A matrix of core skills by level to reveal gaps and target recruiting.
| PD1 | PD2 | PD3 | PD4 | PD5 | PD6 | PD7 | PD8 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Product Designer 1 | Product Designer 2 | Senior Product Designer | Staff Product Designer | Senior Staff Product Designer | Principal Product Designer | Senior Principal Product Designer | Distinguished Product Designer |
| Guideline | Foundational Learning | Emerging Independence | Confident Execution | Strategic Contribution | Cross-Functional Influence | Organizational Shaping | Strategic Foresight & Impact | Industry Innovation |
| Role | A developing designer focused on core skills and learning how to work effectively on a team. Contributes to specific feature work with guidance and support. | A self-directed contributor who manages small projects independently. Demonstrates growing ownership of design quality and supports peers through feedback and collaboration. | A reliable and trusted designer known for delivering high-quality work on complex problems. Operates independently and supports others through mentorship, critique, and planning. | A strategic design leader who owns major initiatives and elevates team output. Mentors peers across levels and functions, champions best practices, and helps connect design to business impact. | A cross-functional design leader who drives alignment and raises the bar across teams. Shapes systems, mentors across levels and functions, and plays a key role in organizational growth and planning. | An influential strategic thinker who leads through vision, systems thinking, and deep product expertise. Guides team direction, mentors senior leaders, and amplifies impact org-wide. | A design leader shaping long-term company direction. Connects broad business strategy with design vision. Coaches at all levels and is a trusted advisor to senior leadership. | A company-wide design visionary. Defines the future of design at the organization through thought leadership, innovation, and mentorship. Shapes how teams and leaders grow, deliver, and evolve. |
| Typical # of Years in Role | 1-2 | 1-3 | 3-7 | 3-7+ | 3-7+ | 4-8+ | 4-10+ | ∞ |
| Theme | Developing design skills and learning to contribute within team structures and practices. | Delivering consistent design work with increasing ownership, context awareness, and autonomy. | Leading design work across projects and influencing team-level quality and clarity. | Driving design direction through collaboration, business context, and product vision. | Leads across disciplines to evolve product vision, influence strategy, and scale design through systems thinking. | Shapes vision across multiple teams and connects it to company strategy. | Driving design vision that aligns with long-term business strategy. Leading cross-functional direction-setting. | Defining how design drives company innovation, direction, and differentiation. Leading through vision and influence at the highest level. |
| Compensation Bands | Narrow | Narrow | Narrow | Wide | Wide | Wide | Wide | Wide |
| Career Level | ||||||||
| Can a designer reasonable stay at this level indefinitely? | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Skillset | PD1 | PD2 | PD3 | PD4 | PD5 | PD6 | PD7 | PD8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business needs | Understands the stated goals of assigned work with guidance. Connects tasks to team and product objectives when given context. | Aligns design work with product and user goals. Communicates how decisions support outcomes and priorities. | Prioritizes based on user impact and business value. Aligns design choices with success metrics and strategic direction. | Frames design problems and solutions in terms of product and business goals. Communicates tradeoffs and ties work to measurable outcomes. | Guides teams toward high-impact opportunities. Aligns design decisions with cross-functional priorities and broader business needs. | Leads initiatives that support strategic business outcomes. Defines success through the lens of both customer and organizational value. | Connects design direction with long-term business strategy. Shapes priorities and decisions through a deep understanding of customer and market needs. | Defines how design contributes to company success. Influences organizational priorities through insight into customer experience, strategy, and opportunity. |
| Complexity | Understands defined problems with guidance. Recognizes when challenges feel ambiguous or layered. Follows structured approaches to gain clarity. | Identifies and articulates design problems that involve multiple factors, such as ambiguous goals, conflicting needs, or nuanced user behaviors. Considers user intent and context to shape solutions, with guidance as needed. | Prioritizes effectively within complex systems. Designs with attention to scale, data flow, and user behaviors. Identifies friction in integration or information patterns and addresses them with clarity. | Frames challenges across multiple complexity dimensions—such as unstructured goals, technical constraints, or distributed environments. Brings structure and shared understanding to ambiguous spaces. | Resolves complexity across teams and systems. Simplifies through design choices that balance technical integration, information clarity, and organizational nuance. Brings alignment across functions. | Surfaces and addresses deep structural complexity in systems, data, and culture. Creates repeatable ways for teams to handle ambiguity, fragmentation, and cross-domain impact. | Designs and communicates approaches that navigate institutional, technical, and behavioral complexity. Establishes clear models for addressing ambiguity and interdependence at scale. | Defines how complexity is recognized and addressed across the company. Shapes ecosystems that enable teams to design clearly and coherently in the face of evolving, layered challenges. |
| Communication & Presentation | Communicates ideas clearly in writing and conversation with support. Shares work in a way that others can understand. | Explains design decisions and rationale clearly. Tailors communication to the audience and setting. Participates constructively in feedback and discussion. | Presents work clearly across functions. Uses structured storytelling to express decisions, priorities, and tradeoffs. Communicates confidently in formal and informal settings. | Communicates with clarity and nuance across design, product, and engineering. Frames work in relation to goals, users, and outcomes. Adapts communication style for context and role. | Facilitates communication across teams and disciplines. Expresses complex ideas with clarity. Supports shared understanding through well-structured narratives and documentation. | Models strong communication practices. Guides teams in sharing work effectively and clearly. Ensures design communication is consistent and aligned with goals. | Communicates design direction and context across functions and leadership levels. Uses narrative to shape understanding and engagement. | Sets the standard for communication in the organization. Uses clarity and storytelling to shape understanding, influence direction, and build alignment across the company. |
| Feedback | Participates in feedback sessions with openness. Gives and receive constructive input with guidance. | Seeks feedback proactively and applies it to improve outcomes. Provides thoughtful input to peers with growing confidence. | Incorporates feedback as a consistent part of process. Balances input from multiple perspectives and contributes meaningfully to team critiques. | Facilitates effective feedback across roles and disciplines. Models respectful critique and encourages collaborative problem-solving. | Builds shared feedback culture across teams. Uses input loops to guide quality, alignment, and iteration at scale. | Establishes feedback practices that improve team performance and design maturity. Coaches others to give impactful, empathetic feedback. | Creates conditions where honest, growth-oriented feedback is the norm. Aligns teams through clear, values-driven communication. | Shapes the culture of feedback across the organization. Models vulnerability, clarity, and trust in pursuit of better ideas and stronger teams. |
| Information architecture | Understands the basics of organizing content and flows. Follows existing patterns to support clarity and usability. | Applies structural thinking to organize information within features. Makes decisions that improve navigation and comprehension. | Designs coherent, scalable structures across user journeys. Aligns content and interaction flow to support task clarity and intent. | Shapes architecture across products or platforms. Balances hierarchy, discoverability, and simplicity to support diverse user needs. | Collaborates with partners to evolve system-wide frameworks. Anticipates growth and complexity, adjusting structure to scale with intent. | Defines and maintains shared architectural standards. Guides teams in applying consistent models across surfaces and features. | Drives large-scale architectural strategy. Aligns product vision with structural clarity and coherence across experiences. | Reimagines how information is structured and navigated across the company’s ecosystem. Sets direction for systems that scale with innovation and complexity. |
| Interaction design | Follows established interaction patterns and applies basic usability principles with support. Focuses on clear, functional outcomes. | Applies interaction patterns independently and adapts them thoughtfully to common scenarios. Anticipates obvious user needs and edge cases. | Refines and polishes interactions for usability, consistency, and clarity within existing systems. Identifies and addresses usability gaps. | Evolves or improves interaction patterns to meet emerging user and product needs. Designs scalable, intuitive experiences within system constraints. | Defines new interaction models for complex workflows and multi-surface experiences. Balances innovation, scalability, and usability. | Leads interaction strategy across products or platforms, ensuring cohesive, system-level experiences. Guides teams in applying and extending interaction patterns. | Envisions and defines future-state interaction models that align with emerging technologies, business strategy, and evolving user behaviors. | Pioneers new paradigms in interaction design that influence the broader industry. Establishes new standards or methods that reshape user expectations across markets. |
| Is defining the patterns and best practices across the entire system. | ||||||||
| Project & resource management | Tracks assigned tasks with support. Uses team tools to stay organized and meet expectations. Learns how work fits into broader plans. | Plans and manages individual work. Estimates effort, adjusts based on priorities, and communicates progress clearly. | Owns scoping and delivery of design projects. Coordinates across functions to meet milestones and adapts plans as needed. Uses available tools and data to stay efficient. | Leads design planning for initiatives. Aligns scope, priorities, and timelines with partners. Coordinates across teams to manage resources and deliverables. | Drives planning and resource coordination across multiple teams. Resolves conflicts, allocates design capacity, and ensures delivery of strategic outcomes. | Shapes how planning, prioritization, and resource management operate across design. Defines systems and rituals that improve execution and team sustainability. | Leads planning for cross-functional initiatives tied to long-term business goals. Aligns design investment with strategic priorities and adapts to organizational shifts. | Defines the company’s approach to design planning and investment. Aligns teams, resources, and priorities around business direction and strategic outcomes. |
| Research informed design | Participates in research activities with support. Understands how insights inform design decisions and team priorities. | Plans and conducts lightweight research to inform design direction. Reflects on findings to improve their work. Shares observations that prompt team discussion. | Integrates research into design process. Selects appropriate methods to explore questions and validate decisions. Shares insights to align partners and improve outcomes. | Connects user insights to product and business goals. Synthesizes qualitative and quantitative inputs to guide decisions. Advocates for research-driven planning. | Leads discovery and validation efforts across teams. Elevates the role of research in shaping roadmaps and strategy. Ensures insights are actionable and shared widely. | Builds systems for scalable, consistent research. Coaches others in generating high-quality insights. Shapes how research influences team direction and priorities. | Anticipates learning needs across product and customer experience. Drives alignment between research, product, and company vision. Fosters a culture of insight-driven innovation. | Defines the role of research in company strategy. Ensures learning practices scale with complexity and ambition. Champions investment in deep understanding of people and markets. |
| Systems thinker | Recognizes simple patterns and relationships between parts of the product. Follows basic design conventions and system rules with guidance. | Applies established systems and patterns independently in common scenarios. Understands how local design decisions fit into broader structures. | Navigates complex systems with a focus on consistency and identifying impacts. Applies existing patterns thoughtfully and flags system issues or gaps for review. | Evaluates and improves systems to better support user and business needs. Leads efforts to refine, extend, or create scalable patterns and frameworks. | Defines new system structures that scale across teams and products. Balances system flexibility and consistency to support growth and evolution. | Leads cross-functional systems strategy, influencing roadmaps and platform decisions. Anticipates organizational and technical shifts, adapting systems proactively. | Sets a long-term vision for system evolution aligned with company strategy. Shapes how design, product, and engineering systems intersect to drive innovation. | Leads industry-level thinking on system design and architecture. Creates new models that redefine best practices across disciplines or markets. |
| Visual design | ||||||||
| (See below) | Strong in 1 craft skill, capable in 2 others | Strong in 2 craft skills, capable in 2 others. | Killer in 1 craft skill, strong in 2, capable in 2 more. | Killer in 2 craft skills, strong in 2, capable in 1-2 others | Killer in 3 craft skill, strong in 2, capable in 2-3 others | Killer in 3 craft skill, strong in 2, capable in 2-3 others | Killer in 4 craft skill, strong in 3, capable in all others | Killer in 5 skills, strong in all others |
| Workflow efficiency | Organizes files and artifacts in a way that supports peer collaboration. Uses standard workflows and templates effectively. Leverages tools with guidance to maintain momentum and deliver work with minimal friction. | Adapts processes and tools to fit the shape of the work. Uses AI and automation features confidently to reduce friction, maintain focus, and improve output quality. Identifies and resolves minor inefficiencies independently. | Optimizes workflows for flexibility, scale, and impact. Evaluates and introduces new tools or techniques—including AI and automation—to reduce manual effort and improve consistency. Shares and refines practices with the broader team. | Proactively optimizes personal and team workflows by evaluating and evolving tools and methods. Introduces approaches that enable smoother collaboration and reduce operational friction. | Advocates for scalable, effective practices across disciplines. Encourages shared adoption of high-leverage tools and techniques that elevate quality and reduce wasted effort. | Defines, documents, and teaches efficient workflows that align with team goals and company strategy. Drives alignment on the responsible and effective use of automation and augmentation. | Leads transformation in how work is planned and executed across the organization. Connects emerging practices to long-term operational and strategic priorities. | Shapes the overall direction of how the organization uses technology and process to work smarter. Establishes guiding principles and standards for responsible, scalable, and effective design operations. |
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Capable: You’re 75% of the way to a good solution and typically require support and validation. On occasion problems are found that need addressing.
Strong: Other designers rarely find a problem with your work here, and it will see it as a solid deliverable. Solutions are at times found to be inspirational.
Killer: Others tend to wish they’d thought of the ideas you deliver. “I need help, I’m going to ask this designer because everything that designer does is inspirational and above par.”
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Balance is the distribution of the visual weight of objects, colors, texture, and space. It is a bringer of equality and symmetry in a way that gives a user a sense of calm. When properly applied, balance can give clarity and a sense of importance to elements on a page.
Color is used to convey emotion and define action. It attracts attention and conveys a specific mood.
Contrast directs the eye of the viewer to prominent areas of a design. Contrast is what happens when two elements are in opposition to each other. This can be done using any set of foundational design elements.
The combination of all aspects of design and how they work together. It is the placement and arangement of elements in a way that allows for fundamentally good usage, importance, balance, and understanding.
Consistency and cohesion show that decisions are made purposefully. When a cohesive product is delivered to a user, trust is built.
Related to balance and hierarchy, grids refer to the way elements are arranged on the page.
Hierarchy relates to how well the aspects of a design can be processed by a viewer. It is the purposeful arrangement of elements to show the proper importance of each element.