I've just finished a new job ladder for our Directors in Product Management and Product Design. Here are some of my conclusions to share what I learned and solicit some feedback. First of all, I use this pentagon with 5 core competency areas:

These competency areas are the same for Directors in PM and Design. Therefore my Directors in these two functions have much more in common in their role than things that are specific to the function. This is a very important idea. PMs and Designers converge with experience.

I expect both functions to excel at Business Strategy. Obvious for PM, and to me, should be obvious for Design. Our Product Design Directors are expected to be able to discuss the direct relationship between any piece of Design work and our business plan (and btw they can :)

An important concept with this pentagon is 'The Shape of People'. Here are (fictional) examples of three people on my team:

This 'Shape of People' has two important implications: (1) The 'Shape' of any one person highlights their growth areas. For me, someone can be missing expectations in one competency, but because they are succeeding in others, their overall performance can be meeting expectations.

(2) The overall shape of my team is very important. It is critical that amongst my 5 Directors, we have no significant gap on any of the 5 competencies. This means no blindspots, but also that my team can teach each other! This is also a very important idea.

Here is a 3rd insight about 'The Shape of People'. No one excels equally at all 5. Some people are highly proficient at all 5, but everyone has a leaning + a natural bias. This is why the shape of the team is more important than any one person.

I could honestly write a 10,000 thesis on the ladder (you don't want me to ) so this is a pithy entrance to this space. Would love any feedback from other leaders, and happy to answer questions from anyone.