Shoot-from-the-hip designers who rely on instinct without a repeatable process tend to stall above Senior, where promotion depends on influence, not just output. Writing that instinct into a rubric, such as where the eye lands first or what decision was made, turns judgment into something an AI model can use. One Lead designer, pushed to name the user, the task, and the decision he'd made instead of "we," began building his own checks after three projects.