We strongly believe that people produce great work when they are at their natural best. Forcefully reducing them to experts vs generalists, or individual contributors vs managers, hampers their growth instead of boosting it.
At Obvious, we look for multi-faceted, T-shaped individuals, who bring a lot to the table other than just their craft. To nurture and accelerate the growth of such people, over the years we've experimented with several different frameworks. We've finally resolved to the one that follows.
This framework is inspired by the fantastic work done by the folks at Medium.
The framework is divided into 3 parts - Creating, Executing and Supporting, each of which has 3-4 different skills. Each skill is further divided into 5 different milestones. As you go deeper or take on more responsibilities, you cross a milestone.
The 5C Rule
In general, you must have demonstrated a "Conscious, Comfortable, Continuous, Consistent Competency" defined as follows:
- Conscious: having devoted intentional effort to this endeavour,
- Comfortable: without being overly stretched,
- Continuous: for a reasonable period of time,
- Consistent: reliably and evenly,
- Competency: meeting the criteria.
As a natural consequence, you do not achieve a milestone the first time you demonstrate relevant behaviours or tasks. If it is not clear that you're at a certain milestone, then you'll be placed at the previous milestone.