Design Career Ladder

I have noticed a clear need for an established Design Career Ladder in startups. Larger companies map out structured expectations very clearly for each level and they in general do a better job of keeping the designers aware and aligned on those. The Design Ladder helps them evaluate performance as well as promote the top performers accordingly. Furthermore, the Design Ladder helps identify gaps in the talent pool of your company, and fill those with a clear external facing communication.

In order to serve the need for a career ladder in mid- and large-scale startups, I have created a version that can work as a starting point for your company.

This ladder can be extrapolated to more granular roles as you deem fit for the needs of your company hierarchy. Personally, these 4 levels do a very good job of separating out responsibilities in a way that they can be uniquely and unambiguously assigned and evaluated.

Expectations calibration

Here’s how the Low, Medium and High expectations are calibrated empirically:

• Low: Requires a continuous and ongoing supervision & guidance
• Medium: Requires occasional supervision & guidance, mostly the final design review suffices
• High: No supervision & guidance required, they can contribute supervision & guidance to the team