Framework helped designer plan career path

What senior design consultant Felicia Paul enjoys most about her job is uncovering insights about users which can then form the basis for innovative digital solutions.

This is why she wants to specialise in research as her career progresses.

But when the 27-year-old first joined innovation and transformation consultancy firm Palo IT three years ago, she had no idea how to develop skills in that area and ended up "just doing a lot of everything".

"I knew where I wanted to go but there were no concrete directions. I could ask for more research-heavy projects, but I didn't know what I had to do within a project to show I had the skills to move up," she said.

Now, thanks to a career progression framework the company implemented last year, she knows what skills she needs and can apply for the relevant training courses, such those on behavioural studies, she said.

Palo IT business innovation director Eugene Yang said the internal framework will be complemented by the national Skills Framework for Design, which details the skills needed for various roles. The national framework was launched yesterday.

"A lot of people think that if you're a designer, you just design really nice visuals or apps, but there's so much more to what you do, like understanding user requirements," he added.

Palo IT, set up here seven years ago, employs 140 people.

Besides providing clarity for staff, the new framework also gives bosses a reference for annual reviews to guide staff on what they need to do to get promoted and the training they need, Mr Yang said.

The firm also plans to use the framework to help clients looking to become design-led organisations assess what roles they need to fill.

Palo IT is one of seven organisations that have already committed to adopting the framework in their human resource practices.

Mr Yang said the effort is how the firm tries to engage employees, especially as people in the design and tech space can easily get headhunted by bigger firms.

"How does a small organisation like ours continue to attract people and make them remember their experience with us? We try to do it by developing them professionally and personally," he added.