Career Ladder Inspiration · Design
BuzzFeed's design career framework
Product design career ladder from BuzzFeed covering 6 competency areas across 4 levels from Product Designer to Principal Product Designer. Based on their open-source GitHub design repo.
Product Designer (IC1) | Senior Product Designer (IC2) | Staff Product Designer (IC3) | Principal Product Designer (IC4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Skills Visual Design & Craft | Understands layout, typography and visual hierarchy. Uses the Design Principles and existing visual frameworks to produce visually cohesive designs. | Demonstrates and articulates understanding of layout, typography and visual hierarchy. Uses Design Principles creatively to produce designs and where appropriate new styles and patterns. | Demonstrates, articulates and teaches understanding of layout, typography and visual hierarchy. Gives strong design direction to other designers on the team. Maintains and advocates for evolutions of Design Principles. | Defines and evolves the visual design language for the entire product suite. Establishes new design paradigms that elevate the overall quality of the product. |
Skills Cross-functional Collaboration | Works with product and engineering leads collaboratively to ensure their squad operates efficiently. | Works collaboratively with design lead, product and engineering leads. Ensures squad or group operates efficiently. | Takes cues from leadership while contributing to culture of the product team. When opportunity arises may manage a team of 1-2 designers. | Leads cross-functional design strategy. Influences product direction at the organizational level. Drives alignment between design, product, and engineering. |
Skills Design Thinking & Problem Solving | Applies design thinking to solve defined problems. Follows established design processes. | Identifies design opportunities and advocates for design-driven projects and initiatives within their product area. | Identifies, advocates for and drives the execution of design-driven projects and initiatives that have cross-team impact. | Defines the design vision and strategy for complex product areas. Identifies transformative opportunities that shape the product roadmap. |
Skills Culture & Community | Participates in design-led projects, events and discussions. Follows the Tech Values framework for how to work. | Contributes to the culture of the Product Design team by participating in design-led projects, events and discussions to spread design thinking throughout BuzzFeed and the wider design community. Embodies the Tech Values. | Contributes to the culture of the Product Design team by identifying and helping to organize opportunities (speaking engagements, meetups, open source, blog posts) to spread design thinking. Embodies the Tech Values and serves as an example. | Champions and defines the design culture across the organization. Represents the company externally as a design thought leader. |
Skills Hiring & Talent Development | May participate in design interview loops. | Participates in design interview loops with thoughtful feedback. | Completes training to support Product Design interview loops. Participates in interview loops and ensures feedback is thoughtful and represents role documentation. | Defines hiring standards and interview practices for the design team. Mentors and develops design leaders. |
Skills Scope & Impact | Works on defined product areas within a single squad. Delivers designs for features and improvements. | Acts in a leadership role within their cross-functional squad or group. Contributes to design-driven initiatives within their product area. | Drives execution of design-driven projects with cross-team impact. If opportunity arises, may manage a small team of designers. | Drives design strategy across multiple product areas. Has outsized impact on the quality and direction of the entire product suite. |
Framework by BuzzFeed · Licensed
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