Design Org at Unacademy

A design leader at Unacademy shares how they structured their design organization, including setting up a calibration ladder from scratch, mapping designers to skill levels, and defining hiring criteria. The ladder uses two skill areas (hard and soft skills) with Low/Medium/High expectations per level, and emphasizes that higher levels require more soft skills alongside hard skills. Key hiring priorities are UI quality, independent project execution, and high-agency behavior. The post also argues that transparent role expectations reduce team anxiety and improve focus.