spacing, visual hierarchy, and accessibility are well considered. Copy is clear and easily understood.
- Demonstrates excellent taste; final deliverables are clean, polished, and well-documented with annotations and component states.
- Applies established best practices while beginning to uncover novel, unexpected, but workable solutions.
- Shows a rough version early rather than a perfect one late.
| - Exercises strategic restraint in craft execution and ships v1 at the fidelity the decision needs. Iterates once data is available.
- Knows which surfaces in the product actually affect outcomes (the moments a user judges the product by on first use). Invests craft time there.
- Evaluates design quality through the lens of user and business outcomes, not aesthetic perfection alone.
- Knows where 90% achieves the same impact as 99%.
| Ongoing. At Lead: name fidelity trade-offs explicitly when you make them. One sentence in the post or message counts. |
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| Research & data application | - Makes design decisions informed by available data - analytics, research studies, call transcripts, and user feedback.
- When data does not exist for their project area, identifies the gap and proposes research to address it.
- Applies appropriate research methods (usability testing, card sorting, surveys) to validate design decisions.
- Documents and shares research findings with the team.
| - Knows how much research to conduct, who to ask, and why the answer matters beyond curiosity.
- Identifies systemic knowledge gaps that span beyond their assigned project area.
- Connects research findings to business outcomes.
- Builds ongoing measurement agendas rather than one-off studies.
| Findings documented per project at both levels. At Lead: narrate research scope decisions when you make them ("stopping here, enough to validate the direction"). Measurement agenda sustained with at least one update sharing what the data showed against what you expected, per quarter. |
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| Tools & design process | - Understands and follows a strong, consistent design process and is always on the lookout for improvements.
- Masters design tools and supports other designers in using them effectively.
- Maintains well-organized design files, component libraries, and documentation.
- Follows established team workflows and contributes to their refinement.
- Uses AI tools for first drafts. Has something clickable the same day.
| - Proactively contributes to the improvement of organization-wide processes and tooling.
- Identifies inefficiencies in existing workflows and proposes alternatives with rationale.
- Shifts from project-level process to system-level thinking about how the team works.
- Evaluates and introduces new tools or methods based on team needs, not personal preference.
- Shows the team how to use AI well. Demonstrates which parts of the workflow to automate and which to leave alone.
- Shares prompts, patterns, and failure modes so the team compounds learning instead of each person figuring it out alone.
| Ongoing process habits at Senior. At Lead: 1 documented contribution to team-wide process or tooling per quarter, shared publicly. |
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| Business Impact & Strategic Thinking |
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| Defining the problem | - Understands the business context behind the work.
- Asks what problem they're solving before starting.
- Flags when the brief doesn't match the actual problem.
| - Changes how a problem is framed before work begins.
- Spots when the team is solving the wrong thing and brings a better definition with evidence to back it.
| Ongoing business awareness at Senior. At Lead: 1 self-initiated brief or cross-team framing per quarter, with documented business rationale. |
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| Initiating work | - Picks up work from a brief.
- Identifies gaps in the brief and fills them before starting.
| - Identifies opportunities that don't have a brief yet and writes one.
- Comes with the problem, the rationale, and a proposed direction and not just a question.
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| Success metrics & impact | - Establishes success metrics before project start.
- Uses available data to validate design decisions and measure outcomes.
- Articulates the impact of their work in terms stakeholders understand.
- Advocates for post-launch measurement to track actual versus expected results.
| - Exercises independent judgment in prioritizing team efforts based on understanding of impact.
- Builds ongoing reporting frameworks that connect design outcomes to business results.
- Highlights the questions the team is not answering, and proposes who should answer them (which questions to ask customers and which to stakeholders).
- Frames design investments in terms of business ROI, not just user experience improvement.
| Metrics defined per project at both levels. At Lead: narrate prioritization decisions when you make them ("choosing X over Y because of Z impact"). Reporting framework built and sustained with at least one update sharing what the data showed against what you expected. |
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| Communication & Visibility |
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| Communicating design | - Shares low-fidelity work early and often.
- Provides walkthroughs in easily digestible formats - recorded walkthroughs, annotated screenshots, concise write-ups.
- Confidently communicates decision-making rationale to team members and cross-functional partners.
- Consistently considers message recipients and adjusts communication based on the audience.
| - Differentiates themselves by their ability to strategically surface key decisions to leadership with options, trade-offs, and a clear recommendation.
- Uses storytelling and persuasion techniques to build trust with partners and establish long-term relationships.
- Comfortable communicating at all levels of the organization with confidence and clarity.
- Crafts narratives that connect day-to-day design work to the team's strategic vision.
| Ongoing at Senior. At Lead: 2+ instances per quarter of surfacing a key decision to leadership with options and a clear recommendation, documented. |
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| Async & daily communication | - Posts updates, explorations, and design rationale in project channels daily.
- Moves conversations from DMs to public channels for visibility.
- Communicates proactively - does not wait to be asked for status.
- Provides clear, timely responses to feedback and questions from cross-functional partners.
| - Directs communication to the right stakeholder based on a deep understanding of their priorities and concerns.
- Exercises judgment about when and what to escalate - not everything, not nothing.
- Proactively shares relevant updates with senior leaders (manager, skip-level, cross-functional executives) without being asked.
- Proactively shares information (reports, threads, analyses) that leadership need to make decisions or intervene early.
| Ongoing at both levels. At Lead: proactive updates to senior leaders. |
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| Feedback | - Contributes to creating a culture of transparent and constructive feedback by giving constructive feedback in design reviews and shows humility when receiving feedback from others
- Shares work early and solicits feedback from relevant stakeholders directly (tagging them in team channels).
- Provides helpful, specific feedback to teammates grounded in rationale and not personal opinion.
| - Runs a recurring design critique by owning the format, the agenda, and the follow-up. Not a one-off session.
- When giving feedback to other designers, teaches the question rather than the answer.
- Gives feedback across the design/PM boundary, on briefs before they're set, not just on designs after.
- The team gives each other substantive feedback without needing a manager in the room to prompt it.
| Ongoing at Senior. At Lead: one feedback ritual established and running; 2+ coaching moments documented per quarter. Intra-team feedback captured in 1:1s with direct questioning. |
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| Stakeholder Engagement & Leadership |
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| Stakeholder management | - Responds to stakeholder requests and provides updates in meetings.
- Gathers information proactively from relevant colleagues.
- Collaborates effectively with Product Managers and cross-functional partners.
- Recognizes opportunities for collaboration and acts on them.
| - Proactively engages stakeholders and organizes information flow with them and between them.
- Partners with Product Managers as equals - brings the PM along rather than following.
- Initiates feedback from their manager and skip-level leadership when the work benefits from that perspective.
- Builds trust-based relationships that lead stakeholders to seek their input on direction and feasibility.
| Ongoing at both levels. At Lead: the signal is stakeholders seeking your input unprompted. Note when it happens. |
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| Meeting leadership | - Active in planning and contributing to meetings.
- Communicates design rationale clearly when asked.
- Participates constructively in cross-functional discussions.
- Comes prepared with relevant context and materials: shows up with the agenda, not expecting one
| - Proactively initiates and leads meetings with prepared agendas and documented outcomes.
- Drives the meeting: stands at the whiteboard with the marker.
- Demonstrates confidence and presence even when more senior people are in the room.
- Facilitates toward decisions rather than open-ended discussion; ensures clear next steps.
- Ends meetings with a decision and an owner, or says out loud that neither happened.
| Ongoing preparation at Senior. At Lead: every meeting you initiate needs a documented agenda beforehand and a decision/owner recap posted to the channel after. |
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| Managing Up | - Brings a problem to their manager with a proposed solution, not just the problem.
- Flags concerns early, before they become blockers.
- Communicates clearly about capacity, trade-offs, and timelines without being asked.
- Accepts direction but asks for clarification when something conflicts with the work.
| - Comes to leadership with a position: what the situation is, what options were considered, and a clear recommendation.
- Pushes back when they have evidence the direction is wrong. Names the concern, proposes an alternative, accepts the final call.
- Proactively surfaces risks and decisions leadership needs to know about before being asked.
- Knows what their manager and skip-level each care about and frames updates accordingly.
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| Team Development & Mentorship |
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| Mentorship | - Actively identifies opportunities to help team members grow.
- Understands the importance and impact mentorship has within the team.
- Uses personal experience to support teammates in strengthening their craft.
- Builds professional networks and collaborates across disciplines.
| - Teaches Seniors the questions to ask themselves, not the answers. "Why does this matter to the business?" becomes a habit
- Uses questions rather than answers to develop independent thinking and judgment.
- Helps others calibrate effort, understand priorities, and recognize when craft refinement yields diminishing returns.
- Identifies mentoring opportunities not just for themselves but also for others on the team.
| Ongoing at both levels. At Lead: 2+ documented coaching interactions per quarter. Note the question asked and what the report arrived at themselves. |
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| Knowledge sharing | - Creates templates, documentation, and shared resources that help teammates succeed.
- Contributes to design team knowledge bases (research guides, design templates, recorded walkthroughs).
- Shares techniques, approaches, and learnings through show-and-tells and critiques.
- Identifies where teammates can strengthen their skills and offers support.
| - Helps Senior designers understand it's always about the business - teaches them to frame work in terms of impact.
- Sets the craft standard for the team: explains why something needs more or less polish
- Creates structures and rituals for ongoing team learning (not just ad hoc sharing).
- Documents strategic rationale and decision frameworks, not just design artifacts.
| One or more shared resources per quarter at Senior. At Lead: one ongoing learning ritual established; strategic rationale documented per major decision. |
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| Process & Operations |
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| Process improvement | - Suggests improvements to existing processes, workflows, and documentation.
- Creates consistency through templates, specs, and standardization.
- Identifies pain points in current ways of working and raises them with recommendations at a tactical level.
- Possesses a strong ability to follow and contribute to established design processes.
| - Takes a strategic view of process challenges and proposes solutions with prototypes - demonstrates how proposed changes could work.
- Sets up meetings, facilitates discussion, and drives toward consensus on process changes.
- Explores new patterns and practices to enhance the team's methodological toolkit.
- Exercises independent judgment in acting on process improvements as long as core delivery commitments are met; does not wait for permission.
| At least one improvement suggested per quarter at Senior. At Lead: document the gap when you spot it, then the fix when you ship it. The sequence is the evidence, if you document after being asked, it doesn't count. |
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| Operational thinking | - Maintains awareness of team capacity and workload in their immediate area.
- Communicates timeline estimates and flags blockers proactively.
- Uses project management tools effectively to track and communicate progress.
- Raises operational concerns to their manager with context and suggested actions.
| - Shifts from project-level thinking to program-level thinking about how the team operates.
- Identifies operational gaps (tracking, capacity, workflow) and proposes systematic solutions.
- Takes ownership of operational improvements autonomously - without being asked.
- Balances operational investment with delivery commitments; knows when process work is worth the trade-off.
| Ongoing awareness at Senior. At Lead: document the gap when you spot it, act, then post the fix. Sequence matters. Documenting after someone else flags it breaks the chain. |
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