🚨 This page is in note taking mode. It is part of my Digital Garden1. This is a reference page for an ongoing topic.
Aims for this page
- Reference to steps we took last time we did this
- Capture of our intentions so we can look back and determine if they were met
- Notes on how to make the process easier in the future, attempt to document the tacit knowledge
- Critique of frameworks broadly and how we’re navigating issues with them
Inbox of Notes
Steps we took
- Small workshops on keywords, critique of public frameworks
- Agreement on lean set of keywords – three per category
- Idea generation on words that fit: {Our business context today, where we want to go as a team, where the business is going, the limits of a practice today, the industry reference on skills}
- Rough overview writing on what levels are broadly like, L1: small tasks and supervision, L3: full projects, casual guidance. And so on
- Sense checking on overlap of keywords, we had some that were very close. Calibrated the adjusted keywords after merging, refining. Used https://www.powerthesaurus.org/ to unpack words and discover alternatives
- 🔴 First pass of writing that was not level specific – this was a mistake as it became harder to see how it was applicable to folks
- Second pass of keyword descriptions that were level specific
- 🔴 Moved from Miro to Confluence for speed of copy editing, decent publishing, versioning and most importantly – table design that works!
- Lots of pair writing, reading, reviewing and discussing
- Started to talk through “scenarios” to help identify what were talking about at levels
- Added glossary terms in after feedback on weasel words. Hard to avoid when aiming for short copy
- Sense check on referencing company values
- Sense check on “strategy” and “goals” in terms of team, business, laddering up and making plain sense to folks. 🔴 We still have a long way to go on this.
- Picking out keywords on levels to sense check consistency down and across framework
- Writing of overview for levels
- Sense checking the spheres of impact, responsibility, size of tasks, areas of autonomy
Stuff I have been pondering
I believe we need to drive for coverage of skills across lots of areas – its part of the job, the same as architects, industrial designers, engineers, carpenters and so on. Craftspeople should see a deep world where they are operating and navigate improving their skills by applying time. I’m unsure I agree with discussions around the industry wanting too much and it being a problem, it’s easy bait and can be applied to any topic. If you look closely enough, complexity and depth is in everything that exists.
Resources
Figma’s one slapped hard: https://www.figma.com/community/file/1220482745322443565/figma-product-design-writing-career-levels
- Maggie Appleton has a wonderful write up here on Digital Gardens. ↩︎