The five domains each have typical task patterns when they become the quarterly focus. These are starter bundles, three to four tasks per domain. Quarterly tasks should fit the under-serving pattern the Focus Selection Protocol identified, adapted to context.
When Vision is the focus. Typical tasks include:
Writing or rewriting the team’s design point of view, short enough to be referenced, specific enough to close options.
Holding a direction-setting session with your manager or executive peers to align on what the design function is trying to become over the next two to five years.
Producing one travelling artefact, a short document or deck, that can represent the team’s direction in rooms you are not in.
The signal is usually qualitative: by end of quarter, at least three cross-functional peers can describe the design function’s direction in terms that match the written version, without coaching. If they cannot, the Vision work has stayed inside the leader’s head.
When Direction is the focus. Typical tasks include:
Overhauling the critique ritual so that standard-calibration is actually happening, rather than status updates or taste defence.
Articulating the team’s shared taste in a form designers can apply themselves: a short standards document, a reference set of exemplary past work, a review framework.
Recalibrating reviews across projects so that the same standard is being applied consistently across projects.
The signal is visible in the work: by end of quarter, the team’s shipped artefacts should show less variance across practitioners and more consistency against the agreed standard. Designers who were previously over-polished by leadership review should start shipping to standard without the leader in the room.
13.4 — Domain Bundles what to work on per focus domain · H3