Or the use of ambiguous jargon as a method of gatekeeping.

I’ve been reading a lot of job descriptions over the last 6 months, and I’ve noticed a shift in language that I find perplexing.

First, half of everyone uses the term Product Designer to describe the exact same job duties as a User Experience Designer, but that’s not the topic of this particular entry. Alas, I digress.

Second, I’ve noticed the rise of the word “craft” to explain some aspects of the designer’s job, which is curious because, from context clues, it seems to mean different things to different organizations (and people within those organizations).

Craft is not a new word in the world of design by any means. I was born in the land of Graphic Design, where craft also has many meanings. It could mean the quality of your final product, how well you adhere to the “proper” process, how smooth your bezier curves are, or how elegantly organized your Photoshop layers are, or how cleanly you trimmed your rubylith, among many other things. In short, it was shorthand for the amount of care you took, and the skill you demonstrated, in the creation of your artifacts. Craft was short for craftsmanship. It was the sum of your attention to detail and the application of your production skills. It was mostly about the quality of execution.

When I read ‘craft’ in modern Product Design job descriptions, I can’t help but think about the modern version of sharpening your X-acto™ blade before trimming your rubylith, doing your own color separations, or naming and organizing your layer states absolutely perfectly…and I don’t think I’m wrong. Based on what I see in online design discourse right now, and some context clues in these job descriptions, I think there is a tremendous amount of emphasis being placed on the quality of the artifacts we create, to the detriment of the quality of the products we are designing.

Then again, in some job descriptions, it’s completely unclear what the word craft means. There may be no mention whatsoever that a role has any interaction with the artifacts or their production, but still holds you responsible for upholding “craft.” In this context I usually assume they mean you’re ultimately responsible for the quality of design work, enforcing standards adherence, etc.

Interestingly to me, when I’ve spoken to recruiters and hiring managers, it will mean completely different things, within the same organization. The recruiter may understand it the way I do, but when I ask the hiring manager, their definition will either be much more specific or much more vague. Some have even said, “I don’t know,” or given an answer akin to “I know it when I see it.” One even told me that they didn’t see any problem with their team’s artifacts, but they were disappointed in their “craft” because they didn’t see enough diversity in their ideation/sketches/exploration.

Whether or not we agree on the meaning of the word craft, the fact that it can have so many different interpretations should make it obvious that it’s not terribly useful in a job description. It seems to me that it’s primarily useful as a hedge so that you can reject a candidate without having to closely examine your reasoning.

This is not to say you shouldn’t be able to reject a candidate because they don’t do whatever it is you mean when you say “craft.” You should just say what it is you mean instead of hiding behind ambiguity.

Clear is kind.