Design Shaped · Career framework
Title Elevations Comparison
A map of how a design career deepens — from developing craft, to leading product areas, to setting vision and helping run the company. Ten dimensions across five levels of growth.
Adapted from the Levels framework in Org Design for Design Orgs by Peter Merholz & Kristin Skinner.
1Level 1 |
2Level 2 |
3Level 3 |
4Level 4 |
5Level 5 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Junior Product Designer, Junior UX Designer | Product Designer, UX Designer | Senior Product Designer, Senior UX Designer | Lead Product Designer, Lead UX Designer | Principal Designer, Design Director, Creative Director, VP of Design |
| Theme | Develop their craft and professionalism | Deepen their craft, talk about their work | Transition from doer to leader, understanding the business context of their work | Establish the business context, develop strategy | Articulate a compelling vision; help run the company |
| Achievements | Right out of school, roughly 0–2 years experience, quality portfolio | Contributed to a couple of shipped projects, roughly 2–5 years experience | Contributed to multiple shipped products, roughly 5–10 years experience | Delivered successful work at the scope of ‘product areas,’ roughly 10–15 years experience | Leads teams in framing and solving hard problems; has driven innovative efforts that uncovered new value with new kinds of experiences |
| Scope | Solve specific function-level problems (e.g., add item to shopping cart) | Given specific product capabilities that need to be solved (e.g., Shopping Cart) | Lead the solution of a product area (e.g., “The Conversion Funnel”) | Leading the solution of undefined problem spaces (e.g., “How do people complete a transaction?”) | Entire user experiences (e.g., “What is the end-to-end shopper experience?”) |
| Process | Work within process established by team lead | Work within a process established by team lead | Develop the process / approach for tackling a problem | Develop the process / approach for tackling a problem | Establish a philosophy / mindset for how the team approaches its work (e.g., The Double Diamond) |
| People | Part of a team that they’ve been assigned to | Part of a team they’ve been assigned to | Leading a team that’s been given to you; collaborating with cross-functional peers | Creating the team you need; defining the problem with cross-functional leads | Establishing the organizational structure, defining roles, opening headcount |
| Cross-functional meetings | Attending the meeting | Contributing to the meeting | Driving the meeting | Driving the meeting | Stakeholder for whom the meeting exists |
| Core skills | Strong in 1, capable in 2 others | Strong in 2, capable in 2 others | Killer in 1, strong in 2, capable in 2 others | Killer in 1, strong in 2, capable in 2 others | Killer in 1, strong in 2, capable in 2 others |
| Soft skills | Professionalism | Communication and presentation | Facilitation, Listening | Confidence and swagger | No new ones — ongoing refinement of existing ones |
| Leadership skills | (not applicable) | (not applicable) | Strategy, Empathy and Compassion | Planning, Mentorship | Vision |
Titles, years of experience, and core-skill notes describe typical patterns, not rules — the framework is a shared vocabulary for growth, not a checklist.