Summary
DesignOps takes the lead to author our internal career matrix, so we can objectively and uniformly refresh each discipline, and establish org-wide skills echoed throughout each role. DesignOps at Salesforce is also included within these Career Competencies, allowing for our team to hold more consistent career discussions, and unifying promotions by leveraging the same language when discussing each DesignOps employee. Plus, since DesignOps is seen as a fairly "new" discipline, having it paired alongside more "well-known" disciplines (Designer, UX Engineer), elevates the understanding of our role and skills, and provides a baseline paired alongside our peer's disciplines. There’s great power in language, and the words we choose to use makes an impact. Making conscious efforts on our word choices and communications with one another can affect change at both the individual level as well as team-wide.
Key Insights
-
•
Salesforce’s UX career ladder includes about 180 unique skill attributes for design roles spanning six levels.
-
•
The team deliberately replaced vague terms like soft skills with clear, actionable language such as active listening.
-
•
Removing gender-coded language helped create more equitable and appealing career progression criteria.
-
•
Relationship design, a new DEI skill category, was added for all UX disciplines to highlight how work is done, not just what is done.
-
•
Relationship design consists of four interconnected mindsets: courage, compassion, intention, and reciprocity.
-
•
Senior UX employees are expected to hold difficult conversations, mentor others, and recognize power dynamics as part of relationship design.
-
•
The career competencies are tools for conversation, not strict checklists for promotion or scoring.
-
•
The competency updates were achieved over three years through an iterative and collaborative process involving volunteers across disciplines.
-
•
Education and adoption relied on resource guides, live walkthroughs, manager panels, and repeated organizational communication.
-
•
Salesforce’s UX career competencies map to broader company-wide competencies but remain tailored for UX-specific roles.
Notable Quotes
"Soft skills doesn’t always represent active listening, so we updated to be more specific."
"We wanted to be aware of extraversion, so words like energy were changed to initiative to not favor personality types."
"Gender-coded words influence someone’s decision to apply and feel they belong even within internal career ladders."
"Relationship design is not just what you do but how you do it, focusing on building relationships with customers, employees, and community."
"For early career UXers, compassion could be as simple as expressing gratitude for help."
"Senior employees should hold difficult conversations questioning processes that may be harmful to others."
"This is not a checklist or promotion tool; you don’t have to excel in everything to grow."
"If something was unclear or uncomfortable to even one person, it was a sign it needed editing."
"The competencies allow managers to celebrate individualism while maintaining consistency across teams."
"Adding inclusivity to the career ladder took three years and this is still a living document with room for change."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"During the pandemic, we learned to have awkward and uncomfortable conversations about people’s realities."
Francesca Barrientos, PhDYou Need Your Own Definition of Design Maturity
June 8, 2022
"I was obnoxiously proud in my 20s, humbled and service-driven in my 30s."
Frances Yllana Ann Buechner Jess Jones Betsy RamacciaD.E.A.R.R. Diaries (Discipline, Experience, Architecture, Reflection + Revolution)
November 16, 2022
"We have to be advocates for growth mindset and process improvement because people fall back on old ways even in times of change."
Greg PetroffSoftware as Material—A Redux
June 6, 2023
"Past speakers from this conference will dedicate time for reflection and synthesis."
Sarah BrooksTheme Three Intro
November 18, 2022
"Our craft today is about forming shared understanding and building prototypes, not just delivering polished visuals."
David CroninThe GE Design System and Thoughts about Craft at Scale
May 13, 2015
"No one wants to use a calendar; they want to be organized. Protect users from having to engage with complexity."
Dem Gerolemou Alexis Oh Neef RehmanClimate technology fundamentals
May 15, 2024
"It’s really important that we have impact goals. It’s not worth doing design if we’re not having impact on our residents."
Ariel KennanBuilding a Design Culture
June 9, 2017
"Autoethnography and video diaries enable participants to capture aspects of their lives that researchers might not see otherwise."
Bas Raijmakers, PhD (RCA) Charley Scull Prabhas PokharelWhat Design Research can Learn from Documentary Filmmaking
March 11, 2022
"Hippo culture is building things based on the highest paid person's opinion, no insights, just vibes."
Todd Healy Jess GrecoDriving Change with CX Metrics
June 7, 2023
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What motivates a senior UX designer like Kenneth Bowles to leave industry practice and pursue philosophy and ethics?
How do champions at different organizational levels impact the success of service design initiatives?
What role does service design play in accelerating organizational growth beyond project support?