Dlead Staff Path Map

---
name: dlead-staff-path-map
description: Builds a Staff Designer Path Map with the IC and manager paths side by side, four staff archetypes adapted here for design, which one fits your work, the gap to your own ladder and the conversation to have with your manager. Use for "run dlead-staff-path-map", "what does staff designer mean", "IC or manager path", "I don't want to manage", "staff designer archetypes", "principal designer path", "senior designer what next", "career ladder for designers", part of the Claude for Design Leaders Pack by Polar Bear.
---

# Staff Designer Path Map

## When To Use
You are senior, you do not want to manage, and you cannot see what staff means here. The ladder says "influence" and "scope" and nobody can show you what that looks like on a Tuesday. It answers: which staff shape fits the work I do and enjoy, and what is missing between me and the next level?

## When Not To Use
If you have already chosen the path and need to prove you work at the level, use Promotion Case. If you just took a lead role and need a plan for it, use New Design Lead 90-Day Plan.

## Inputs
- Your company's career ladder for designers, pasted (IC and manager tracks if both exist)
- Your last twelve months of work: projects, decisions, system work, mentoring (a Brag Document is ideal)
- What you enjoy and what drains you, in a few lines
If you have none of this, I start from a generic two-track outline marked as generic and your own list of recent projects, and mark the output as a first draft.

## Approach
Staff archetypes from Will Larson (lethain.com, April 2020), an engineering model adapted here for design, read next to the parallel IC and manager tracks seen in public design career ladders. The judgment: staff is several shapes, not one, and the one you pick should match work you want to keep doing. Larson's own warning applies: pattern-matching to a ladder can push you into work you dislike, and a staff title earned that way is a cage.

## Workflow
1. Ask three questions: does your company have a written ladder, what work from the last year are you proudest of, and what work would you happily never do again?
2. Lay the IC and manager paths side by side from your ladder, level by level. If you pasted none, use a generic two-track outline and label every row "generic, check against your ladder".
3. Describe the four archetypes, adapted here for design: team lead (guides a team's approach and execution), architect (owns direction and quality in a critical area, for example the design system), solver (goes deep on hard, ambiguous problems), right hand (extends a design or product executive's reach).
4. Map your last year of work to the archetypes: which projects look like which shape. Then add what you enjoy. You choose the fit; Claude shows the pattern, never the verdict.
5. Gap to your ladder: the next level's criteria verbatim, your current evidence against each, marked "evidence", "thin" or "none". Keep it short; the full proof is the Promotion Case.
6. Write the conversation with your manager: what to ask (does this shape exist here, who sponsors it), and what to propose (one piece of work that tests the shape).

## Output Format
```markdown
# Staff Designer Path Map
**Ladder:** [yours / generic] | **Current level:** [level] | **Date:** [date]
## IC and manager paths
| Level | IC track expects | Manager track expects |
|---|---|---|
| [level] | [criteria] | [criteria] |
## Staff archetypes, adapted here for design
| Archetype | What it looks like in design | Your work that matches | Do you enjoy it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team lead / Architect / Solver / Right hand | [description] | [project, date] | [your words] |
## Gap to the next level
| Criterion (verbatim) | Your evidence | Status |
|---|---|---|
| [criterion] | [link or project] | [evidence / thin / none] |
## Conversation with my manager
- Ask: [question] | Propose: [test project]
## Decision
[You] choose the path and archetype to pursue, and raise it with [manager] by [date].
```

## Done When
- Both tracks are laid out, and any generic row is labelled as generic
- Each archetype row has your own work or "none yet" next to it
- Every gap row quotes a ladder criterion, not a paraphrase

## Quality Bar
- The archetypes are marked as adapted here for design from an engineering model
- No comparison with colleagues or with who else holds staff titles
- No employer names in examples; your ladder stays yours
- Your enjoyment counts as much as your evidence when you choose
- Claude lays out the paths; you choose, and nothing here rates you.

## Next
Run dlead-brag-document (Brag Document) to start logging evidence for the path you chose.

## About the makers

This pack is made by Polar Bear, a consultancy built by ex-McKinsey founders with a dream to make AI work for People, not instead of them. We help our clients build people systems and AI-first ways of working, and we run our own company on Claude. If your team has outgrown the self-serve version, message Pauline (linkedin.com/in/paulinebertry).