Roles
Systeric runs three roles, and they share one shape. Product Engineer, Product Manager, and Product Designer are each a track on the same template. This page is the framework, stated once. Each role doc applies it with that discipline’s ladder, attributes, and rubric.
One template, five parts
Every role doc answers the same five questions in the same order:
- The ladder (your altitude). One path that gets more senior. Engineering and design fork at Lead into an IC track (depth) and a management track (people); product is a single lean track. All rejoin at the top. Your rung is how much ambiguity you absorb before you need direction, not your years.
- The seven attributes (your shape). A small set of durable attributes, specific to the discipline. You are not “a Mid”, you are a jagged profile across the seven. A mirror, not a scorecard.
- Gauging by shape. Place a person on each attribute and you have their radar. A higher rung keeps everything a lower one has and only adds; nothing recedes. Where a track forks (engineering, design), the IC side pushes the depth spokes and management the people spokes. A longer spoke is a different job, not a better person.
- Hiring. Two gates: the non-negotiables (critical thinking, honesty, ownership, low ego, high agency) that end the conversation if failed, then a read on each attribute.
- Growing. Two moves: double down on the spike, clear the one blocker. Growth goes exponential at the leverage shift, when your job becomes growing your reports rather than your own output.
The three tracks
| Track | Trunk starts at | Apex |
|---|---|---|
| Product Engineer | Intern | CTO |
| Product Manager | APM (apprenticeship) | CTO |
| Product Designer | Intern | CTO |
All three rejoin at the same apex: the CTO, the one best at building product. Whichever discipline you climb, the top of building product is one role. (PM starts as an apprenticeship rather than an intern role, because product judgment is learned by watching how PMs decide before you own the call. Product is also the leanest track: a small, senior function with no management chain, since AI makes execution cheap and judgment the scarce thing.)
Around the roles
- Hiring is how we bring people into the framework: the non-negotiables and the interview loop, shared across roles.
- Leading People is how we grow them once they are in: the 1:1 runs on the report’s profile, and what to delegate at each level.
The role docs: Product Engineer · Product Manager · Product Designer