# Claude for Design Leaders: 32 Claude Skills 32 free Claude skills to frame, explain, defend and prove design work — the stakeholder map, design principles, the options trade-off table, the rationale doc and decision log, the review deck, the critique ritual and quality bar, HEART metrics and the UX debt register — plus leading a design team and growing into staff, lead or head of design. - Page: https://lantern.meet-polar-bear.com/skills/design-leaders-pack - Download: https://lantern.meet-polar-bear.com/skills/design-leaders-pack.zip - Source: https://github.com/polar-bear-org/claude-skills/tree/main/packs/design-leaders-pack - Price: free ## Install in Claude Code ``` /plugin marketplace add polar-bear-org/claude-skills /plugin install design-leaders-pack@polar-bear-skills ``` ## The 32 skills you get The set follows the work in seven steps: framing the problem with whoever holds the decision, explaining the decision so it stops being re-argued, persuading the room, running critique against a written bar, proving impact from real data — then leading the team and growing yourself. ### 1 · Frame the problem - **Stakeholder Map** — use when: You spend your days aligning and still do not know who actually decides. Output: Power and interest grid, goals, constraints and decision rights, facts apart from guesses, engagement plan, first conversation. - **Stakeholder Interview Guide** — use when: A project starts and you are guessing what the VP means by “make it simpler”. Output: Interview goals, semi-structured guide, probes, note template, summary in each person's own words, gaps to verify. - **Problem Framing Brief** — use when: The team was handed a feature and nobody has said what problem it solves. Output: Problem statement, outcome, evidence on hand and missing, constraints, out of scope, “we believe” hypothesis. - **Design Strategy One-Pager** — use when: You are new in a lead role, or leadership asks for design's plan this year. Output: Diagnosis, guiding approach, three to five coherent actions, what we stop, how we will know, owner. ### 2 · Explain the decision - **Design Principles** — use when: Every review becomes a taste argument because the team has no shared criteria. Output: Four to seven principles that take a stand, the trade-off each settles, “this, not that” examples, conflict check. - **Design Options Trade-off Table** — use when: Stakeholders saw one design and think it is the only one. Output: Two to four real options, criteria from the brief, consequences in words, what each gives up, evidence or gap. - **DACI Decision Framework** — use when: You are responsible for the design but nobody agreed who signs it off. Output: Decision statement, Driver, one Approver, Contributors, Informed, due date, how the outcome is shared. - **Design Rationale Doc** — use when: You keep re-explaining why the design is the way it is. Output: The decision, options and why not, principles applied, evidence or a visible gap, trade-offs, risks, owner. - **Design Decision Log** — use when: A decision from six months ago is re-opened and nobody remembers why. Output: Dated records with context, decision, status and consequences, revisit triggers, a running file. ### 3 · Persuade the room - **Pre-Wire Plan** — use when: The big review is next week and you do not want the first reaction in the room. Output: Who to see one to one, what each needs and might object to, objections answered in the deck, what changes on a no. - **Design Review Deck** — use when: You present to leadership and the room argues about colours, not the decision. Output: Decision asked on slide one, options and recommendation, real evidence, risks, feedback in scope, next steps. - **Stakeholder Feedback Log** — use when: Three stakeholders gave three opposite notes and the next round undoes the last. Output: Every comment in one table, duplicates merged, conflicts sent to the approver, accept, decline or park, the reply. - **Design Pushback Brief** — use when: You are asked to ship a dark pattern or a change you think will hurt users. Output: The request, user and business risk with evidence, two alternatives, escalation route, how dissent is recorded. ### 4 · Run critique - **Design Quality Bar** — use when: “Raise the bar” is said every quarter and nobody has written the bar. Output: Review criteria by stage from usability heuristics and WCAG 2.2, what good enough to ship means. - **Design Critique Ritual** — use when: Crit is a calendar slot where the loudest person redesigns the work. Output: Purpose, who comes, critique split from review, format, roles, rules with consequences, failure modes. - **Critique Session Brief** — use when: You present at crit on Thursday and want feedback, not opinions. Output: Objectives, stage, the one question, out of scope, timebox, prompts that turn reactions into questions. - **Critique Notes to Actions** — use when: You left crit with twenty comments and no idea which ones matter. Output: Notes sorted by objective, preference, out of scope or question, what changes and why, the reply to the room. ### 5 · Prove impact - **HEART Metrics Plan** — use when: The project starts and nobody agreed what design success looks like. Output: Goals, signals and metrics per HEART dimension, baseline or gap flag, data owner, what PM and design watch. - **Design Impact Write-Up** — use when: Leadership asks what design delivered and you have screens, not outcomes. Output: Problem, what design changed, before and after from real data, contribution not attribution, what we learned. - **UX Debt Register** — use when: UX debt piles up because no single fix is ever “important enough”. Output: Each issue with impact, journey stage, frequency, evidence and effort, value against effort plot, short list. - **Design Investment Case** — use when: You need time or budget for design work that never wins against features. Output: The ask, cost of delay from your own figures, cost of delay divided by duration, what stops, decision owner. ### 6 · Lead the team - **UX Maturity Assessment** — use when: You step into a lead or head role and need to see how design works here. Output: Six levels across strategy, culture, process and outcomes, the evidence for each, the one move to the next level. - **Design Team Operating Rhythm** — use when: The team's week is all meetings and nobody can say which ones decide anything. Output: Every recurring meeting with purpose and output, keep, change or replace, the week and month on one page. - **Delegation Board** — use when: You are a new lead and keep redesigning other people's work. Output: Decision areas, the delegation level agreed for each from tell to delegate, when you step in, review date. - **Design Hiring Loop** — use when: You open a design role and the loop is “chat with the team and see”. Output: Competencies, stages, portfolio prompts, exercise brief, same questions, a blank form each interviewer fills alone. - **Designer 30-60-90 Day Plan** — use when: A designer starts in two weeks and onboarding is a list of tool logins. Output: Before day one, first week, 30, 60 and 90 day goals, buddy, first critique, first real work, check-in questions. - **SBI Feedback Prep** — use when: You must give hard feedback and it keeps coming out as “it felt off”. Output: Situation, behaviour and impact from your notes, labels turned into observations, the intent question, next step. ### 7 · Grow yourself - **New Design Lead 90-Day Plan** — use when: You just moved from IC to lead, or into a new head of design role. Output: Weeks 1 to 4 listen, 5 to 8 one visible win, 9 to 12 set the rhythm, what you stop doing as an IC. - **Staff Designer Path Map** — use when: You are senior, do not want to manage, and cannot see what staff means here. Output: IC and manager paths side by side, four staff archetypes adapted to design, the gap to your ladder. - **Brag Document** — use when: Review season comes and you cannot remember what you did in March. Output: Running log of projects and effect, decisions led, mentoring, system work, learning, each entry dated with evidence. - **Promotion Case** — use when: You are going for staff or lead and need to show you already work at that level. Output: Your ladder's criteria, evidence mapped to each, scope, impact and influence stories, gaps, who can speak to it. - **Leadership Case Study** — use when: You stopped designing every screen and your portfolio no longer shows your work. Output: Situation, your role, decisions and trade-offs, how you brought people along, outcomes from real data. ## Workflows - **Frame the problem** (New in the role, or starting a project.) Stakeholder Map → Stakeholder Interview Guide → Problem Framing Brief → Design Strategy One-Pager - **Explain the decision** (The answer has to survive the next six months.) Design Principles → Design Options Trade-off Table → DACI Decision Framework → Design Rationale Doc → Design Decision Log - **Get the room to decide** (Review on Tuesday.) Pre-Wire Plan → Design Review Deck → Stakeholder Feedback Log → Design Pushback Brief - **Run critique** (Crit this morning, and twenty comments to turn into actions.) Design Quality Bar → Design Critique Ritual → Critique Session Brief → Critique Notes to Actions - **Prove impact** (Leadership wants numbers for the quarter.) HEART Metrics Plan → Design Impact Write-Up → UX Debt Register → Design Investment Case - **Lead the team** (You run the team as well as the work.) UX Maturity Assessment → Design Team Operating Rhythm → Delegation Board → Design Hiring Loop → Designer 30-60-90 Day Plan → SBI Feedback Prep - **Make your own case** (Review season in three weeks.) New Design Lead 90-Day Plan → Staff Designer Path Map → Brag Document → Promotion Case → Leadership Case Study ## The quality bar - One method, applied properly: the power and interest quadrants, the DACI roles, the decision record statuses, the critique roles and formats, HEART goals to signals to metrics, the delegation levels — not a generic “gather, analyse, recommend” - Real voices, real numbers: stakeholder views, user quotes and metrics come only from what you paste. Anything missing stays a bracketed placeholder or a visible gap, and impact is written as contribution, not attribution - Work is scored, people are not: critique and quality skills judge work against stated objectives, feedback skills structure your own notes, and the hiring loop is a process plus a blank form each interviewer fills alone - Every output ends with a decision: each template closes with what a named person decides next, and by when - Adviser points stay with an adviser: employment, legal, accessibility law and regulatory points end with “check with a qualified adviser” - The red line: Claude drafts the rationale, the deck and the write-up from your real work and real data; it never invents a metric, a user quote or a stakeholder's view, and it never rates a designer or a candidate — you fill the forms and you make the call ## Questions people ask ### What is in the Claude for Design Leaders pack? 32 Claude skills that follow a design decision in seven steps: frame the problem, explain the decision, persuade the room, run critique, prove impact, lead the team, and grow yourself. Each skill is one named method or one artifact. ### How do I install these Claude skills? In Claude Code, two lines install all 32 at once. In Claude.ai or Claude Desktop, download the zip, open Settings, Skills, Add, and upload the skills you want. Either way it takes about five minutes. ### Do I need Claude Code to use them? No. The skills work in Claude.ai, Claude Desktop and Claude Code. In the app you upload them yourself; in Claude Code one command installs the whole pack. ### Do the skills work with ChatGPT or other assistants? They are built as Claude Skills, and installing them is a Claude feature. Each one is a plain Markdown file, so you can read it and reuse the method elsewhere, but it will not load and trigger by itself outside Claude. ### Will Claude rate my designers or candidates? No. Claude drafts the rationale, the deck and the write-up from your real work and real data. It never invents a metric, a user quote or a stakeholder's view, and it never rates a designer or a candidate. ### Is the pack free? Yes. It is free to use inside your company and in client work, and not for resale. There is no signup: the download and the install command are on this page. ## About Written by Polar Bear (https://meet-polar-bear.com/). Published on Lantern (https://lantern.meet-polar-bear.com/), which turns your notes, documents and call transcripts into social post drafts you review and publish.