When job descriptions need reviewing, the temptation is to open the document and start rewriting. Before doing that, step back and look at the function as a whole.

What are the natural levels within it? How should someone progress through them? And what fundamentally changes as responsibility becomes more senior?

Your progression framework does not need to mirror the seats you currently have filled.

A small Sales team might have a Head of Sales managing the team directly, with no Sales Manager in place because the current workload does not justify another hire. That does not mean Sales Manager should disappear from the progression structure.

A progression framework defines the levels. An organisation chart defines the roles you need filled today. They are related, but they are not the same thing.

1. Map the function

Start with the function, not the individuals currently sitting in it.

Lay out the natural progression from the most junior role through to the most senior level that genuinely belongs within that function.

You are not building a five-year organisation chart or creating jobs before you need them. You are defining the logic of the function so that progression still makes sense when someone moves up or the team eventually grows.

2. Give every role a core

Before writing responsibilities, force yourself to describe each role in a word or short phrase.

It might look something like:

Support → Run → Own → Set direction

The wording itself is not important. The discipline is.

If you cannot explain the fundamental difference between two adjacent levels without reaching for a long list of tasks, the levels probably are not clear enough yet.

3. Define the shift between levels

Now compare roles side by side.

Someone becoming more senior will naturally take on broader responsibilities, but the difference should go deeper than simply doing more.

Look at what changes in:

Scope · Independence · Judgement · Decision-making · Influence · Accountability

The same activity may appear at several levels.

A junior employee may contribute to a decision. A manager may make the decision. A more senior leader may be accountable for the consequences of that decision across a wider area.

That is the progression you are trying to capture.

4. Separate responsibility from accountability

This is particularly important in lean teams.

People will sometimes take on responsibilities above their formal level. That can be valuable development and should be recognised.

But additional responsibility does not automatically mean additional accountability.

If someone in the Sales team is temporarily covering parts of a more senior role because the position is vacant, recognise that they have stepped up. Reward the contribution where appropriate.

But don't quietly start assessing them against the same commercial outcomes, judgement or leadership expectations you would place on an experienced Sales Director.

Stretch can move. Accountability should move deliberately.

5. Pressure-test adjacent roles

Before you write the JDs, take every pair of consecutive roles and ask one simple question:

At this level, the role moves from ______ to ______.

For example:

supporting → running
running → owning
making decisions → being accountable for their outcome

If you find yourself writing:

more experience
more responsibilities
greater seniority

you haven't defined the progression yet.

6. Only then write the job descriptions

Once the framework is clear, the JD becomes the easier part.

You know why the role exists, what it owns, the level at which it operates and where accountability sits. The responsibilities can then describe the role without trying to define the entire career structure inside one document.

If it still takes three pages to explain what someone is supposed to do, I would go back to the framework before adding another bullet.

Put it into practice

Take one function in your business and write down:

The role → its core → what it owns → what it is accountable for → what changes at the next level.

Keep each answer short.

If you can see the progression without reading the job descriptions, the structure is probably doing its job.