🤔 Strategic thinking

Level 1

Understands at a basic level there is a relationship between user problems, the solutions they design, and business outcomes. Comfortable shaping solutions within a narrow view of a well defined problem.

Level 2

Understands and can articulate the specific user problems they design for, and how solving them well connects to broader company objectives. Comfortable shaping solutions that span views, in multiple view states, for core user problems.

Level 3

Deeply understands the wider context of user problems, and consistently considers how to create adjacent opportunities for the business. Comfortable shaping solutions that span platforms and contexts, for multiple user problems.

Level 4

Defines how user problems and their surrounding context are framed and used across the company. Shapes the team's understanding and their goals by consistently bringing user perspective, data and aligning them with company objectives.

Level 5

Shapes the strategy and vision for how the product design team senses and responds to opportunities. Ensures the team is pursuing achievable, measurable and impactful goals, aligned with complimentary business outcomes.

🔭 Exploration

Level 1

Understands the value of divergent thinking exercises. Can contribute in sessions with a well defined problem with a narrow scope, with support and guidance from colleagues.

Level 2

Explores multiple ways to solve a defined problem with a narrow scope, quickly. Actively contributes to sessions with support and guidance from colleagues.

Level 3

Applies different techniques to iterate quickly and thoroughly on problems of varied scope, gathering and sharing necessary context when the problem is unclear or well defined.

Level 4

Explores a wide range of radically different ideas quickly, at low and high fidelity. Confident in guiding the team and stakeholders through the process and it's outcomes.

Level 5

Has produced original, cutting-edge or innovative work, recognised by the industry through awards, accolades or reputational respect.

🤹‍♀️ Collaboration

Level 1

Can join in brainstorming sessions and group discussions, most comfortable doing this with other designers. Seeks help from others with guidance or support from colleagues.

Level 2

Actively participates and assists in brainstorming sessions and group discussions. Can build on other's ideas, and regularly seeks critical feedback from others on their own work.

Level 3

Can facilitate brainstorming sessions and group discussions with smaller teams, skilled at developing and building on other's ideas. Actively provides feedback on the other's work.

Level 4

Can confidently facilitate brainstorming sessions and group discussions across functional teams and stakeholders. Regularly creates space for constructive, actionable feedback for all design work across the company.

Level 5

Can plan and facilitate large scale collaborative sessions on complex and broadly defined product problems, with large cross functional teams across the company.

🎯 Validation

Level 1

Understands the value of user testing, comfortable validating ideas against industry accepted best practices.

Level 2

Can validate ideas against common user problems, and incorporate test results into further iterations. Can support in user testing sessions, with support and guidance from colleagues.

Level 3

Validates specific ideas early and often, incorporating results to iterate to provenly better outcomes. Confident planning, scheduling and leading user experience tests.

Level 4

Rigorously measures the impact of ideas through guided and unguided user experience testing. Shares informative findings and recommendations with the broader team.

Level 5

Greatly improves design and business outcomes by leveraging a broad range of quantitive and qualitative testing methods, leading and informing others to the highest standard.

🌱 Creative Culture

Level 1

Participates in Qwilr's existing creative culture. Contributes with support and guidance from team and leads.

Level 2

Contributes to the creative culture through how they execute projects. An enthusiastic proponent for design principles, advocating for the user, and bridge building across teams.

Level 3

Contributes and extends the creative culture by driving projects. Actively creates opportunities to improve how design is run and the dynamic of the team.

Level 4

Contributes to the creative culture by driving the design process. Creates opportunities for other designers to be ambassadors for principles and process, as well as organising rituals that strengthen the team's practices.

Level 5

Contributes to the creative culture by informing how design informs company initiatives. Creates opportunities for the design team to work on larger, more impactful changes.

🎨 Aesthetic execution

Level 1

Understands the basic use of hierarchy, layout, typography, icons and colour in designing engaging products. Seeks help from others with guidance or support from colleagues.

Level 2

Can follow guides to create engaging and well balanced solutions that fit within an established design system. Can contribute to an existing style easily and efficiently.

Level 3

Extends and elevates the aesthetic execution of a design system, guides and processes. Designs systematically, with a holistic consideration of future iterations of the product.

Level 4

Leads the visual direction and execution of the product at every layer, including how it manifests in Figma and Kaleidoscope. Maintains and articulates design principles to guide the rest of the team's work.

Level 5

Strategically shapes and redefines the visual design direction across the product and brand. Forges strong relationships with the design community, to showcase and promote the Qwilr approach and style.

✨ Interaction polish

Level 1

Understands basic interaction design principles, including how to communicate their design ideas in different interactive states.

Level 2

Can create low and high fidelity interactive prototypes leveraging common interaction models, sometimes with support and guidance from colleagues.

Level 3

Can create and articulate interactive design ideas quickly and engagingly. When creating novel interactions, they are grounded in an understanding of technological constraints.

Level 4

Efficiently creates thoughtful, engaging and reusable interaction patterns, tools and guidelines. Shapes interaction design direction and process across the product.

Level 5

Interactive solutions are anchored by a compelling and well articulated creative vision. Leverages a broad and deep toolkit to extends the company's creative capabilities.

🧱 Building

Level 1

Understands and values the working relationship between designers and engineers. Can lay out and communicate design changes to engineers, with support and guidance from colleagues.

Level 2

Understands the basic web technologies (HTML, CSS) that are used to build their designs. Can articulate specific changes needed when collaborating with engineers.

Level 3

Can create interactive and functional prototypes to validate early design ideas with. Actively assists with how to improve collaboration between design and engineering for better outcomes for customers.

Level 4

Efficiently creates interactive and believable prototypes, and the process of how they translate to production. Teaches others on the team about how designs are built, and how to actively collaborate with engineers to achieve better outcomes.

Level 5

Informs and shapes the product development process at the highest level, including the tools, systems and guidelines that train and up skill the broader team.

🙌 Mentoring

Level 1

Discusses and compares professional development objectives with colleagues and peers. Establishes, encourages and nurtures a strong sense of team spirit amongst colleagues and peers.

Level 2

Can conduct 1-to-1's and informal discussions with less experienced colleagues and peers, with a focus on learning opportunities. Demonstrably and proactively seeks to improve team morale, motivation and inspire the best in others.

Level 3

Actively supports the ongoing career growth of other members of the design team. Generous with their time, and creates opportunities for other designers to grow.

Level 4

Formally and regularly mentors other designers, and actively creates opportunities for career growth in others. Lifts the team to a higher standard of work through direct, thoughtful and impactful feedback.

Level 5

Formally mentors multiple designers, and is sought after mentor inside and outside of the company. Helps the team set longer term career goals, actively taking steps towards achieving them.

📣 Externalises learning

Level 1

Understands the value of sharing whilst learning. Comfortable sharing work internally, with guidance from colleagues and advanced notice and preparation

Level 2

Verbally and in writing, they can create a narrative that is simple and enjoyable to follow for the audience. Contributes infrequently to publicly facing assets.

Level 3

Regularly documents and shares learnings, both as lightning talks and in the shared wiki with the broader team. Actively wants to share their work with an audience outside of Qwilr.

Level 4

Confidently shares work and learnings in an interesting and unique narrative. They are featured in other online publications and active in the design community.

Level 5

A regular and in demand industry voice, regularly sharing the approaches, strategies, and outcomes from the design and product teams.