Product Design Career Ladders

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V
1

2	IC	IC	Manager	IC/Manager	IC	Manager	IC						IC	Manager	IC	Architect	Manager	Single-tracked	IC	Manager	IC	Manager
3	Product Designer L1	Associate Product Designer		Design Intern	Associate Designer		Product Designer IC3		Product Designer L1		Associate User Experience Designer	Product Design Assistant	Associate Product Designer		UX Designer I P1			Design Intern	Junior Product Designer		Experience Designer I
4	Product Designer L2	Mid-level Product Designer		Product Designer / L1-L5	Designer		Product Designer IC4		Product Designer L2		User Experience Designer	Associate Product Designer	Mid-level Product Designer		UX Designer II P2			Designer	Product Designer		Experience Designer II
5	Product Designer L3	Sr. Product Designer		Senior Product Designer / L6	Senior Designer	Designer Manager	Product Designer IC5	M0 - Product Design Manager	Product Designer L3		Senior User Experience Designer	Product Designer	Sr. Product Designer		Sr. UX Designer I P3			Senior Designer	Senior Product Designer		Senior Experience Designer I
6	Product Designer L4	Staff Product Designer	Design Manager	Lead Product Designer / L7	Principal Designer	Senior Design Manager	Product Designer IC6	M1 - Product Design Manager	Product Designer L4		Staff User Experience Designer	Senior Product Designer	Staff Product Designer		Sr. UX Designer II P4		Manager I P4	Manager, Design	Lead Product Designer		Senior Experience Designer II
7	Product Designer L5	Principal Product Designer	Sr. Product Design Manager	Principal Product Designer / L8	Senior Principal Designer	Design Director	Product Designer IC7	M2 - (Senior) Product Design Manager	Product Designer L5	Design Lead	Principal User Experience Designer	Lead Product Designer	Principal Product Designer	Product Design Manager	Principal UX Designer P5	Principal Designer P5	Manager II P5	Senior Manager, Design	Staff Product Designer	Product Design Manager	Senior Experience Designer III
8	Product Designer L6		Director of Design	Design Manager / L8		VP of Design	Product Designer IC8	D1 - Director of Design		Senior Design Lead	Senior Principal User Experience Designer			Senior Product Design Manager	Sr. Principal UX Designer P6	Experience Architect P6	Sr. Manager P6	Director, Design		Design Director	Lead Designer	Senior Designer Manager
9			Sr. Director of Design	Senior Designer Manager			Product Designer IC9	D2 - (Senior) Director of Design		Director of Design				Product Design Director		Sr. Experience Architect P7	Director P7	Senior Director, Design	Principal Product Designer	VP of Design	Principal Experience Designer	Associate Design Director
10			VP of Design				Product Designer IC10	VP1 - VP of Design						Senior Product Design Director		Chief Experience Architect P8	Sr. Director P8	Vice President, Design		SVP of Design	Associate Design Fellow	Design Director
11								VP2 - Head of Design									Vice President	Expert Partner, Design		Head of Design	Design Fellow	Executive Design Director
12
13	Attributes/competencies/skills
14	Product Strategy	Insight Driven		Problem scoping, solving	Communication	Culture and Togetherness	Product Impact	Results	Visual/UX Design	Leadership		Helping others to execute and assisting with whatever is needed for the team to thrive.	Visual Design	Mentorship	Craftmanship	Leadership	Execution & Project Management	Effective Approach	Craft		Research & insights
15	Craft + Quality	Strategy		Holistic UX	Initiative	Developing Others	Design Excellence	Team Health	Product Thinking	Product Thinking		Shows an understanding of visual hierarchy, layout and information architecture.	UX Design	Career Growth	Breadth	Visionary	Recruiting & Org Branding	Develop Self & Others	Strategic Thinking & Planning		Experience Strategy
16	Communication + Collaboration	Execution		Explorations + Final Recommendations	Objectivity & Adaptability	Stakeholder Management	Strategy	Collaboration	Speed of execution	Strategy planning		Expert level product designer with extensive and demonstrated expertise in visual hierarchy, layout and information architecture. Displays an expert level understanding of user-centered design methodoliges and a willingness to help and mentor those around them. They design for scale and consistenly advocate for the use and contribution to the Zendesk design system (Garden). They are a respected partner amongst their peers in product and engineering and demonstrate a sophisticated grasp of the business objectives for thier product area. They identify product overlaps and gaps in their own work, and that of other designers on adjacent products. They are able to consider potential connections or collisions between different products and platforms. They possess strong verbal and written communication skills in both one-on-one and group situations. They lead and direct group design conversations keeping them focused and on track. These designers demonstrate a deep dedication to our customers by investing signifcant time observing them work, and validating ideas with them. Senior Product Designers may be given the option to manage 1-2 people at this career level	Patterns	Communication	Systems Thinking	Ensure Execution	Mentorship & Career Development	Client Communication	Execution		Interaction Design
17	Action + Impact	Driving Outcomes		Initiative	Empathy & Humility	Team Leadership	People	Org Contributions	Communication	Recruiting			Product Thinking	Fluency	Communication & Collaboration	Focus on Customer		Client Results	Communication		Visual Systems
18	Leveling Up Others	Leadership Behaviors		Guardianship (Help improve design standards in company	Breaking Down Complexity				Collaboration	Design Ops			Process	Product Leadership	Execution & Project Management	Innovative		Extraordinary Team	Leadership		Content Design
19	Independence	Mentorship		Citizenship (Contribute to culture, team)	Business Context				Mentorship	Direction Setting			Toolkit	Culture	Initiative & Ownership	Mentorship & Career Development					Design Technology
20				Mentorship + Managing	Systems Thinking				Passionately Curious	Mentorship			Transparency	Recruiting	Product & Business Sense
21					User Focus				Drive outcome				Data	Design Ops	Team & Community						Senior Experience Designer III (above)
22													Fluency	Design Direction							Design: 75%
23													Communication								Mentorship/Mgmt: 5%
24													Mentorship								Stakeholder Collab: 10%
25													Culture								Thought Leadership: Minimal
26																					Learning: 10%
27																					Org Initiatives: Minimal
28
29																					Principal Designer general focus
30																					Design: 50%
31																					Mentorship/Mgmt: 25%
32																					Stakeholder Collab: 10%
33																					Thought Leadership: 5%
34																					Learning: 10%
35																					Org Initiatives: Minimal

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
1	Curated by ADPList: https://adplist.org
2	👉 To add your company, make corrections, or ask questions, please DM Felix Lee / LinkedIn
3
4	Designed with
5
6
7	Contributed by:

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
1	Links to public career ladders

2	Intercom
3	Figma
4	Unacademy
5	Buzzfeed
6	Kumu
7	Zendesk
8
9
10
11	Contribute yours! DM me.
12
13	The Fact Chart
14	Comparing how Salesforce, LinkedIn, Amazon, Google, Facebook ranks in career level (time spent at each) 🔽
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30	How Zendesk does it
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48