We\u2019ve recently updated our product designer job levels<\/a> to give our designers a map for advancing their careers<\/a> at Intercom. Our goal was to make them clearer, more useful, and more realistic. We\u2019re also sharing them publicly to help those design teams without job levels to create their own.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a design leader struggling to come up with job levels, expectations, and career paths, this post will help you get started.<\/p>\n We believe everyone performs their best when they know what\u2019s expected of them. No one should ever have to read your mind or guess what they need to do to advance. That\u2019s why we\u2019re upfront with candidates about what we look for in designers<\/a> before they interview with us. That\u2019s why we use the same criteria to hire people as we use to evaluate their performance after they join.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why we update our job levels whenever our team says that they\u2019re not clear or helpful.<\/p>\n Intercom regularly surveys employees to understand their experience and what can be improved. In a recent survey, our team let us know design career paths<\/a> and advancement were pain points. We identified five key problems:<\/p>\n These issues blocked our designers from doing their best and advancing in their careers.<\/p>\n After aligning on the problems, we reviewed public job levels across the design industry. Many organizations share these openly on Progression.fyi<\/a> and we drew inspiration from the likes of Figma<\/a>, Buzzfeed<\/a>, Mia Blume<\/a>, Mike Davidson<\/a>, Jason Mesut<\/a>, DesignerFund<\/a>, and Staff.design<\/a>. Invision\u2019s Design Team Maturity Report<\/a> and the book Org Design for Design Orgs<\/a><\/em> also grounded us with visions of what healthy, high-performing teams can do.<\/p>\n We developed principles to help us make better decisions as we faced choices along the way:<\/p>\n We also thought about the outcomes we wanted to see:<\/p>\n Doing this work upfront gave us a sense of what \u201cgood\u201d would look like to guide our efforts. It may sound like a lot of time to invest at the outset, but it saved us time in the end.<\/p>\n As we redeveloped our job levels, we consistently sought out feedback from our designers, peer leaders, and cross-functional partners. Here are the most important changes we made together.<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong> We now show how to earn high ratings and promotions. We\u2019re also clear that you don\u2019t have to exceed expectations in every skill to get promoted.<\/p>\n “Our managers have built the new job levels into performance reviews and career planning, but we\u2019ll continue to improve and refine this guidance over time”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We\u2019ve made some progress, but this work is never done. Our managers have built the new job levels into performance reviews and career planning, but we\u2019ll continue to improve and refine this guidance over time.<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong> We\u2019ve introduced a new staff designer level<\/a> in between our senior and principal levels. This new level acts as a force multiplier<\/a> for product teams while also increasing design quality and speed of execution.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve also added a table that examines each level across several axes to make the differences between them clear at a glance.<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong> We leaned into our principle of \u201cEncourage actions a designer controls versus outcomes they can\u2019t.\u201d Results are important, but we know that they\u2019re never guaranteed. We can\u2019t mandate that designers always achieve good outcomes, but we can encourage the actions that are most likely to make them happen.<\/p>\n For example, here are two expectations we had in the old version of our job levels:<\/p>\n The first example takes away your agency by giving others control over your career progression: what if you do expert-level work, but you\u2019re not seen as an \u201cexpert\u201d?<\/p>\n “Recognition is often withheld from women and people of color, so we shouldn\u2019t set expectations that depend on subjective perceptions”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We know from study<\/a> after study<\/a> that recognition is often withheld from women and people of color, so we shouldn\u2019t set expectations that depend on subjective perceptions.<\/p>\n The second is unclear: what does it mean to \u201cinvent the future\u201d? Who determines if you\u2019ve done it? How would you measure it? We can\u2019t answer these questions in objective ways that reasonable people can agree upon, so the expectation itself is what\u2019s unreasonable. Once we recognized this, we simply removed these expectations.<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong> In the old version of our job levels, competencies like \u201cMoving things forward quickly\u201d and \u201cBeing efficient\u201d overlapped with each other, which was confusing. We solved this by making each competency mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now we have only one row describing each distinct concept. We also grouped our competencies into new categories at similar zoom levels that highlight the core areas of our design practice.<\/p>\n We also removed competencies that didn\u2019t apply to everyone. For example, we had a competency focused on recruiting, but sometimes we went months without hiring anyone. This made designers concerned that they couldn\u2019t advance because they didn\u2019t have the opportunity to interview.<\/p>\n “This highlights the benefit of our job levels not being a checklist \u2013 you don\u2019t have to do everything to get promoted”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We replaced this with a new competency, \u201cHelping people & teams,\u201d where recruiting and interviewing is just one of many ways to show impact \u2013 you can also demonstrate this quality by giving talks, supporting Intercom events, taking part in our InterCommunities, or helping your team be more inclusive.<\/p>\n This highlights the benefit of our job levels not being a checklist \u2013 you don\u2019t have to do everything to get promoted.<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong> We added many new competencies, including leadership, commercial thinking, research, prototyping, and more. These are all essential to designers\u2019 success, but previously we didn\u2019t reference them in our job levels. We added them because we don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to have undocumented expectations of our team.<\/p>\n We think all designers are leaders, but hadn\u2019t made our actual expectations for leadership clear until now. Now, we explicitly state that designers are expected to be generous with their feedback, to work beyond design with other teams and peers, to identify and anticipate risks, and so on.<\/p>\n No one should have to guess what\u2019s expected of them or how to get to the next level in their careers. Words like \u201cexpectations\u201d and \u201caccountability\u201d are often used as weapons, but it\u2019s possible to see them more like a warm blanket that helps you feel safe and cared for. Setting clear, realistic expectations and supporting people in meeting them is an act of kindness.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s also hard work \u2013 that\u2019s why we\u2019ve shared our job levels with a Creative Commons license. This means you don\u2019t have to start from scratch \u2013 you can re-use our job levels and adapt them however you like. We only ask that you share your work so others can learn from it.<\/p>\n Do you have questions about our updated job levels for designers<\/a>? Let us know on Twitter at @intercomdesign<\/a>. We’ll be happy to follow up.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/intercom-origin.pagelyapps.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Product-Design-Levels.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nStart with the problems<\/h2>\n
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Determine what \u201cgood\u201d looks like<\/h2>\n
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Make the complex clear<\/h2>\n
Problem: It\u2019s not clear how ratings and promotions are determined; it feels like a checklist.<\/h3>\n
Problem: There\u2019s a big gap between our senior and principal levels; our highest levels aren\u2019t described clearly.<\/h3>\n
Problem: We hold people accountable for outcomes they don\u2019t control.<\/h3>\n
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Problem: Some competencies overlap with others or don\u2019t align with how we work.<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Product-Design-Career-Levels-Competencies-New.jpg\")
<\/p>\nProblem: Many competencies we care about aren\u2019t documented.<\/h3>\n
Clarity is kindness<\/h2>\n