Design Skills Matrix

The Day We Mapped Everything

A senior designer with 10 years experience couldn't give useful feedback. Meanwhile, our junior motion designer ran the best critique sessions I'd ever seen.

That's when I knew titles meant nothing. So we mapped what actually mattered.

The Spreadsheet That Changed Everything

Six sheets. 150+ cells per designer. Sounds like hell, right?

Here's the structure:

Soft Skills (everyone gets these):

Portrait & Work Ethic: Ownership, problem-solving, personal development, creative thinking, critical thinking
Communication: Presentation skills, general communication, English proficiency, feedback, mentoring
Work Process: Business knowledge, project management, teamwork, time management, design proactivity, traffic coordination, deliverable quality, Wrike knowledge

Hard Skills (role-specific):

Graphic Designers: Visual composition, typography, layout, iconography, photography, brand contribution
Motion Designers: 2D animation, character animation, 3D, storyboarding, automation
Interaction Designers: Conceptual skills, copywriting, prototyping, responsive design, usability, research

Each skill has 5 levels. Not "Junior/Senior" nonsense. Real progressions.

Take "Problem Solving":

Level 1: Solves problems within specific tasks, needs guidance
Level 2: Handles common problems independently, needs help with cross-functional stuff
Level 3: Tackles complex projects, prevents issue recurrence, highlights risks early
Level 4: Oversees beyond own projects, develops long-term solutions
Level 5: Resolves company-wide sophisticated cases, creates prevention systems

Every level builds on the last. No skipping steps.

The Reality Check

First assessments were brutal. We discovered:

Our "senior" designer was Level 2 at time management
Our "junior" was Level 4 at creative thinking
Half the team couldn't accurately self-assess

But here's what mattered: we finally had data. Real, actionable data.

No more "you need to communicate better." Now it's "you're at Level 2 communication—you present ideas clearly on routine tasks. For Level 3, work on written communication and handling complex topics."

The Hard Skills Truth

The role-specific matrices revealed even more gaps.

Our graphic team? Killing it at visual composition (mostly Level 3-4) but struggling with brand contribution (Level 1-2).

Motion designers? Amazing at 2D animation, lost on automation and expressions.

Interaction designers? Great at prototyping, weak at research and analytics.

We weren't just randomly hiring anymore. We knew exactly what skills we needed.

What Actually Worked

Two things made this successful:

1. Different matrices for different roles Not everyone needs 3D animation skills. Graphic designers get their matrix, motion designers get theirs. Common soft skills for everyone, specialized hard skills per role.

2. Clear progressions, not vague descriptors Level 3 typography isn't "good at typography." It's "experiments with typography in layouts and proposes effective solutions for the case." Specific. Measurable.

The Spreadsheet Problem

Yes, it's a massive spreadsheet. Yes, people called it corporate. Yes, some designers felt reduced to cells.

All true.

But when promotion time came? No arguments. When planning training? We knew exactly what to focus on. When hiring? We could spot gaps immediately.

One designer quit, saying we'd "killed the art of design."

The 30 who stayed became the strongest team I've ever built. Because they knew exactly where they stood and how to grow.

Years Later

The matrix lives in Google Sheets. It's ugly. It's clinical. It's the most valuable document we have.

Every quarter, we assess. Every quarter, people level up somewhere. Every quarter, we get better.

Is it perfect? No. Some skills are hard to quantify. Some progressions feel arbitrary.

But before the matrix, we lost 5 designers to "lack of growth." After? Zero.

Sometimes the most creative thing you can do is get really, really organized.