[pm90]

You’re absolutely right. The most likely thing to happen is that a clueless middle manager will look at these criteria and ask their reports to justify, point by point how they’re achieving or not achieving the different things listed in these criteria and if they’re not how they can “improve”. It’s a supremely shitty way to chart out ones career growth. It’s going to lead to sooo many copycat “we do our career ladder like Dropbox so we must be just as good” clones.

On the other hand, I’m also somewhat glad that this shit is in published form and not some secondhand version pieced together by ex Dropboxers. I personally liked that it lays out what kind of a developer they expect at different levels.

I guess what I’m saying is that I like this as a guide rather than as a rule.