Strong brand work delivers measurable long-term impact, influencing key metrics — from CPA and CTR to NPS and LTV — because brand sits at the intersection of marketing and product.

To achieve those results, communication needs to be consistent: speaking to the right audience, in their language, within their context.

In larger companies, where multiple channels represent the brand across different funnel stages — website content, marketing banners, call center scripts, sales decks, UX writing, product onboarding, etc. — things quickly fall apart without a system.

So how do you make a complex brand easy to work with? How do you ensure that anyone speaking on behalf of the brand reinforces consistency instead of introducing a new tone each time?

Brand persona

The most effective approach I’ve found is brand personification — describing the brand as a character with clear, human traits.

Defining that character is a topic on its own. Here, I’ll focus on how to make that persona actually usable in day-to-day work.

My first experience with this was in fintech. Together with the editorial team, we built a content policy and opened it with a short, concise description:

We’re that familiar startup regular you spot at your favorite downtown coffee shop.
We’re not exactly close, but we see each other often enough to exchange a quick “hey.”
Sometimes, while waiting in line, we’ll share a few updates — new card features, promos, discounts, cashback offers. Nothing pushy. Just what might be useful, and you decide if it’s worth your time.
And hey, if the vibe’s right, we might even drop a joke — just to keep things from getting too dull.

This image turned out to be surprisingly practical. It immediately clarified for anyone communicating on behalf of the brand how that communication should feel.

The return on this almost-zero investment was very tangible. Content became easier to produce, communication more consistent, and the unified tone started contributing to brand recognition.

Most importantly, messages resonated better with the target audience. That typically leads not just to more leads, but to higher-quality leads and better conversion to opportunities — which can reduce CPA through better targeting and less creative noise.

This kind of description also works well as a system prompt for a brand AI assistant, helping internal teams generate more aligned content.

Visual portrait

At Wrike, I took this further by exploring not only a verbal, but also a visual representation of the brand persona. Simply feeding text into AI isn’t enough — it tends to produce generic results. What matters is not just the “camera setup,” but the overall character.

If the brand were a person — how would they look? How would they style their hair, what would they wear, which brands or details would they choose? The result isn’t just a photorealistic portrait, but a carefully constructed image embedding the brand’s identity.

From there, this visual can extend across touchpoints — from website and banners to product onboarding — creating a cohesive image that resonates with the audience.

Like editorial guidelines, this visual layer strengthens the brand’s ability to express itself. When the same character — or a system of characters — appears across communications, the brand becomes more cohesive and recognizable. That’s a long-term play.

Prospects pick up on the brand’s character faster and respond more willingly. This can positively impact lead quality and acquisition efficiency.

And there’s no limitation in terms of diversity — a set of characters can be built to reflect different groups while maintaining a consistent visual identity.

Emotional layer

From there comes the next layer. If personification answers “who we are” and visualization answers “what we look like,” the next question is: “how do we behave in different situations?”

I call this emotional navigation — a framework describing how a brand communicates across emotional modes, from serious to playful, without losing its identity.

I’ve covered this separately, but the key point here is: together with personification and visual identity, it completes the dynamic layer of communication.

What you get isn’t a scattered set of guidelines, but a coherent system:
 — who the brand is (persona)
 — how it looks (visual code)
 — how it behaves across contexts (emotional navigation)

In the long run, this impacts not only perception (brand awareness, consideration, share of voice), but also very practical things — content production efficiency, team alignment, and ultimately marketing economics.

In that sense, personification and emotional navigation aren’t about “describing the brand nicely.” They’re about making it a manageable, working system.

UPD 23.09.2026:
Since publishing this article, I spotted Kate again — and she’s got a new job. After I left Wrike, the team took the idea further: she’s now an animated AI Product Expert chatting with visitors on wrike.com.

Really nice to see the idea evolve beyond where we left it. And yes, I couldn’t walk past Kate without stopping for a chat.

Now I’m curious about the numbers: how many other visitors stop too — and what does that do to conversion?

aligning brand and product touchpoints into one coherent journey

It all started with a situation in my work experience. After several rounds of brand refreshes, team reshuffles, and a growing number of communication channels, consistency became hard to manage. The tone of voice didn’t always match the visual mood; product design and brand design evolved in parallel without really talking to each other; and even within the brand team, different designers reinforced their own favorite patterns.

As a result, the brand and the product began to sound like several different people — with different characters, styles, and intonations. That hurt both recognizability and the perceived quality.

Imagine choosing a formal restaurant for your grandmother’s anniversary. You expect a calm, respectful, slightly ceremonial atmosphere — and the website promises exactly that: restrained visuals, a neat menu, the right tone.

But at the entrance, a concierge in a tracksuit greets you in casual slang. He walks you into a gold baroque hall with techno playing, while waiters in tuxedos joke loudly with each other. The food, meanwhile, is flawless.

Formally, everything checks out. Emotionally — it misses the mark. It’s clearly not a fit for grandma (though I might find it interesting). The issue isn’t techno or the tracksuit, but the fact that every touchpoint sends a different emotional signal.

When marketing, product, and service touchpoints are consistent, brand and product work as a single whole. Communications feel coherent, are recognized faster, and remembered more easily — and when people move from external messaging into the product, they stay in the same emotional world.

Across the entire journey, this unity builds trust and loyalty. Emotions create connection, and once that connection exists, even price stops being the main factor — we’re willing to pay a bit more, for a product or even a restaurant for grandma, as long as there are no unexpected or misplaced surprises.

This directly shows up in metrics across the entire AARRR funnel. Ad recall and brand trust grow at the acquisition stage. Activation and onboarding completion increase because the product confirms the expectations formed before entering it. Retention improves, churn goes down, and satisfied users are more willing to recommend the product, fueling referral and revenue.

And that’s just the external side. Internally — at the level of design production and product teams — shifts happen as well. Design and interface creation speeds up thanks to fewer “reinventions from scratch” and less taste-based debate. The number of revisions and cross-team conflicts drops. Scaling production becomes easier — bringing in contractors and onboarding new designers without constant manual control.

To keep this level of consistency at scale, a typical brand guide that just defines how things look isn’t enough. What’s needed is a system that builds on brand personification and adds an emotional layer to the experience — what exactly we’re communicating in a given moment, and why, depending on the audience, channel, journey stage, and context. I call this Brand Emotional Navigation.

This is how an emotional navigation framework takes shape: a set of scales, visual and copy principles, and a living matrix that helps teams choose the appropriate emotional state across the entire experience — from marketing to product.

1. Start with context, not visuals

The first step is classification. You gather all key brand and product touchpoints and answer a simple question: where, with whom, and for what purpose are we speaking? Channels, audiences, journey stages, and specific situations define the context in which emotions either support the experience or break it.

Based on this, emotional modes are defined. For example, three possible scales:

• Informative–Rational — calm, explanatory
• Engaging–Emotional — lively, warm
• Inspirational–Emotional — value-driven, aspirational

Smaller products may need fewer states. What matters isn’t the number of scales, but how clearly they differ from each other.

2. Anchor emotions in visuals and language

Next, emotions need to be grounded. For each mode, visual references, interface examples, and design patterns are collected, along with copywriting principles. This helps clarify which visual techniques, compositions, rhythms, and information density support a given emotional state — and which contradict it.

At this point, emotion stops being an abstraction and becomes a working tool.

3. Allow movement, but define the rules

Within a single communication or product flow, emotions can change — and that’s normal, especially in longer formats like onboarding, landing pages, presentations, or videos.

Just like in a good restaurant: the waiter greets you with a warm smile, then switches to a more serious, precise tone when explaining the menu.

That’s why the rule is simple: emotions can shift, but transitions should be smooth — along neighboring scales. Abrupt jumps undermine trust.

For example:

• in onboarding, you can speak in a warm, human tone, but present instructions and examples in a more restrained, structured way
• on a landing page, start with an engaging hook, move into a calm explanation of functionality, and finish with a confident, supportive CTA

4. Use the scales as a reflection tool

Emotional scales are useful not only for creating new content and interfaces, but also for reviewing existing ones. They help spot moments where the product or brand conveys inappropriate emotions — like an awkward joke from a waiter during a conversation about allergies.

Importantly, this system isn’t just for designers. The emotional layer must be aligned in tone of voice as well, which means product, content, and marketing teams should be involved. When visuals, text, and interfaces speak the same emotional language, the experience becomes coherent and convincing.

5. Keep the system alive

Emotional navigation shouldn’t be a static document. It evolves through regular joint sessions and reviews, where newly created materials and product changes are mapped to emotional modes and discussed.

This helps teams stay aligned, exchange approaches, and build a living matrix — a kind of emotional moodboard that shows how consistent the experience is and where the product and brand can grow next.

In the end, the emotional framework becomes not a control mechanism, but a navigation tool. It helps teams make decisions independently while preserving a coherent experience — without constant micromanagement.

Emotional navigation doesn’t make a brand or product prettier. It makes them predictable in a good way, and whole. And emotional predictability is the foundation of trust.

Just like with a good restaurant: when you know exactly what to expect, you’ll bring your grandmother’s guests there again in five or ten years — and recommend it to others. And you’ll save techno for a different crowd.

I’m eager to keep developing the framework and share the experience in different formats — discussions, workshops, consulting, projects, or long-term collaboration. Reach out if you’d like to dive deeper.

Being able to estimate design work realistically has always helped me in my career — whether thanks to a rational mindset or an engineering background. Surprisingly, my experience shows again and again that most designers struggle with this skill. Since I already give advice on this topic regularly, I decided to share my approach more broadly — hopefully, it’ll be useful here.

I’ve gone from a solo freelancer to an agency creative director, and later to a design manager. As my experience grew, my estimation approach evolved too. I’ll break this journey into parts and share it step by step. I’ll start with a basic freelance project.

To make this as practical as possible, I’ll include tables with formulas wherever it makes sense. I know many designers don’t love spreadsheets, but for me, as a manager, they’re one of the key tools. You can simply copy them and plug in your own numbers.

👉🏼 You can also jump straight to the estimation spreadsheet with built-in formulas and start calculating right away — then come back for a breakdown of how it all works.

Basic design project

This model works well for estimating basic freelance work where unique expertise isn’t required — for example, layout work based on guidelines or templates. At the time, it helped me avoid the feeling that “I’ve already spent more resources on this project than it’s worth.” In other words, these estimates were market-appropriate and still left me with a sense of satisfaction after completing the work.

Freelancer hourly rate (FHR)

The key starting point is the hourly rate.

The simplest approach is to define your target monthly income (TMI), using market averages in your country as a reference (for example, via Glassdoor). Taxes matter here: Glassdoor shows gross numbers — before deductions. Freelancers usually pay taxes themselves, and their tax rate is often lower than an employer’s. So subtract the average employer tax and add your own.

Next:

• divide TMI by 21.5 (the average number of working days per month)
• then divide by 8 (average working hours per day)

This gives you an approximate hourly rate as if you were employed full-time.

However, freelance rates should be higher. Independent designers deal with income instability, uneven workloads, and time spent on client acquisition, accounting, and taxes — while offering clients valuable flexibility: fast onboarding and an equally quick exit.

In my experience, an hourly rate in this setup is typically 1.5–2× higher than an in-house equivalent — I call this the freelance coefficient (FC). Let’s go with 1.5 for now (adjust if needed).

FHR = (TMI / 21.5 / 8) × FC

Basic design project estimation

Next, we calculate the basic design project cost (BDPC). This includes not only the freelancer hourly rate multiplied by project time (PT), but also project expenses (PE) and iterations.

Project expenses may include:

• AI credits
• stock images
• illustration work
• font licenses, etc.

PT includes all stages of the project: negotiations, meetings (including travel), presentations — and the actual design craft.

I usually break projects down into micro-steps to avoid missing anything, for example:

• client briefing (including travel) — 2 h
• reviewing requirements and guidelines — 1 h
• reference research — 2 h
• rough structural layout — 4 h
• visual design work — 10 h
• final layout — 2 h
• and so on

Iterations

Project time always includes iterations. For this, I use an iteration coefficient (IC).

Iterations are normal. The client is a full participant in the process, bringing their understanding of the problem, while the designer is responsible for the solution. Feedback isn’t an obstacle — it’s part of the workflow. The goal isn’t “pretty”, but effective.

A common mistake designers make is not accounting for iterations upfront. This often leads to frustration with the client and dissatisfaction with the project itself. That’s why it’s important to agree on a limited number of included iterations from the start.

Anything beyond that becomes extra iteration hours (EIH) multiplied by the freelancer hourly rate.

I apply the iteration coefficient to the entire PT, since it may include additional meetings, communication, debriefs, material reviews, updated references, and more.

In my experience, a reasonable coefficient for two iterations is 1.75:

• 1.0 — core work
• 0.5 — first round of revisions
• 0.25 — final adjustments

Extra iterations are estimated separately.

Final formula for a basic design project

DPC = (FHR × PT × IC) + PE + (EIH × FHR)

The formula is flexible: you can exclude, add, or adjust parts as needed. It’s always useful to benchmark against similar projects on the market.

Custom design project

An experienced designer takes on a different kind of project — a custom one. Think: a key visual for an ad campaign, a unique website layout, or brand identity work. This is where advanced expertise comes into play and truly original design solutions are proposed.

That’s why it’s not enough to calculate the hourly rate alone. Here, I introduce an additional factor — the coolness coefficient (CC) — which reflects how much this unique experience differentiates the work from a basic design solution.

This coefficient is set individually, depending on the level of design, market competition, and demand. There’s no universal number. I recommend playing with the formula on a hypothetical project and then benchmarking it against similar offers on the market.

The formula is:

CDPC = (FHR × PT × IC × CC) + PE + (EIH × FHR)

Key takeaways

• A freelancer’s hour costs more than an in-house specialist’s
• Taxes must be included in calculations
• Project expenses should be planned upfront
• Time includes more than just design craft
• Iterations must be agreed on at the start
• Extra iterations = extra cost
• Unique design solutions cost more than basic ones

I’ll cover team effort estimation next — it gets even more complex and interesting there.

While IT teams are busy building AI features, what’s happening to the design teams? Are we changing as fast as we’re changing reality? As professionals, how well are we adapting to this shift? Will the skills we use today to supercharge our products with AI still matter in three, five, or 10 years, when designing with artificial intelligence is no longer a boost, but the baseline?

These aren’t just my questions; I’m hearing them from teammates and friends across the industry. Some meet AI in design with excitement, others with caution or even anxiety. But here’s the thing: there’s no more time to just watch. We need to adapt — fast, deliberately, and systematically. This is upskilling for AI.

What helps me is looking back — finding historical analogies that ground our thinking. To me, the scale and implications of today’s AI revolution mirror the Industrial Revolution. It’s a powerful lens for understanding what’s at stake in AI-driven digital transformation.

Workshop: Imagining skills for the future

To explore this transition, I ran a workshop, first with my design team at Wrike, then with the creatives from Triad advertising agency. We brainstormed and shaped a shared vision of future-proof design skills from two perspectives: corporate and agency.

To set the mood for open, creative thinking, I started with a bit of role play with no prep and no context, just a simple prompt for the team: imagine who you might have been in the 17th–18th centuries and what your life might have looked like back then. For example, I became Antoni Tonnucci — a carpenter crafting furniture for the local church and selling it in my town.

Experiencing change: From artisan to industrial expert

After some fun and laughter exploring our industrial era personalities, once everyone was relaxed, I shifted the tone: the peaceful artisan era had abruptly ended. My carpenter’s workshop closed, the village emptied. With the arrival of the Spinning Jenny and the steam engine, everything changed — we had entered the Industrial Revolution. Massive factories sprang up in the cities, offering steady income, and people flocked to them. Cities grew rapidly. Gone were the quiet village streets; in came the noise, the crowds, the cramped tenements — denser, tougher living.

Social norms changed at once, and nobody was prepared. Families no longer lived on shared land as big rural households; they moved into tiny city flats, often with strangers. Gender and age roles shifted: men, women, even kids as young as six or seven worked in factories — with no schooling, no rights, no protection. The workday lost its rhythm. The village flow dictated by sunlight became a thing of the past. Instead, people slogged through grueling 12, 14, or 16-hour shifts in dark, airless workshops. No training, crude tools, zero safety.

With that description, I had gotten the full teams’ attention and set them up with a thoughtful mood. Then, I continued and reminded them: history didn’t stop. Over time, society adjusted. Unions formed. Laws introduced minimum standards, including age, working hours, and basic safety. Equipment also improved. Expertise grew.

And those who shifted fastest became the next generation of experts.

And my carpenter, Antoni? He evolved as well. No longer just a woodworker, he became a respected quality inspector at a furniture factory. His craft didn’t vanish; it transformed. He preserved the essence — and found new meaning.

Preparing for the AI era

With this, I suggested jumping forward 300 years and applying Antoni’s successful experience to our near future. We pulled up our current skills matrix for design teams and ran a brainstorm: what design skills for the AI era should we foster? What will stay? What should evolve? What might disappear altogether? Most importantly, what next-generation workplace skills will emerge?

We weren’t just playing historical dress-up. It was a way to explore our skillset and expertise with fresh eyes, creating a safe space for honest conversation about change.

We all came out of that workshop with seven future-proofed skills — and a clear understanding: Staying relevant means starting now.

Shaping the future of design careers

My managerial task is to reflect this new vision in our team’s skills matrix, reposition the team within the company, and reframe our development focus. The creative leads at Triad used the results to refine their team’s career paths.

In both cases, the goal is the same: to help people see themselves as cross-functional design professionals who can work with AI, thrive in human–AI collaboration, and create value that doesn’t expire. That’s what AI readiness for design teams looks like.

AI isn’t taking design jobs. It’s reshaping them. And the sooner we start rethinking design careers in this new reality, the faster we stay not just relevant, but essential. Our job is not just to keep up, but to help shape what’s next. We, the Wrike design team, are set up for the next level — and committed to design leadership in the AI era.

I’m open to sharing expertise and exchanging ideas, connect with me on LinkedIn to chat more.

Rethinking design in the AI age was originally published in Wrike.Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What’s the future of design roles in a world where AI is deeply embedded in every workflow? How do we stay valuable experts in a constantly changing environment?

These questions are at the top of our minds. Here at Wrike, we care deeply about our team — and about the intersection of human intelligence and AI. So I decided to run a workshop with my team to explore the best ways for our design team to future-proof our skills in an AI-driven world. (I shared how it went in this post).

Today, I wanted to share the skills we brainstormed during that workshop that we believe will shape the design profession in the not-so-distant future.

What are the future-proof skills designers need in the age of AI?

1. Ownership

Ownership means that designers are able to level up with the growing complexity of projects. It’ll require a clear view of the big picture, the ability to work well with people while effectively managing AI, and deep business acumen as a core part of the role. All that while staying flexible as everything keeps shifting.

Importantly, a strong sense of ethics will really matter — because it will be up to us to bring fairness, transparency, and human-centered values into every design decision.

2. Conceptual thinking

Conceptual thinking won’t be easily replaced by AI (that’s a relief) — not when a designer can bring strong imagination, a trained eye, and solid visual literacy to the table. What will truly matter is the ability to generate adaptable ideas grounded in real user insights, behavior, and market context. That means conducting research, trusting creative instincts, and blending strategy, psychology, and technology in ways that actually make sense.

3. Brand experience

Brands will remain at the core of a designer’s expertise, shaping people-first strategies and cultural insights, all grounded in business goals. We’ll be building flexible, evolving systems powered by strong storytelling, creating emotional brand navigation, and carrying it across multiple channels.

To do that, we’ll need to fluently balance different disciplines — communication, tech, psychology, sociology — and whatever comes next.

4. Communication

Communication will go far beyond traditional writing and speaking. Designers will also become translators between human and AI languages, crafting prompts across systems and bridging complex ideas within hybrid human–AI teams.

Storytelling (yep, again) and strong narratives will matter more than ever, with real impact coming from emotional depth, authenticity, and ethical clarity. All of these will be essential for building trust and influence.

5. Multi-sensory design

Design will expand into multi-sensory experiences. We won’t just be focused on visuals, but also sound, motion, interaction, and whatever comes next. We’ll be shaping environments that feel emotionally meaningful and genuinely accessible.

We’ll also take on a key role as supervisors, guiding AI-generated content through the lens of ethics and quality. The role will blend creative direction with fluency in both foundational and emerging design principles.

6. Design versatility

Designers will draw from a broad creative toolkit, confidently using AI and emerging technologies for ideation, iteration, and, of course, problem-solving.

What will matter most is staying aware of trends, keeping an eye on new shifts, experimenting with intent, and knowing how to seamlessly weave new tools into our workflows.

7. Adaptability

Curiosity, openness, and a commitment to continuous learning will be key to long-term success. We’ll need to continually reinvent our skills, embrace new tools, and stay ahead of change. Adaptability, resilience, and a genuine drive to learn and expand our zones of expertise will be essential in this evolving, fast-paced creative landscape.

The evolving landscape of design in the age of AI

This list of skills isn’t complete; it will keep evolving. Today’s leaders should be building flexible, adaptable skill matrices that emphasize soft skills over hard ones. Preparing the next generation of experts is a key focus for us at Wrike.

I’m open to sharing expertise and exchanging ideas, connect with me on LinkedIn to chat more.

Wrike design vision: 7 future-proof skills a successful designer needs in the age of AI was originally published in Wrike.Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In our design team, we rarely praise our workflows — we simply live them. Good processes, like good design, don’t shout about themselves; they quietly make life easier. And that’s exactly what I want to share, speaking as Wrike’s head of creative design, where I spend a lot of time making sure our team’s processes stay as seamless as possible.

I’ll start with our weekly planning, team meetings, and creative rituals. I also want to share about our medium-term planning and a bunch of other ideas, but those will have to wait for future articles.

For our weekly planning and team meetings, we’ve set up plenty in Wrike project management: recurring template tasks, automation, and reminder bots. But it’s not about the platform itself — it’s about how we use it to keep design collaboration smooth and transparent.

Why we do it

Our creative team is spread across different design disciplines: graphic design, web experience, and motion design. The main goal of our planning and rituals is team synchronization in every sense:

• Sharing work updates and company news
• Showcasing completed design projects, discussing, and exchanging feedback
• Keeping each other updated on large cross-functional projects (for example, a brand refresh)
• Spotting when someone needs help
• Tracking how the brand’s visual identity evolves and sharing techniques while keeping it consistent
• Taking the pulse on the team’s overall mood and engagement

Starting the week: Monday planning

On Monday mornings, a recurring task with a template is automatically set to appear in our Wrike dashboards — one for the whole team, due Friday. A bot reminds everyone to fill it in with details pertaining to their tasks. The template provides quick instructions on how to complete the weekly report and a checklist of tasks for each person. That list covers both designers and managers — we keep a high level of transparency for everyone. Each person starts by making their own plan, sorting through incoming tasks.

Next comes our one-hour meeting. We open with casual chat to shake off the “Monday mood.” Then each person shares key tasks and their status, leaving minor ones in the checklist. This way, everyone knows what others are working on, we can rebalance workloads if needed, and I get the big picture. Plus, this gives me the opportunity to dive deeper into any task.

One of our rituals: cameras on. Even those working remotely see faces up close, not just the conference room view. We’ve found it makes a difference for team connection.

Monday planning sessions have already become a nice weekly routine. They help me get a clear overview of the team’s projects, align with everyone, stay on top of priorities, and set the tone for the week. The better the jokes, the better the week!

Alexander Terekhov, Motion design manager at Wrike

During the week: Focus and catch-up

Tuesday is focus day. In our shared calendars, there’s a block: Please confirm the meeting with me before booking. Everyone focuses in their own way; I often work from a favorite café. It’s a no-meeting day for deep creative work. I’m actually writing this article on a Tuesday. And honestly, some weeks I wish there were more of them, just so I’d have space for all the ideas I’d like to spin into full articles.

Wednesday is our optional 30-minute catch-up. I’m always there; others join if they want or can. We might discuss design project progress, ask a quick question, or just swap updates. Despite being optional, I’ve never ended up alone — the team values these moments to reconnect.

Wednesday meetings are a great way to connect with the team — even remote members — and get a glimpse into their projects and progress. Plus, having “extra brains” around makes it easier to get quick feedback when you’re stuck.

Alexey Atapin, Lead web experience designer at Wrike

Ending the week: Wrap-up and review

Friday is when we close the weekly report in Wrike. Some update it gradually, others in one go. The bot reappears in our inboxes again, reminding us: tick the boxes, leave a comment if something’s unfinished. Wrike makes it easy to track task statuses because we can drop permalinks into our plans. Important tasks get a 🚀 — those are the ones I’ll mention in our internal marketing newsletter.

Another micro-ritual: before our names, we add an emoji showing the week’s mood — a kind of team health check. Sometimes, it’s a riddle or a playful message for someone on vacation.

Rituals help me stay motivated, feel connected to the team, and stay in touch with the bigger picture. They create a safe space to ask for advice, even during the busiest weeks.

Vilém Slíž, Sr. graphic designer at Wrike

Teamwork and creative collaboration

Fridays also include a one-hour team meeting, alternating formats:

• Week one — Team Work: anyone can bring a project for group critique or a brainstorming session. If no projects are on the table, we work on brand emotional navigation — this involves collecting new assets in Figma and discussing the emotions they convey depending on channel, audience, and desired action. This also helps us build a living brand style guide to draw from anytime.
• Week two — Team Talks: our informal hour. We share inspiration, hold retrospectives, discuss trends in design and branding, or even just play a quick online game together. The only rule: no direct project work — the focus is on connecting as people.

A living process

Our processes and rituals are alive. I keep an eye on whether our meetings are actually valuable and regularly check in with the team — both in person and through surveys. Any workflow can grow outdated or lose its spark. That’s fine; we adapt so it keeps helping. In the end, processes should fade into the background, letting the team focus seamlessly on the work itself — with room for creativity, and for fun. That’s how we stay motivated and actually enjoy what we do.

Wrike design team synchronization: Weekly planning, meetings, and rituals was originally published in Wrike.Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Wrike is a progressive product and brand — we’re not in the habit of standing still. Our visual style is evolving. Not radically, but meaningfully. Most of the updates will show up in our marketing channels. In the product itself, everything will remain familiar and intuitive — the interface will keep evolving based on user research, not trend chasing.

I first hinted at this refresh back in our article on Walmart’s brand update. Now it’s time to share some of our own details. This isn’t about chasing trends. It’s about delivering value faster, building recognition, and making every touchpoint easier to navigate.

Why we’re doing this

1. To stay ahead of the curve

Wrike has always aimed to be one of the leading platforms in the project management space — not just through product functionality but also visually. Our last major rebrand was in 2020, followed by a visual update in 2022. Design evolves, competitors step up their game, and expectations keep rising. It’s the right moment to move forward.

2. Because the product has changed

With the launch of Wrike Lightspeed in 2023, our interface got a serious upgrade. It’s hard to even recall what the product looked like a couple of years ago. As the product matures based on user experience, the brand needs to reflect that. We’re closing the gap between marketing and product design — so users experience a coherent brand journey from landing page to platform.

3. To make content cleaner and easier to absorb

We’re refining how we structure and present information, so people can find what matters faster, and actually benefit from it. Contrast, clarity, and logic are front and center.

4. To make the brand more consistent across every channel

We want Wrike to be instantly recognizable — whether it’s on Instagram, a massive MLC Connect event screen, or a YouTube video about productivity tools.

5. To make internal work smoother

The updated system makes it easier and faster to build pages, assets, and visuals — without sacrificing quality. Maintaining the brand becomes simpler, which saves the team a lot of time and effort.

What’s actually changing

Color palette

With our internal rallying cry “Make Wrike green again!”, we’re doubling down on green as a core brand identifier. The shade is fresher, brighter, and cleaner — not a drastic change, but one that becomes more noticeable the more we use it.

We’ve also introduced new dynamic gradients — they reflect our product platform, Where work flows™, and bring a sense of energy and movement to the brand.

Graphics and shapes

We’ve said goodbye to brushes and textures. The layouts are cleaner and easier to scan. We’ve leaned into geometry to reinforce the product’s tech-forward character, while still keeping things approachable through soft corners and visual balance. Color sets the tone. Shape gives it character. Together, they tell a story — even if no one reads the words.

Typography and layout

We’ve reworked our text structure, boosted contrast, and made layout logic sharper — especially for longer reads and key marketing pages. We’re also introducing a new system of templates, leaning into bento grid layouts for structure and flexibility.

These are the kinds of changes you don’t necessarily notice — but they’re what make the whole experience feel cleaner and more put-together.

What’s next

Some of the updates are already live — on the website, at events, in our video series. But this is just the beginning. We’re rolling everything out gradually, testing every change to make sure it helps rather than hurts recognition and performance.

The Wrike brand will keep evolving, staying modern, tech-savvy, and human-friendly, while reflecting the experience our customers actually have.

We’ve already received early feedback from clients — now, we’d love to hear from you.

Wrike’s refreshed brand is definitely more eye-catching and easy to visualize. It feels more energetic, but in an organized, easy-to-visualize way.

Lindsey Fricke, Marketing Director, SRS Distribution Inc.

The updated look makes Wrike feel fresh and modern. It’s visually engaging without being overwhelming. It definitely creates a more polished experience — making it feel like Wrike is growing with the times while staying true to its original identity.

Sarah Wagner, Director of Customer Success, Creative and Experience, Jellyfish, Inc.

I’m a change manager for my team, helping them move into Wrike. The updated colors give it a more modern and futuristic feel. I think, at first sight, it helps new team members understand that Wrike is a powerful tool — with automations, crosslinking, and tracking that we didn’t have in our old system.

Baleace Foster, Materials Technical Reviewer, Water Quality Association

Wrike brand refresh: What’s changing and why it matters was originally published in Wrike.Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Soft skills matrix for designers
Risks of using the skills matrix

Continuing to share insights from the Design Management team at Wrike, it’s now time to reveal our Skills Matrix on soft skills, as I promised in my previous piece dedicated to the hard skills specific to web designers.

This matrix is relevant to our entire design department at Wrike, which includes graphic designers, motion designers, web designers, and design operationists. Given its broad applicability, the matrix’s creation involved the collective effort of the entire design management team.

Web Designer Skills Matrix

Just as a reminder, soft skills refer to personal qualities that facilitate effective communication, engagement, and collaboration among team members, essentially determining how well you navigate and contribute within a team setting. Serving as transferable skills spanning multiple jobs and industries, soft skills transform this article into a valuable guide, particularly beneficial for all design professions and anyone in the roles of team management, project leadership, or coordination within the design or creative industries.

Now, without further ado, let’s delve straight into the matrix, followed by some insightful tips based on our experience working with it.

Soft skills matrix for designers

Just like the Hard Skills, our Soft Skills matrix also stretches across five levels of proficiency: Learns, Knows, Does, Helps, and Teaches. It incorporates skills from three main sectors: Portrait and work ethic, Communication, and Work process. For your convenience, you can either check out the matrix in the Spreadsheet or continue reading its breakdown in the ensuing description.

Portrait and Work Ethic / Ownership

• Learns: Fosters a sense of ownership with team support. Shows dedication to personal tasks.
• Knows: Asserts autonomy over outcomes. Contributes field expertise. Prioritizes the company in work.
• Does: Accepts personal work outcomes. Strives for improvements and guides junior members.
• Helps: Actively leads design reviews and leverages expertise to augment team value. Embraces extra responsibilities.
• Teaches: Owns company-wide outcomes. Instills a sense of accountability in leaders. Entrusted with prime company objectives.

Portrait and Work Ethic / Problem Solving

• Learns: Addresses design issues using best practices from senior team members. Needs guidance for complex scenarios.
• Knows: Tackles common design problems independently. Seeks help for cross-functional challenges.
• Does: Adapts gracefully to changes, and investigates issues beyond the immediate scope. Anticipates risks and communicates complex issues.
• Helps: Focuses on long-term solutions across the team. Faces high-level challenges and implements effective solutions.
• Teaches: Harnesses a deep understanding of the company and industry to tackle complex problems strategically. Provides company-wide mentorship.

Portrait and Work Ethic / Personal Development

• Learns: Shows enthusiasm in skill development aligned with departmental goals with active managerial guidance.
• Knows: Eager to improve skills for department goals but needs guidance from senior team members.
• Does: Utilizes feedback for personal improvement. Independently seeks skill enhancement resources.
• Helps: Proactively employs feedback for performance improvement and knowledge expansion.
• Teaches: Consistently seeks job knowledge improvement opportunities. Invites feedback and contributes to team skill development.

Portrait and Work Ethic / Creative Thinking

• Learns: Creates new visuals under guidance, employing creative techniques.
• Knows: Applies creative techniques to visuals under guidance. Aims to acquire more techniques.
• Does: Uses various creative techniques for project visuals. Suggests technical optimizations.
• Helps: Integrates creative techniques in design processes across team projects.
• Teaches: Mentors the team in creative techniques, and standardizes their use in marketing production.

Portrait and Work Ethic / Critical Thinking

• Learns: Decisions are driven by personal biases.
• Knows: Acknowledges biases in the decision-making process and gathers task-related information.
• Does: Strives for objectivity and introspects biases. Conducts extensive research around design problems.
• Helps: Guides the team towards goal-aligned decisions, prioritizing business goals.
• Teaches: Highlights biases’ impact on decisions and instills team accountability. Employs industry insights for preemptive measures.

Communication / Presentation Skills

• Learns: Delivers presentations based on group research. Utilizes audiovisual aids progressively.
• Knows: Delivers presentations from personal experience. Requires guidance in developing presentation skills.
• Does: Delivers presentations based on the group’s research. Practices optimal presentation techniques.
• Helps: Delivers presentations, speeches, and pitches from personal research. Balances body language, content, and audiovisual aids.
• Teaches: Delivers presentations from personal expertise. Adapts to various audiences. Negotiates presentation specifics to ensure justice for research.

Communication / Communication Skills

• Learns: Requires guidance for clearer explanations and idea sharing.
• Knows: Presents ideas concisely and communicates confidently on routine tasks.
• Does: Communicates effectively across both spoken and written forms. Delivers clear and concise thoughts.
• Helps: Communicates effectively and utilizes a precise vocabulary to express thoughts. Focuses on comprehensive feedback.
• Teaches: Displays excellent oral and written communication skills. Succeeds in explaining in a universally comprehensible manner.

Communication / Receiving and Giving Feedback

• Learns: Learns from senior team members and their manager. Requires repetition in feedback reception. Gives feedback occasionally.
• Knows: Understands feedback’s importance and transforms it into self-improvement actions. Shares feedback within the team.
• Does: Leverages feedback for improvement, identifying growth areas. Gives constructive feedback for process enhancement.
• Helps: Proactively seeks, receives, and gives feedback for growth. Assimilates global best feedback practices.
• Teaches: Demonstrates feedback expertise and employs methodologies for improvement. Elevates the team’s feedback culture.

Communication / Mentoring and Coaching

• Learns: Learns from mentoring and the coaching practices of senior team members.
• Knows: Acquires basic mentoring and coaching knowledge. Discusses professional development goals.
• Does: Implements basic mentoring and coaching. Holds 1-on-1 meetings and informal learning discussions.
• Helps: Demonstrates robust mentoring and coaching skills. Supports colleagues’ growth. Assists in onboarding.
• Teaches: Proactively mentors various individuals. Advocates for learning activities and assignments.

Work Process / Business Knowledge

• Learns: Gains knowledge about business operations and team metrics. Assisted decision-making.
• Knows: Understands business operations and applies industry trends to work.
• Does: Seeks business insights connected to work. Uses expertise for better solutions and business understanding in the team.
• Helps: Comprehends all business aspects. Guides others in incorporating business needs.
• Teaches: Develops actions for business benefits. Establishes a design strategy aligned with business goals.

Work Process / Project Management

• Learns: Gains practical project management techniques knowledge. Works under supervision.
• Knows: Applies project management methods. Manages task planning and execution.
• Does: Defines project roles and timelines. Manages intermediate complexity tasks within one team.
• Helps: Shares project management knowledge. Handles multiple cross-team projects.
• Teaches: Provides project management methodology guidance. Leads multiple cross-department projects.

Work Process / Teamwork

• Learns: Participates in team meetings and teamwork sessions. Assists team members upon request.
• Knows: Spurs teamwork sessions for project solutions. Assists team members when requested.
• Does: Initiates teamwork sessions. Regularly shares expertise with the team.
• Helps: Enhances team meetings and teamwork sessions. Supports team members and establishes company-wide relationships.
• Teaches: Conducts teamwork sessions and hosts knowledge sharing-sessions at various levels.

Work Process / Time Management

• Learns: Learns time management basics. Depends on senior team members for their timelines and workload.
• Knows: Understands time management principles. Prioritizes daily tasks.
• Does: Plans their personal workload. Handles tasks and projects flexibly.
• Helps: Seeks new time management techniques and shares them with the team.
• Teaches: Champions time management. Independently plans team resources.

Work Process / Design Proactivity

• Learns: Focuses on delegated tasks. Actively seeks feedback. Participates in team discussions.
• Knows: Actively seeks optimal solutions. Contributes to process improvements.
• Does: Works on personal and team projects. Actively researches and evaluates solutions.
• Helps: Integrates in team projects. Proactively engages with stakeholders and initiates work process improvements.
• Teaches: Addresses company-wide projects. Initiates department- and company-wide ideas and tasks.

Work Process / Traffic Management and Coordination

• Learns: Manages their personal workload under supervision. Follows the team’s production processes.
• Knows: Delegates work considering the team’s workflow. Creates fitting subtasks and shares project status.
• Does: Coordinates tasks within their own design area. Aligns with the team’s schedules, plans assignee tasks, and takes accountability for projects.
• Helps: Coordinates tasks at the team level. Assists others in prioritizing work, ensures balanced workload distribution, and is accountable for area-level results.
• Teaches: Coordinates major multifaceted projects. Is accountable for the team’s performance. Collaborates with others, coordinates tasks, and provides project statuses.

Work Process / Level of Deliverables

• Learns: Executes technical design tasks under supervision. Needs further iterations and reviews for asset completion.
• Knows: Handles medium-sized projects. Focuses on quality technical execution, which might have some flaws and need additional iterations.
• Does: Handles complex tasks and projects. Delivers high-quality, mostly flawless assets. Incorporates new design techniques and considers user experience.
• Helps: Works on multiple department-wide projects. Regularly employs new design techniques and assists the team in elevating work quality.
• Teaches: Handles the most complex, company-wide projects. Sets the design direction for the team and works to continually improve overall deliverable quality.

Risks of using the skills matrix

At the creation stage, I hadn’t anticipated some of the snags we would encounter, but experience proved to be a great teacher. The primary risk is differing reactions. For some, the skills matrix is a highly useful tool that clearly delineates growth areas and formulates steps for improvement. However, for others, this format might breed discomfort. Growth areas can be misinterpreted as problem areas. In such instances, it’s crucial to remind everyone that the skills matrix is merely a support tool. One can outline a career plan in any other format and use the matrix solely for progress correlation.

It’s also paramount to keep the assessments of web designers’ skills confidential to maintain privacy. Each career path is unique, and this sensitive information should be handled delicately. I can only share aggregated data publicly.

It’s worth mentioning that every team member has an individual career path. Based on their interests and skills, we provide a path for growth that aligns with both their personal aspirations and the company’s business value.

Lastly, there might be some misinterpretation of certain matrix formulations. Some parts of the job descriptions are deliberately kept abstract because we’re dealing with a web designer’s trajectory, not a legal document where ambiguity is unacceptable. I address the understanding and vision of each skill during individual meetings, emphasizing our principle of flexibility.

Special thanks to David Mekerishvili, and Valentin Ladyagin for their great collaboration on the Matrix.

We would love to hear your thoughts or experiences on this topic. How do you evaluate your teams? Please share in the comments.

Skills Matrix for Designers was originally published in Wrike.Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Hard Skills

Hard Skills Matrix for Web Designers
Why does our web team need a skills matrix?
How we work with the skills matrix

When we, the design managers at Wrike, decided to update the skills matrix for our team, and I started to research examples, including right here on Medium. I was surprised: There’s an abundance of examples for product designers and graphic designers but almost none for web design teams. As a result, I created a hard skills matrix for our team almost from scratch, assembling pieces from my own experiences and numerous other sources. I’m not holding back on sharing this. And in a separate piece, I will share another part — soft skills matrix.

Skills Matrix for Designers

To approach this article from a user’s perspective, I’ll show you the matrix straight away, and only after that, I’ll explain why our team needs it, and how we work with it.

Hard Skills Matrix for Web Designers

Our skill matrix spans five different levels of competencies: Learns, Knows, Does, Helps, and Teaches. It brings together skills from four areas: Visual Design and Versatility, Web Design and Usability, Tools, and Digital Marketing. You can either view the matrix in the following Spreadsheet or read about it in the description below.

Visual design and versatility / Conceptual skills

• Learns: Understands the fundamentals of conceptual skills and creates web or digital assets aligned with provided concepts and guidelines, with supervision.
• Knows: Possesses a robust understanding of conceptual skills and independently creates web or digital assets that align with provided concepts and guidelines, requiring at most two rounds of revisions.
• Does: Independently creates web or digital assets that align with provided concepts and guidelines and confidently offers improvements.
• Helps: Demonstrates advanced expertise in conceptual skills. Independently designs and elevates web or digital concepts at a brand-wide level and is capable of leading such projects and supervising the project team.
• Teaches: Possesses expert-level knowledge in conceptual skills. Independently develops, leads, and presents premium concepts for global campaigns at a departmental level. Capable of crafting guidelines and tutorials for stakeholders and peers and mentoring others on best practices in conceptual skills.

Visual design and versatility / Copywriting and storytelling

• Learns: Implements pre-existing copy and follows the proposed story flow in projects. Regularly expands knowledge of UX writing and marketing copy principles.
• Knows: Differentiates between marketing copy and UX writing. Identifies potential areas for copy improvement. Uses visual elements to establish a compelling narrative.
• Does: Participates in discussions and brainstorm sessions with content teams to propose ideas to enhance copy, messaging, and storytelling in projects. Makes suggestions to content teams to ensure web and digital copy adheres to UX writing and storytelling best practices.
• Helps: Collaborates with content teams to deliver optimal solutions for web and digital customer experience, utilizing both visuals and copy.
• Teaches: Possesses deep knowledge of UX writing, storytelling, and digital/web messaging. Works with content teams, proposing innovative ways to connect with the audience. Acts as a mentor for junior colleagues.

Visual design and versatility / Visual Design

• Learns: Designs layouts based on templates with guidance, adhering to manuals. Utilizes and modifies existing illustration, icon, and image libraries. Creates basic compositions using grids and references. Applies predefined typography styles and uses knowledge of color theory for cohesive designs.
• Knows: Independently designs layouts and creates custom images using illustration, icon, and image libraries. Crafts static and dynamic compositions with pre-built elements. Offers new typographic solutions under supervision. Uses color theory knowledge to create cohesive designs that guide attention, evoke emotions, and establish moods while ensuring legibility across devices.
• Does: Designs visually appealing, cohesive web and digital projects, promoting brand consistency. Handles composition at any level and creates custom assets. Suggests improvements to typography systems and libraries. Develops new web color schemes upon request and contributes to brand consistency and guidelines evolution.
• Helps: Uses experience and research to construct complex solutions for new assets and designs with new layouts and grids. Enhances web color schemes and palettes within the web design system. Proposes enhancements to evolve imagery asset libraries. Educates and facilitates reviews for others.
• Teaches: Continuously elevates web assets and layouts by creating and updating core styles and guidelines. Plans, scales, and enhances templates independently. Manages and enhances libraries with a strategic mindset towards visual design. Masters color and typography, constantly improving them within the web design system.

Web design and usability / Web Page Layout and Creation

• Learns: Continuously expands their understanding of web design principles by observing best practices and examples. Utilizes components from libraries and master layouts to support senior team members in creating visually appealing web page blocks.
• Knows: Routinely applies best web practices to work, designing web page layouts with strong visual hierarchy under senior team members’ guidance.
• Does: Applies knowledge of best practices to propose new, innovative solutions for web design. Has a solid understanding of creating user-friendly interactions, like efficient web forms and intuitive navigation systems.
• Helps: Creates innovative web designs aligned with business goals. Oversees junior designers, ensuring they apply best solutions. Capable of providing design solutions that can be shared as best practice examples externally.
• Teaches: Regularly mentors and enhances the company’s web projects by leading and sharing experience and knowledge. Actively shares expertise with other departmental teams, aligning on business goals. Acts as an experienced mentor for junior designers.

Web design and usability / Prototyping and wireframing

• Learns: Possesses a basic understanding of web page structure and creates prototypes under senior team members’ guidance and supervision.
• Knows: Utilizes knowledge to create web page structures, prototypes, and wireframes for standalone projects under senior team members’ guidance.
• Does: Independently creates website prototypes and supports senior designers in creating high-level web projects.
• Helps: Confidently creates structures, prototypes, and wireframes for web projects of any level. Supports and guides prototyping for junior designers.
• Teaches: Contributes to the continuous improvement of major web projects by exploring, using, and proposing best practices for web page structures.

Web design and usability / Web Animation

• Learns: Learns the basics of web animation, including types and their effects on user experience
• Knows: Has a basic understanding of web animation principles. Can suggest interface animation ideas to improve user experience and website conversions.
• Does: Initiates the creation of web animation. Supports development and provides briefs for motion designers if needed.
• Helps: Can independently create web animations using various tools. Proficient in using web formats for animation and supports their implementation within web projects.
• Teaches: Possesses a strong understanding of web animation. Can mentor junior colleagues and supports the improvement of the website experience by providing trending and high-performing animation solutions.

Web design and usability / Grid systems and responsive design

• Learns: Has a basic understanding of layout differences for various devices and resolutions. Learns to create web project breakpoints under senior guidance using existing layouts.
• Knows: Possesses a robust understanding of various breakpoints and flexible grid systems. Confidently creates responsive designs by implementing breakpoints to support senior designers’ projects.
• Does: Confidently designs web projects to be visually and functionally consistent across a wide range of devices within the web system.
• Helps: Designs or enhances grid systems for web projects using their current knowledge of best practices. Works on any breakpoint as part of the entire web system to create a consistent experience. Develops core responsive grids and systems.
• Teaches: Continuously enhances the consistent experiences of major projects across various devices and resolutions. Initiates and supports the evolution of core responsive grids and systems. Mentors and trains junior designers in responsive design best practices, providing guidance to improve their skills.

Web design and usability / Service Design

• Learns: Understands the fundamentals of service design. Learns the company’s Web Design System (WDS) by using existing components in daily tasks. Continuously explores the WDS to deepen their understanding.
• Knows: Assists in improving the WDS under supervision from senior team members, following requests.
• Does: Independently creates new components with the team’s input and reviews. Continually improves and updates the WDS to boost web production efficiency.
• Helps: Demonstrates confidence in creating and enhancing the WDS. Regularly supports the development of major components.
• Teaches: Continuously contributes to the evolution of the WDS, collaborating with other teams to expand and enhance it at a company-wide level. Acts as a mentor, sharing best practices and knowledge with team members.

Web design and usability / Usability Principles

• Learns: Has a basic understanding of usability principles, user flow, and web patterns. Consistently learns about accessibility guidelines and incorporates them into their work.
• Knows: Has a robust understanding of common web patterns and incorporates them into designs to enhance user experience.
• Does: Designs with accessibility in mind, optimizing user experience under guidance or supervision.
• Helps: Has a deep understanding of usability principles and web patterns. Uses this knowledge to consistently enhance the user experience of major web projects. Stays up-to-date with accessibility guidelines and ensures projects conform to best practices.
• Teaches: Innovates and resolves complex UI/UX issues. Serves as a mentor, sharing best practices and personal experience. Is a subject matter expert in usability principles and user flow.

Web design and usability / Research and analytics

• Learns: Collects data and information for tasks using existing resources, and independently learns about user research methods.
• Knows: Conducts visual research for their own projects and contributes to research for department-wide projects. Familiar with user testing and research methods, and assists senior designers in conducting these tests. Participates in research as a notetaker.
• Does: Independently conducts visual and technology research for specific projects and areas, and applies findings to their work. Conducts usability testing as an interviewer, and analyzes and interprets user research data to enhance website experience.
• Helps: Conducts competitive, industry, and trend research to enhance visual design decisions. Organizes and shares research findings. Conducts user interviews and creates personas. Supports in creating customer journey maps.
• Teaches: Initiates improvements in research flows and tactics to deliver optimal results and meet business goals. Mentors and trains others on user research best practices. Creates and maintains customer journey maps to meet company needs.

Tools / Figma

• Learns: Familiarizes themself with basic Figma tools to create simple wireframes and mockups. Uses layout grids and guides to position and align design elements. Uses existing libraries and assets.
• Knows: Designs complex wireframes and mockups. Comfortable with advanced layout/design tools, like components and instances, design styles and libraries, and design constraints. Can create and share interactive prototypes. Is proficient in using Figma.
• Does: Is expertly proficient with Figma’s design features. Creates highly polished designs. Automates workflows by creating and enhancing auto-layouts, components, and libraries.
• Helps: Understands Figma’s capabilities thoroughly. Regularly provides improvement ideas and evaluates systems and libraries. Teaches others how to use and enhance components by consistently improving their knowledge and staying updated with new Figma features and best practices.
• Teaches: Teaches and mentors others on effective Figma use. Automates workflows by creating personal plugins and scripts. Enhances libraries and components, and shares best practices with the team.

Tools / Adobe Photoshop

• Learns: Has a basic understanding of Adobe Photoshop and uses it for simple tasks, such as resizing, retouching, and background removal.
• Knows: Has a good foundational knowledge of the main Photoshop tools. Is able to work with provided Photoshop designs and make adjustments.
• Does: Has a comprehensive understanding of the program and uses it to create high-fidelity raster graphic assets and imagery.
• Helps: Has a deep understanding of Photoshop, using advanced techniques and features to create complex compositions and graphic assets. Is confident in creating their own unique designs.
• Teaches: Has expert-level knowledge of Photoshop, as demonstrated by Adobe certification. Demonstrates in-depth knowledge of the program’s specifics and is capable to troubleshoot any issue.

Tools / Adobe Illustrator

• Learns: Has a basic understanding of Adobe Illustrator functionality and can make slight adjustments to existing designs.
• Knows: Has a good understanding of the main functions and tools. Can create custom layouts and graphics using a mix of existing assets and their own designs.
• Does: Has a solid understanding of the tool and can develop new design solutions for their projects.
• Helps: Experiments with new and existing tools to create unique designs. Is skilled in using advanced features and techniques to create complex compositions and graphics.
• Teaches: Has expert-level knowledge of Illustrator, as demonstrated by Adobe certification. Brings innovations and improvements to team processes by finding and showing the tool’s advantages and educating the team.

Digital marketing / SEO tactics

• Learns: Learns basic SEO principles and how to optimize websites for search engines and user discoverability.
• Knows: Applies basic SEO principles to improve website performance and visibility.
• Does: Understands how search engines operate and uses this knowledge to provide better SEO performance solutions.
• Helps: Identifies potential SEO problems and regularly suggests optimization solutions.
• Teaches: Possesses a deep understanding of SEO principles. Collaborates with SEO teams to consistently review and improve the website for an SEO-friendly user experience. Mentors the team by sharing knowledge.

Digital marketing / Website metrics

• Learns: Understands the basics of website metrics, including various types and how they’re used to measure website performance.
• Knows: Possesses basic knowledge of website metrics, analyzes data, draws conclusions, and identifies areas for improvement.
• Does: Collaborates with analytics teams to understand and analyze website data. Identifies bottlenecks and proposes solutions.
• Helps: Independently requests and analyzes analytical data to validate design solutions and optimize website performance for SEO and PPC campaigns. Ensures availability of sufficient data to validate hypotheses and make informed decisions in projects.
• Teaches: Possesses a thorough understanding of website metrics. Consistently works on metric improvement by analyzing analytics data. Uses expertise to mentor and guide others in data analysis and optimization. Regularly shares knowledge and experience to enhance website performance.

Digital marketing / Digital campaigns

• Learns: Learns digital marketing terminology, specifics, and principles. Creates assets to assist senior team members in creating campaign pages and generic banners using existing libraries and builders.
• Knows: Assists senior team members in crafting digital campaigns. Uses best practices to make visually appealing landing pages and custom banners using existing libraries and builders.
• Does: Has a strong understanding of digital marketing tactics and channels. Optimizes campaigns based on analytics data. Collaborates with digital teams to deliver better solutions in campaign production. Confidently creates any level of banners, and improves libraries and builders.
• Helps: Uses best digital marketing practices and proposes solutions for different digital marketing channels. Collaborates with digital team leads to continuously review and improve campaigns. Improves banner libraries and builders, and leads effective digital campaign production.
• Teaches: Consistently improves metrics with a deep understanding of channels and best market practices. Constantly provides solution improvements for major campaigns, and initiates and supports production process improvements. Acts as a mentor for junior designers, sharing expertise.

Why does our web team need a skills matrix?

The skills matrix is essential for web designers to see their actual position on the career ladder and understand what needs to be improved to level up. Moreover, as a design manager, the skills matrix helps me craft an overall skill map of the team and spot which skills are insufficiently covered and unlevelled. This matrix serves as a primary tool for the team’s skills review and helps us inhabit a unified conceptual realm.

How we work with the skills matrix

Our web design team operates with the matrix based on three main principles.

Firstly, openness. The matrix is available to the entire team at any time. Any designer can independently assess which skills need to be worked on. The manager typically reviews the skills matrix during regular team reviews. This helps in conducting a timely checkup, tracking the development dynamics. Of course, any designer can request a checkup out of turn to get a fresh evaluation.

Secondly, objectivity. The designer and manager begin by independently assessing skills and then calibrating them during a meeting. The goal of calibration is to understand each other better and get as close to a joint assessment as possible. If that doesn’t work, we either leave an average evaluation or ask for an anonymous assessment of individual skills by other colleagues. More opinions add up to objectivity.

Thirdly, flexibility. The skills matrix is as much a live process as everything else in our team. As it is with any other issue, I value the team’s opinion. Any web designer can suggest changes at any time. After a discussion with the whole team, other design team managers, and, of course, the design director, I make the necessary tweaks.

As you can guess, at Wrike, we assess not only hard skills but also soft skills. Since there are many of them and we developed them as a whole team of design managers, I’ll dedicate a separate piece to them.

Please tell me about your experiences working with a skills matrix in the comments. I’m curious to learn how you assess designers’ skills. Don’t hesitate to share your opinions and advice!

Web Designer Skills Matrix was originally published in Wrike.Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.