Career Paths
We have the following pre-defined career paths, which includes our standard promotion path. The standard promotion path includes roles that folks can be promoted into without an application process. Additionally, there is no cap on the number of folks who can be in a role in the standard promotion path.
Positions that are not part of the standard promotion path are denoted with an asterisk ( * ) in the list below. Moving into a role that is not part of the standard promotion path requires an application and interview process.
Design
These positions outline the Individual Contributor track.
Development
These positions outline the Individual Contributor track.
Designer and Developer Management
Available to anyone at Senior Designer or Senior Developer position or higher.
General
Process
We expect team members to grow and progress in their career path while at thoughtbot. We have a standard promotions path for folks in general and technical roles. The standard promotion path is made up of individual contributor (IC) roles.
Positions that are not part of the standard promotion path are denoted with an asterisk ( * ) in the list above.
Moving into a people management role is not part of the standard promotions path. We list openings for all positions that are not part of the standard promotion path and all positions that are responsible for managing others internally and externally (when it is financially possible), and conduct interviews for those positions.
While it is possible for an existing team member to be promoted to a position that manages others, we also need to consider the limited number of leadership positions we have and ensure equity and help build a diverse team. Therefore, if an existing role is to be expanded to manage others, or someone would otherwise be promoted to a position that is responsible for managing others, we treat that as a new position and advertise it internally and externally, and conduct interviews for the position (in accordance with Colorado's Equal Pay for Equal Work Act). This also allows for folks to give feedback (including concerns and recommendations) on anyone moving into people management.
For all positions, once a team member has shown that they meet the expectations for promotion, they are ready to be promoted. The evaluation will be reviewed by the People team for approval. Once approved for promotion, other details will be confirmed on the thread including promotion date and any salary changes.
Apprentices, Designers, and Developers
Designers and Developers work through a skill self-evaluation with their team lead or manager to identify strengths and areas for growth. Apprentices use the same evaluation but work on it each month with their mentor. Each skill category can be thought of along a 1 through 5 scale, with 1 representing beginning, 3 representing the expected level, 5 representing a rare level of expertise. Skill evaluations cover the following areas:
Shared Skills (Designer and Developer)
- Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI): A 1 here could mean that you come from an industry or background where you have not had exposure to DEI issues. You have not thought about it, but you demonstrate open-mindedness and genuine curiosity about learning more. A 3 indicates that you can clearly articulate reasons why DEI is important. You acknowledge the complexities of DEI initiatives. You back up opinions with examples, things you've read, or direct experience. A 5 indicates that you actively run DEI initiatives, and mentor or sponsor underrepresented people in the wider community.
Developers
- Community: A 1 here could mean that you have not been involved in a professional community in any manner -- no events, no writing, no open source contributions. A 3 indicates that you participate in professional community regularly in a way that helps you, helps thoughtbot, or helps the community itself. A 5 indicates that you are an important figure in the community, such as an organizer or open source maintainer.
- Communication: A 1 in communication means that you are still working on effectively communicating regularly, proactively, and clearly with teammates, clients, and stakeholders. A 3 means that you communicate effectively. A 5 means that your communication skills are sought out; for example, you are consulted when a client is troublesome or you improve the ways we as a company communicate.
- Specialization: A 1 in specialization indicates that you have just begun your technical knowledge. A 3 means that you know your technical specialization in depth, able to work unaided and assist people who are still learning. A 5 is for knowing your specialization at a recognized expert level; this could involve being sought out by others for questions, or contributing upstream.
- Process: A 1 in process means that process is not a thing you've focused on. A 3 means that you participate in and lead the processes for your project, such as planning, estimates, design sprints, prioritization, or automation. A 5 indicates that you treat process as its own entity that can be improved and you seek large improvements to the process in a way that impacts future projects.
- Mentoring: A 1 in mentoring is for when you haven't mentored, in an explicit mentor/apprentice relationship or in a simple ad hoc pairing situation. A 3 is for when people feel like they learn every time they collaborate with you. A 5 means that you are a mentor to other mentors.
- Tooling & Configuration: A 1 in tools means that you don't think about your tooling apart from using the basics. A 3 means that you have a solid grasp on your tools and configuration for your specialization, including how to debug and improve them. A 5 indicates a greater understanding of tooling that might include helping others, customized tooling, or a wider reach beyond the company.
- Implementation: A 1 in implementation means that you are at the start of your technical journey. A 3 means that you understand the concepts well enough to apply them across different contexts as appropriate. A 5 indicates the discovery of novel implementation techniques.
Designers
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Product Thinking
- Product Strategy: A level 1 means you understand your client's long-term product strategy and your team's mission. You make reasonable product decisions based on the strategy. A level 3 means you're using your knowledge of product strategy, you actively help improve your team's short-term roadmap. A level 5 means you lead your team's long-term product strategy and are the primary contributor.
- Design Consulting: A level 1 means you explain your design decisions to your team. You share work and seek out constructive feedback on the work you have done. A level 3 means you communicate complex ideas clearly and succinctly. You establish your project's critical success metrics with the client and team. Your knowledge extends to projects created by other teams (if team size is applicable) in the client organization. A level 5 means you're a knowledge leader and consistently find product opportunities for your clients. Others seek out your product sense and opinion. You understand how a particular industry solution fits into the larger company strategy. You also have a deep understanding of competitor product portfolios.
- User Understanding: A level 1 means you are developing an understanding of the people who use your product, their goals, use cases, and tasks to achieve those goals. A level 3 means you can be the go-to person on your team who understands current user needs and goals. People rely on you to share your understanding with other teammates. A level 5 means your deep understanding of the user and user research helps you identify unmet needs and goals of the user for the larger product team or organization.
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Interaction Design
- Design Patterns: A level 1 means you have a preliminary understanding of design patterns for your product space (mobile, web, other) and how to use the patterns. A level 3 means you keep yourself updated with advancements in design patterns. You teach others how to use design patterns. A level 5 means you can create new design patterns in a new product space with little-to-no existing design patterns to reference. You're an expert and are considered an innovator by the industry or thoughtbot peers.
- Prototyping: A level 1 means you leverage prototyping tools to create simple static prototypes to test flows. For web applications, you implement your designs with HTML & CSS, maintaining a clean markup and style, and working with our Developers in Git through pairing. A level 3 means you are comfortable creating high-fidelity prototypes and know which prototyping fidelity to use for a given situation. Ability to use components, a design system or other resources when building prototypes for rapid iterating. A level 5 means you can work primarily in code to test design hypotheses. Others consider you a technologist who is proficient in coding front-end interfaces. You teach others how to become better prototypers.
- Color, Typography, Iconography, and Composition: A level 1 means you leverage UI styles within an existing design system and have a solid rationale behind UI choices. A level 3 means you craft beautiful UI that is functional and delightful. You always meet a high-quality bar with your UI. You can evolve UI styles for an existing design system. A level 5 means you can recognize, create, and promote unique and visually stunning user interfaces that few other designers can. You push our design organization forward with your visual style. Your craftsmanship is unparalleled, and you may even be widely known outside our organization.
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Intentionality
- Collaboration: A level 1 means you tend to work in silos and share once you have designs ready. A level 3 means you bring your entire team into your design process and have an open mind to others' perspectives. You attend design critiques, design workshops, and sprints. You give feedback freely. A level 5 means you're a shining example of how to collaborate across thoughtbot or design industry successfully, and others seek your advice on how to collaborate. You own design processes related to collaboration.
- Communication: A level 1 means you're developing your communication skills and ability to communicate your reasoning. You share work and seek out constructive feedback on the work you have done. A level 3 means you communicate your reasoning to large groups and influence others. You focus on accuracy, conciseness, and completeness in communicating. In addition, you have an inclusive mindset and can juggle others' perspectives with yours. A level 5 means you have a platform for communicating broadly and can influence thoughtbot or design industry. People seek out your communication and trust it.
- Design Process: A level 1 means your process isn't fully defined yet, but you can develop an idea into a product with help. You share work and seek out constructive feedback on the work you have done. A level 3 means your process is well-defined and consistently leads you to successful solutions. You justify all design decisions with data and move fast through the Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver phases. A level 5 means you find new and unique ways to accelerate your's and others' design process. You're a process owner and willing to share your knowledge with others.
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Awareness
- Strengths & Weaknesses: A level 1 means you're beginning to understand your strengths as a designer. You spend considerable time on self-improvement. A level 3 means your strengths are apparent to you and others. You consistently create plans to promote your strengths and improve your weaknesses. You can offer insight to other designers where your strengths lie. You ask for feedback on your strengths and weaknesses. A level 5 means you have a long-term plan for your growth and understand precisely where you stand with your plan and how to achieve your goals. You are known on the team as an expert in a particular domain and can offer insight when needed.
- Accessibility: A level 1 means you're beginning to understand where and when to help make experiences accessible. You spend considerable time on research and learning. A level 3 means you have a strong understanding of how you can help make a product more accessible. You have tried and true methods that work but are still learning new ways to test and validate a product’s accessibility. A level 5 means you lead the company in accessibility knowledge. You are actively participating in the larger design conversations and helping educate large groups of designers and developers.
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A level 1 means you are learning about systemic or structural issues around race, gender, disability, ethnicity, or class. You ask thoughtful questions when encountering DEI issues you’re not familiar with. You research when encountering DEI issues you’re not familiar with. A level 3 means you consistently advocate for DEI at thoughtbot. You consistently follow and teach our inclusive meeting guidelines. You consistently follow and teach our code review guidelines. A level 5 means you volunteer your time teaching design or software development to underrepresented people. You volunteer your time to work on technology initiatives that benefit communities that are marginalized or underserved by technology. You consistently advocate for DEI in the conference circuit, meetups, Open Source Software, or the design community. You start a DEI initiative at thoughtbot or the wider community.
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Drive
- Leadership: A level 1 means you represent UX Design alongside developers and research peers. Someone else on the team is leading the team's workload. A level 3 means you drive product direction with development and research support. You're seen as the go-to person for design decisions on your team. You partner with peers and key stakeholders to drive positive product impact on your team. You anticipate potential risks and proactively design solutions. A level 5 means you work closely with other leaders in your organization to drive positive product impact at scale. You are focused on how to make the company successful and not just your team or department.
- Community: A level 1 means you seek expert advice from experienced designers and desire to improve your design skills. A level 3 means you contribute back to the design community by teaching others. Others seek out your advice and relationship. A level 5 means your influence can extend beyond your company and into the design industry. Large groups of designers see you as a massive "connector" and primary community contributor.
- Personal Elective: TBD: Work with your manager to determine a personal elective that's exciting to you. It could be something you are currently exploring with a client or something you've always wanted to try. Determine how you can break it up across the five levels.
General positions
Guidelines for those expectations are:
- Coordinator: Responsible for execution in an area within the responsibility of an overall department or role led by someone else Manager level or higher.
- Specialist: Contributes to strategy and responsible for execution in a specialized area of expertise.
- Manager: Responsible for managing the area and standard decision making. Leads larger projects, thoroughly researching and presenting final options to all stakeholders.
- Associate Director: Increased responsibility over multiple areas, or higher-level strategy of a specific area.
- Senior Associate Director: Distinguished experience within their job role. Responsibility over multiple areas, or higher-level strategy of a specific area.
Design Directors and Directors of Software Development
The qualifications we look for in a Design Director or Director of Software Development are:
- They reinforce the thoughtbot culture. They are consistently shipping great work and are fun to work with.
- Consistent, positive feedback from team members in past reviews, and the respect of their team as an expert in their field.
- They have consistently shared their opinions while demonstrating an openness to understand different points of view and adopt new approaches.
- They have demonstrated strong leadership on their Team with mentoring and sales.
- They have demonstrated strong leadership across the company. They've contributed unique and positive perspectives in Slack, Hub, Trello, GitHub, or in-person.
- They have demonstrated leadership outside of the company via open source contributions, blog posts, speaking, leading local meetups, etc.
Design Team Leads and Development Team Leads
The qualifications we look for in a Team Lead are:
- They reinforce the thoughtbot culture. They are consistently shipping great work and are enjoyable to work with.
- Consistent, positive feedback from team members in past reviews, and the respect of their team as an expert in their field.
- They have consistently shared their opinions while demonstrating an openness to understand different points of view and adopt new approaches.
- They have demonstrated strong leadership on their Team with mentoring and client projects.
- They are interested in shifting their career towards management or exploring management as a career path.
- Their questionnaire answers indicate that they have potential as a manager.
- They understand the importance of Team sustainability.
- They can help others understand the necessary trade-offs to achieve Team sustainability.
- Are already a Senior Product Designer or Senior Developer, or the equivalent if the candidate is external.