Talking About My Level with the Head of Experience Design
Am I a senior or not? Who knows anymore.
Weekly Highlight
Ever since my first quarterly performance review in November, I’ve been hearing from my managers that I am approaching senior and I just have to keep it up to get promoted. Well, since November, I’ve been doing A LOT more than just keeping it up.
Before, I was simply solving a few things in the Web Checkout and running a few workshops for other initiatives. Now, I am a key driver in creating a way of working for the product teams in Innovation & Incubation (the area I work in) that is distinct from how all the other teams. We are optimizing for discovery because we work with transformative innovation (different from other teams that optimize for execution because they have mature products).
This week, I talked with the Head of Experience Design at H&M Group about my career level. He said that the new Career Framework, as it stands at the moment, doesn’t have a clear way to promote me from Key (Mid) to Senior, and for my years of experience (4.5 years) it is more appropriate to remain Key. I didn’t want to feel I needed to be a Senior - I wanted to be grateful to have the opportunity to work with an exciting product and feel I have an impact. But I was also asking myself “Dang, how long do I have to consistently do a great job to become a senior? A year?”
But then he said, “If it’s not in place in June, I’ll find a way to promote you in July”. And that felt incredible. I know that I’ve been doing a great job - but now I know it’s rewarded and makes me even happier to be working at H&M Group.
All this being said, I won’t believe I’m a Senior until I hear it’s official. Stay tuned!
Weekly Notes
Favorite pieces of knowledge from books, podcasts, videos, etc. that I consumed this week.
The Common Path to Uncommon Success
If you think life is hard, what are you actually comparing it to?
Making the Grade (Happiness Lab)
Children are naturally curious but through the extrinsic motivation, we give them they start asking what they need to know.
Grades/rewards make students less interested, avoid challenging themselves, promote shallow understanding. Instead of challenging the knowledge, they wonder if it will be on the test.
Rewarding someone for good behavior teaches them that their feelings are more important than the feelings of the people the good behavior helps.
Never Split the Difference
Get over not liking negotiations; life is full of them. You can at least decide to be good at it to get what you want.
When negotiating, don’t rationalize with people. In reality, their animal thinking (fast, instinctive, emotional) is guiding their rational thinking. Target their animal thinking.
Life’s a Pitch
When you pitch to someone, they have to make a guess about the future. Because it's impossible to do through logic, it's done through emotional factors.
How to Perform Under Pressure (How to!)
Don't strive for perfection - it's impossible. Strive for excellence.
Weekly Upload
The freshest new content from my channel.
Notes and thoughts on this video:
I didn’t prioritize Youtube at all these past two weeks so wasn’t sure what to upload. My editor/sister had the great idea to make a real - so much more manageable.
I was actually going to answer this question in a Q&A video, but it was worth the sacrifice.