How we grow at Shōgun

I’ve always thought it was very important to have a clear and concise framework for designers and other related disciplines to grow with on a functional team. Back when I was at Shopify I laid the foundational thinking for having different career tracks and being able to switch between them. I have seen people become managers and then back out of it because it’s not a fit, and I’ve seen other people sit at the Senior Designer level for years with no idea where to go next or how to increase their impact level.

A lot of people become managers because that’s the only option to level up and get more respect, a higher salary etc. IC work is just as important as managerial work. They are often filled by different types of people, and a lot of times people can shift back and forth between the two throughout their careers. We wanted to build a framework that embraced all those ideals.

When the Shogun design team started to scale I began thinking about how to bring some of this thinking to our team. I began by talking with everyone and getting a good idea of career trajectory and goals, and then I laid out a framework I think made sense to help accomplish that. I believe you can keep this pretty simple, but we will need to add some more levels as we grow. (For example Senior Design Lead and a progression track above Principal designer is missing). The goal here is to give people a very good understanding of how to grow into a higher impact level and choices between technical and people leadership and be able to jump back and forth if they need to.

For each level we broke it into four impact areas; what you have influence on; what you represent the design team by doing; what you’re effective at; and how you lead.

I also think it’s very important to think about impact scope in terms of a timeline. For example a Designer is focused on the next month doing surface level work, where as a VP is doing company building and thinking about strategy in terms of years.

As a Designer

You are an individual contributor.

You have influence on your project within your squad as well as short term outcomes. You’re focused on the next month.

You represent the Design team by learning how to be a more holistic member of your squad and team, and delivering solutions to help better the product.

You are effective by understanding the use of design patterns and the Shogun aesthetic. Thinking through your problem space to the context of your task and narrowing down solutions to a few possible outcomes.

You lead by asking great questions to better yourself and your team and showing ownership over improving yourself and your peers.

As a Senior Designer

You are an individual contributor and are starting to mentor other designers.

You have influence across multiple projects in your squad, and also other projects in other squads or product areas. You are focused on short term goals over the next 3–6 months.

You represent the Design team by having a noticeable effect in other squads and projects, as well as being able to talk through and justify your design solutions. Others seek you out for feedback.

You are effective by having impeccable UI design skills and consistent use of our existing design language. You discover problems and deliver the right solution. You increase efficiency by reducing complexity of how we work as a team. You have the capability to present your ideas in a digestible format (ie. prototyping, delivering usable dev ready work, including other disciplines) and you know the proper approach and process with solving problems.

You lead by being relied upon. You take projects through to completion and know when to ask for help and how to unblock yourself. You identify gaps in process and can recommend solutions. You document and share process and results.

As a Principal Designer

You are an individual contributor and technical leader. You are a mentor.

You have influence on an entire product or department as well as how the Design team functions. You are focused on long term strategy over the next year(s).

You represent the Design team by being a voice for good user-experience across the entire company. You are able to communicate complex design-centric ideas to anyone in the company and rally them around your solutions. Other departments and disciplines seek you out for your opinion and you are a champion for disruptive ideas.

You are effective by harnessing your exceptional design skills to create our design language and systems. You’re self directed and take on large infrastructure problems, new products, or complex design tasks. You are a subject matter expert and advocate for the product. You think deeply about problems and deliver proper solutions no matter the complexity.

You lead by helping other team members through problems. You create patterns, UI standards, and frameworks for others. You foster a community of design feedback and can teach technical subject matter.

As a Design Lead

You are still doing individual contributor work and leading a small team, or are focused solely on leading a medium sized team.

You have influence on an entire product or area. You are focused on short term strategy of 3 months to a year.

You represent the Design team by being known for decision making. You can communicate design goals with your product and engineering counter-parts. You organize groups of designers and keep their work on task and of a high quality. You can interpret business goals and leadership initiatives into deliverable product ideas. Others seek you out for direction on strategic initiatives.

You are effective by getting the most of your team and enabling and unblocking designers to make a larger impact. You are a key contributor to roadmap decisions, strategic direction and balancing priorities between departments. You are becoming a subject matter expert.

You lead by mentoring designers as well as everyone on your team. You direct your team on what to work on and how to deliver better solutions. You represent Design with other disciplines/departments. You create resources for others to learn from and grow the practice of design. You can recruit the right people for your team and establish new process and the design community.

As a Director of Design

You are leading a small to medium sized team, usually within one discipline or department.

You have influence on an entire department or discipline. You are focused on long term strategy of 1 year.

You represent the Design team by setting strategy with other departments and organizing large groups of designers while keeping their work relevant and on time, as well as of a high quality.

You are effective by increasing the impact of your team by a factor of 10. You garner attention for the team by creating external interest. You set the roadmap and make key strategic decisions. You can determine priorities and quickly make the right decisions.

You lead by managing leaders and senior people. You mentor your team and others. You represent Design at a company level. You independently recruit and grow the people on your team as well as the practice of design as a whole.

As a VP of Design

You are leading a large team across multiple departments and disciplines.

You have influence over multiple departments and disciplines. You focus on long term strategy over the next 5 years.

You represent the Design team by setting company wide long term strategy and recruiting and organizing departments.

You are effective by defining the UX vision and strategy as well as defining critical KPI’s and business outcomes while ensuring their success.

You lead by managing leads. You own great user experience at every customer touchpoint and infuse the entire company with a user-centric mindset.