Largely based on Figmas Design ladder. My addition is the guidance what level you are based on the skills you have. Go through all section to see what level you are.
L1 — Early career
L2 — Experienced
L3 — Emerging leader
L4 — Leader
L5 — Seasoned Leader
Evaluation
Skills, behaviours that guide you to grow as a designer.
L1
L1 is all about getting started in the field of design.
L1
craft
systems
You methodically investigate or audit part of a system, and summarize findings.
L1
craft
systems
You operate within a well-defined part of a complex system given documentation, and you ask for help when you need it.
L1
craft
systems
You start to prototype your ideas to bring work to life and illustrate flows more clearly.
L1
craft
interaction
You’re eager to learn new tools and practices to improve the fidelity of your ideas.
L1
craft
interaction
You start to prototype your ideas to bring work to life and illustrate flows more clearly.
L1
craft
visual
Your designs strive for consistency with patterns throughout the product.
L1
craft
visual
You explore multiple solutions for problems, leveraging our design system for components and styles.
L1
craft
visual
You reference industry patterns in your work and are building your knowledge of our design system.
L1
strategy
vision
You participate in vision activities by generating ideas and helping mock up/frame concepts.
L1
strategy
research
You ask about success metrics.
L1
strategy
research
You have a basic understanding of when and how to validate your work through research.
L1
strategy
research
You’re building your knowledge of the competitive landscape by spending time with other tools (e.g. conducting audits).
L1
strategy
product
You’re starting to flag dependencies and edge cases and question requirements when you’re unsure how they support real user needs.
L1
strategy
product
You ask good questions to understand who you’re building for and why. You push for clarity and seek help if you don’t get it.
L1
impact
effectiveness
You’re building an understanding of the business and its goals. Your work aims to solve key user problems, and you’re starting to connect your work to business goals.
L1
impact
effectiveness
You follow up post launch to assess your work’s impact and effectiveness.
L1
impact
effectiveness
You file bugs when you spot quality issues.
L1
impact
leadership
You help others by giving actionable feedback.
L1
impact
citizenship
You participate in company culture activities, like ERGs, Maker Week, or Show & Tell. You attend FigNation to stay up to date on company activities.
L1
impact
citizenship
You volunteer to help out with team programs, like hosting warm-up.
L1
collaboration
communication
You’re responsive, pleasant, and proactive in your communication across all channels.
L1
collaboration
communication
You present your work clearly in a way others can understand.
L1
collaboration
communication
Your design documentation is easy to follow, and you participate regularly in conversations at the team level.
L1
collaboration
process
You share work regularly and ask for feedback on your working style and on the work itself.
L1
collaboration
process
You triage feedback on your work and ensure follow-ups.
L1
collaboration
process
You work to resolve situations when you’re not looped in at the right times.
L1
collaboration
mindset
You’re eager to help with whatever needs doing on projects—no job is too small.
L2
L2 is all about getting getting settled, know roughly what you want. where you want it.
L2
strategy
product
You notice overlaps or dependencies between projects and escalate conversations to resolve them.
L2
strategy
product
You build confidence in a direction with your eng/PM partners before acting.
L2
strategy
research
Your industry knowledge and understanding of our users starts to deepen and guide your own work.
L2
strategy
research
You partner with research to define the questions to ask and problems to explore.
L2
strategy
research
You’re able to interpret metrics and make data-informed decisions.
L2
strategy
vision
You assist PMs and more senior designers/writers in bringing larger strategic vision work to life (e.g. by creating mocks, designing decks, and writing documents).
L2
craft
visual
You explore a wide breath of design options and articulate trade-offs with each.
L2
craft
visual
You use industry patterns but know when something doesn’t work and can be pushed further.
L2
craft
visual
You are building your understanding on where our system can flex to accommodate certain needs.
L2
craft
interaction
You go beyond click-through prototypes and incorporate animations and transitions across various interactions.
L2
craft
interaction
You are familiar with common industry interaction patterns and reference them in your work.
L2
craft
interaction
Your prototypes start to feel more like the “real thing” and are higher fidelity overall.
L2
craft
systems
You consider edge cases when designing for complex systems.
L2
craft
systems
You document part of the complex system and onboard other people.
L2
collaboration
communication
You’re growing your storytelling abilities your presentations have a clear narrative, good context setting, and you’re building your skills at leading meetings confidently and effectively.
L2
collaboration
communication
Your written communication is clear and concise.
L2
collaboration
process
You have a clear process: it’s easy for work partners to know your priorities and predict the cadence of your work.
L2
collaboration
process
You’re starting to work more independently. You know how to manage bandwidth, and speak up if your plate is full.
L2
collaboration
process
You triage feedback diligently nothing falls through the cracks.
L2
collaboration
mindset
You maintain an open mindset toward changes and challenges, looking for how you can help and grow.
L2
impact
effectiveness
You understand how your work contributes to the business and prioritize accordingly.
L2
impact
effectiveness
You participate in roadmapping and planning conversations.
L2
impact
effectiveness
You address post launch issues and make suggestions to improve your impact.
L2
impact
leadership
You routinely help other designers/writers on the team grow, through your feedback or through skill shares.
L2
impact
leadership
You offer suggestions on how our product and processes can improve and help implement solutions.
L2
impact
citizenship
You suggest and implement team culture improvements.
L2
impact
citizenship
You participate in some hiring activities, like interviewing candidates and sourcing jams.
L2
impact
citizenship
You help plan team cultural initiatives, like offsites.
L3
L3 is all about getting getting settled, know roughly what you want. where you want it.
L3
strategy
product
You proactively address and resolve dependencies across team boundaries.
L3
strategy
product
You drive your own team toward clarity on what you’re building, why, and for whom.
L3
strategy
research
You can do research to validate your own work if necessary.
L3
strategy
research
Data guides your work, and you’re able to suggest and question how to measure your work’s success.
L3
strategy
research
Your comprehensive knowledge of industry design patterns deeply impacts your work.
L3
strategy
vision
You’re starting to develop your own POV you’re trusted to own parts of larger strategic vision, working independently or partnering with others to bring the vision to life.
L3
strategy
vision
You proactively organize sprints or other processes to further define vision if it’s otherwise lacking.
L3
craft
visual
Your work has few visual issues.
L3
craft
visual
You start to form tenets as you design and fall back on them to help make decisions.
L3
craft
visual
You consider all constraints (like dark mode and localization).
L3
craft
visual
Your work is thorough and complete when it comes to all interaction details (like hover/focus and shortcuts).
L3
craft
interaction
You prototype fluently and quickly and you get helpful feedback from collaborators with them.
L3
craft
interaction
Your prototype is thorough and complete when it comes to all interaction details (like hover/focus and keyboard shortcuts).
L3
craft
systems
Your designs are holistic and consider complex cases of existing systems.
L3
craft
systems
You can recall internal properties/style guides of systems and explain them to stakeholders.
L3
craft
systems
You are comfortable collaborating with engineering and PM to understand a system completely and improve it.
L3
collaboration
communication
You present work with polish and confidence.
L3
collaboration
communication
You lead meetings effectively, and could represent the company well externally.
L3
collaboration
communication
You’re growing skills at conflict resolution.
L3
collaboration
communication
Your written communication is compelling and clear.
L3
collaboration
process
Your process is adaptable and efficient. You generate and maintain momentum.
L3
collaboration
process
You handle feedback thoroughly and gracefully, and know when to change direction vs. staying the course.
L3
collaboration
process
You’re becoming proficient at managing stakeholders and regularly work without close oversight.
L3
collaboration
mindset
You lead with resiliency in the face of challenges, and routinely help manage change for other team members.
L3
collaboration
mindset
You’re a model for growth and resiliency on the team.
L3
impact
effectiveness
You help drive roadmapping and planning conversations and have a deep understanding of how your work connects to business goals.
L3
impact
effectiveness
You work with appropriate urgency, consistently pushing projects forward.
L3
impact
effectiveness
You file bugs not only for your team but for other teams as well to prioritize quality.
L3
impact
leadership
You’re starting to uplevel other teammates skills through more formal coaching and mentorship (e.g. interns or more junior designers/writers). Others actively seek your feedback, and listen to your guidance.
L3
impact
leadership
You drive initiatives that improve our team’s workflows and the lives of other designers.
L3
impact
citizenship
You’re an owner of our team culture, suggesting new rituals and activities to bring us together as a team.
L3
impact
citizenship
You actively participate in hiring, whether through interviewing, sourcing, or suggesting improvements to our processes.
L4
L4 is all about getting getting settled, know roughly what you want. where you want it.
L4
strategy
product
You handle very complex and ambiguous projects, defining requirements and prioritizing the most impactful workstreams even in the face of multiple competing demands.
L4
strategy
research
You know when data and research are missing, and garner them where appropriate to inform your work and the work of others.
L4
strategy
research
You’re an expert in the companies product space someone others on the team learn from and seek to emulate. You surface new trends, patterns, and tools to the team regularly.
L4
strategy
vision
You set the vision for your area—solo or with another senior designer/writer—and it’s inspiring and motivating to others.
L4
strategy
vision
You advocate for your POV at all levels of the organization (e.g. to executives) and can leverage data, storytelling, and visual design to bring stakeholders along.
L4
craft
visual
You work is thorough and complete with edge cases fully thought out—a model of accuracy and precision.
L4
craft
visual
You consider how your work and patterns can be utilized by others.
L4
craft
visual
You are the owner for the design system of your focus area and effectively partner with the design systems team on the standards.
L4
craft
interaction
You prototype with intentionality and know when to utilize prototypes to effectively communicate your ideas.
L4
craft
interaction
You are well-versed in common industry interaction patterns and their nuances across platforms.
L4
craft
interaction
Your prototypes help teams make business decisions.
L4
craft
systems
You aim to simplify and unify systems when appropriate to tame complexity—you can justify exceptions to the system and understand/explain their consequences.
L4
craft
systems
You are comfortable making decisions without the system being documented.
L4
craft
systems
You proactively bring up architecture improvement opportunities across the company.
L4
collaboration
communication
You’re a strong storyteller and able to influence and persuade at any level of the organization (e.g. to executives).
L4
collaboration
communication
You’re able to communicate candidly and kindly, and build rapport with all kinds of work partners—even difficult stakeholders.
L4
collaboration
communication
You coach other designers/writers on written, verbal, and interpersonal skills.
L4
collaboration
process
You influence process at the team level, and delegate well.
L4
collaboration
process
You handle high volumes of feedback on your own work effectively.
L4
collaboration
process
You’re a model for stakeholder management, effectively managing executive involvement when necessary.
L4
collaboration
mindset
You’re consistently solutions-oriented, and are acutely aware of your impact as a leader on the team, even in private settings.
L4
collaboration
mindset
You encourage others to maintain a healthy open mindset.
L4
impact
effectiveness
You push to make the highest impact possible with your work, and you can make a successful business case for it.
L4
impact
effectiveness
You start to take on projects outside of your core responsibilities.
L4
impact
effectiveness
You help your pillar with overall improvements to its quality control to be sure work is high quality and reliable.
L4
impact
leadership
You lead by example—never hesitating to get your hands dirty (e.g. riffing where helpful and guiding others toward action).
L4
impact
leadership
You've implemented and sometimes defined team processes like critiques and team meetings.
L4
impact
leadership
You are regularly sought out for mentorship even outside your team.
L4
impact
citizenship
You represent design as a leader to the rest of the organization, by giving feedback on process and culture or taking a leadership role in or other events.
L5
L5 is all about getting getting settled, know roughly what you want. where you want it.
L5
strategy
product
You set the gold standard for problem definition your ability to frame and scope projects are consistently clear, thoughtful, and compelling.
L5
strategy
product
You coach other designers on prioritization, managing dependencies, and requirements definition.
L5
strategy
research
You partner with our leads in data and research to identify ways of improving Figma’s overall practices around them.
L5
strategy
research
You leverage your knowledge of the industry to define new patterns and norms when needed your work has impact beyond Figma.
L5
strategy
vision
You uplevel other designers’ and writers’ vision work, and are entrusted to drive vision for the broadest, farthest-looking projects in the organization.
L5
strategy
vision
You help define what’s next for the bank—as a product, a business, and a company.
L5
craft
visual
You see gaps in how our visual system works and help uplevel it. When necessary, you define new patterns and changes to the underlying system.
L5
craft
visual
Your peers look to you for your help and guidance on visual design, and you regularly offer feedback to improve work outside your own.
L5
craft
interaction
Your interaction work defines the bar not just at Figma, but in the industry.
L5
craft
interaction
Your peers look to you for guidance and feedback on improving their interaction work, and you proactively spot interaction issues and offer corrections.
L5
craft
interaction
You create frameworks and prototypes that inspire other people to do the same.
L5
craft
systems
Your work defines and documents new complex systems for others to use, while retaining systemic simplicity.
L5
craft
systems
You see connections between systems (e.g. payments and accounts) and can lead projects to bring them together.
L5
craft
systems
You uncover systemic architecture issues and advocate for specific improvements.
L5
collaboration
communication
You’re an exceptional storyteller, and able to uplevel other designers/writers in this area and the team as a whole.
L5
collaboration
communication
Interpersonally, you deescalate conflict effectively and can smooth out thorny projects and push teams to alignment.
L5
collaboration
process
You coach other designers/writers on their process and uplevel the team as a whole.
L5
collaboration
process
You help create and influence our feedback culture at the company level.
L5
collaboration
process
You coach other designers on stakeholder management, especially with executives.
L5
collaboration
mindset
You have a toolkit for managing change for other team members, and can help turn around significant morale issues on teams.
L5
impact
effectiveness
You help others understand the business.
L5
impact
effectiveness
You identify opportunities for design to create new value for the business and garner resources to act.
L5
impact
effectiveness
You frequently suggest and execute extra projects outside of core responsibilities.
L5
impact
leadership
You own the bar for quality at the company.
L5
impact
leadership
You’re a leader at the company, with impact on the business and culture across the organization.
L5
impact
leadership
You uplevel other designers’ leadership skills, building more design leaders within the organization.
L5
impact
citizenship
You represent Figma externally whether through conferences, blog posts, or other channels.You represent Figma externally whether through conferences, blog posts, or other channels.v
L5
Impact
citizenship
Your work and presence attracts top talent to the organization some people join Figma because they’re excited to learn from you.
L6
L6 is all about getting getting settled, know roughly what you want. where you want it.
L6
Impact
leadership
You shape the company structure, see market changes on the horizon and create awareness among other leaders in your organisation.
Result
Consider this is a computer program, so is more of a guideline than a final judgement.