Stop Writing Vague Goals Like "Be More Strategic"

Turn Mushy Career Goals Into Observable Behaviors

“You need to think more about the business.”

Your manager just said those words in your performance review. Or maybe it was “be more strategic” or “develop more product thinking.” You nod, scribble it down in your notes, and walk out feeling... what exactly? Motivated? Confused? A little of both? You update your development goals: “Become more business-minded.” Check. Goal set. Growth mindset activated.

Three months later, you’re sitting at your desk wondering if you’ve actually done it. Are you more strategic now? You think so? Maybe? You attended a few more meetings. You asked some questions about the roadmap. Does that count?

Spoiler alert: your manager is wondering the same thing.

I talk to designers at every stage of their career, from fresh grads to seasoned design leaders, and they’re all wrestling with the same ghost. They tell me they’re “working on being more strategic” or “developing their leadership presence” or “getting more business-minded” or “building stronger product sense.” These goals sound great when you say them in a 1:1. They look professional written down in your development plan.

They’re completely useless. Not because the aspiration is wrong, but because nobody can tell if you’ve succeeded. Not you. Not your manager. Not the people deciding your fate six months from now.

Vague goals aren’t just unhelpful. They’re actively harmful to your career growth. They let you spin your wheels feeling productive while making zero measurable progress. They give managers an excuse to deny your promotion because “you’re not quite there yet” without ever defining what “there” actually looks like. And worst of all, they rob you of the satisfaction of knowing you’ve legitimately leveled up.

Let’s fix that.

The Vagueness Trap

When I'm having these career conversations and someone tells me their goal is to "be more strategic", "build product sense", or "become a stronger design leader," I like to ask a simple question: "If I followed you around with a camera for three months, what specific behaviors would I see that would prove you'd achieved this goal?"

The silence that follows is telling.

Here’s what makes goals like “be more strategic” so insidious: they’re aspirations masquerading as actions. You’re describing who you want to be, not what you’ll actually do. And the human brain is terrible at turning abstracts into concrete behaviors without explicit translation.

Think about it this way. If your doctor told you to “be healthier,” you’d probably feel motivated for about 48 hours before reverting to your usual habits. But if they said “walk 30 minutes five days a week and eat three servings of vegetables daily,” you’d know exactly whether you did it or not. You could track it. You could prove it. You could adjust when it’s not working.

Your career goals deserve the same clarity.

The Real Goal Crime Scenes

Let me show you what I mean with actual examples from career conversations I've had. In each case, we took a vague goal and turned it into specific, observable actions.

Crime Scene #1: The Strategic Thinking Trap

Before: “I want to develop strategic thinking skills so I can contribute to product direction.”

When I asked the designer what this actually meant, they gave me a word salad about “seeing the big picture” and “thinking beyond the pixels” and “having a seat at the table.” Noble! But meaningless.

After (what we worked out together):

• Attend and actively contribute to 2 quarterly roadmap planning sessions with at least one recommendation that gets incorporated into the plan

• Schedule monthly 1:1s with product managers to understand their strategic priorities and constraints

• Present a 10-minute “competitive landscape analysis” to the design team once per quarter, highlighting 3 strategic implications for our product

Notice the difference? Every single item is observable (someone could watch you do it), countable (you know if you did it or not), and time-bound (you know when you’ve hit the mark). More importantly, these behaviors will actually make you more strategic because you’re forcing yourself into the contexts where strategic thinking happens.

Crime Scene #2: The Leadership Mirage

Before:

• “Grow my leadership skills and mentor junior designers”

Again, sounds great on paper. But what does “mentorship” actually look like? Is it occasional Slack advice? Is it grabbing coffee once? Is it a structured apprenticeship?

After:

• Establish a formal mentorship relationship with one junior designer, meeting weekly for 30-minute sessions with a shared agenda

• Lead 2 design critiques per month where I facilitate discussion (not just present my own work)

• Document and share my design decision-making process in at least 4 detailed case studies this year

• Shadow 3 senior designers or design leaders in their stakeholder meetings and 1:1s (with permission) and synthesize what I learned in a reflection document

Now we’re talking. These aren’t just things to check off. They’re developmental experiences that will actually build your leadership muscle. And at the end of the year, you can point to concrete evidence: “I mentored Sarah, who shipped her first feature. I led 24 design critiques. Here are my case studies. Here’s what I learned from shadowing Jane, Michael, and Alex.”

Crime Scene #3: The Business Acumen Black Hole

Before:

• “Better understand the business side of design”

This one kills me because it’s SOOO common, and SOOOO vague. What business side? Finance? Marketing? Sales? Strategy? All of it?

After:

• Complete a business fundamentals course (specific: “Business Strategy” on “insert your platform here”, 6-week commitment)

• Interview 5 people from different business functions (PM, Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Customer Success) using a standard set of questions about how they measure success

• Request access to our quarterly business reviews and attend at least 3, taking notes on which metrics drive decisions

• Calculate the business impact of 2 of my design projects using revenue, conversion, or cost-savings metrics, and present findings to my team

Not only are these actions observable, but they also create artifacts. You’ll have course completion certificates, interview notes, business review insights, and impact calculations.

The Observable Behavior Framework

So how do you transform your own vague goals into something actually useful? I use what I call the OTT Framework: Observable, Time-bound, Trackable.

If you've heard of SMART goals, think of OTT as the streamlined version - focused specifically on making your career development visible and verifiable.

Observable: Can someone see you doing it?

The test here is simple: could you film yourself doing this behavior? If not, it’s too abstract.

• ❌ “Think more strategically” (nobody can see you thinking)

• ✅ “Present at strategy meetings” (clearly observable)

• ❌ “Be a better collaborator” (too subjective)

• ✅ “Initiate cross-functional working sessions with engineering bi-weekly” (you either did it or didn’t)

Time-bound: When will you know you’ve done it?

Vague goals have no deadline, which means they’re never really done. Observable goals have built-in timeframes.

• ❌ “Improve my presentation skills” (when? by when? how much?)

• ✅ “Deliver 6 presentations to audiences of 20+ people in the next 6 months” (specific count and timeline)

Trackable: Can you count it or measure it?

This is where most people stumble. They want credit for “effort” or “growth” without defining what that actually means.

• ❌ “Work on my design system skills” (how much work? for how long?)

• ✅ “Contribute 12 components to the design system and document them in Storybook” (specific deliverable)

When you combine all three, an OTT goal isn’t just a todo item. It’s a behavioral change you can prove happened.

Converting Your Goals Right Now

If you’re reading this thinking “oh crap, all my goals are vague,” don’t worry. You’re in good company. Here’s how to fix them:

Step 1: Write down your current vague goal

Example: “Become a better designer”

Step 2: Ask yourself: “What would I actually be DOING differently if I achieved this?”

• Reading design books regularly

• Getting more feedback on my work

• Studying other products more deeply

• Practicing new design skills

Step 3: Convert each behavior into OTT format

• Read and write reflections on 12 design books this year (1 per month)

• Share work-in-progress designs for feedback in team critique at least twice per month

• Conduct and document 24 product teardowns (2 per month) analyzing interaction patterns, information architecture, and visual hierarchy

• Complete 4 skill-building exercises from “Daily UI” and post before/after examples

Step 4: Add accountability and evidence

• Keep a Notion database of books + key takeaways

• Track critique participation in a spreadsheet

• Build a “teardown library” that becomes portfolio content

• Create a “skills practice” case study showing your progression

See how much more actionable that is than “become a better designer”? By doing these specific behaviors, you actually will become a better designer. But now you can prove it.

The Career Payoff

When your goals are observable, time-bound, and trackable, your performance reviews transform from vague vibes to evidence-based discussions.

Imagine walking into your year-end review with this:

Manager: “So, how do you think you did on becoming more strategic?”

You: “Well, I set a goal to contribute to roadmap planning. I attended both quarterly planning sessions and got two recommendations into the roadmap (the mobile-first redesign priority in Q2 and the accessibility audit timeline in Q4). I also met monthly with Jordan and Sam from product to understand their constraints, which helped me propose solutions that actually fit our technical roadmap. And I presented competitive analysis to the design team four times. Here are the decks, which helped us identify three feature gaps we’re now addressing.”

That’s not spin. That’s documentation. Your manager doesn’t have to rely on their subjective impression of whether you “seem” more strategic.

You’ve got receipts.

And when you’re interviewing for your next role or making the case for a promotion, this same approach works. You’re not just claiming growth. You’re showing the work with actual artifacts: the presentations, the recommendations that shipped, the outcomes.

Compare that to saying “I developed my strategic thinking skills” with zero evidence. Which story is more convincing? Which designer gets the promotion?

The one who can show their work.

Every. Single. Time.

Your Move

If you take nothing else from this article, take this: vague goals are career potato chips. They feel good when you write them down, but they don’t actually nourish your growth.

The designers who advance fastest aren’t the ones with the most impressive-sounding goals. They’re the ones who can point to specific behaviors they’ve changed, specific experiences they’ve accumulated, and specific evidence of their growth.

So go look at your current professional development goals. Ask yourself: “If someone followed me with a camera, would they be able to see me doing this?”

If the answer is no, you know what to do.

Make it observable. Make it time-bound. Make it trackable. And then go do it.