The 5 Roles
| # | Role | Core Accountability in the Pod Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Executive | Own the book of work for 3-4 high-impact projects. Make binding architectural decisions without escalating to the Pod Lead. Balance your projects against the pod’s total capacity. |
| 2 | Influencer | Influence your 4 peer architects to adopt your reusable patterns, standards, and templates—so the whole pod moves faster. Turn “my way” into “our way.” |
| 3 | Relationship Builder | Build trust with your Pod Lead (India) and your 4 peers (distributed across US/India). Become the “glue” who resolves disagreements, not the source of them. |
| 4 | Strategic Thinker | Continuously compare New project requests against existing project commitments in the LoB portfolio. Help the pod decide what to say no to so that the most valuable work gets prioritized. |
| 5 | Execution | Turn architectural decisions into delivered, deployed, and validated outcomes. Own the end-to-end delivery lifecycle—from design approval to production go-live—for your assigned projects, with zero handoff drama. |
| Role | Score 1 (Needs Improvement) | Score 5 (Solid Performer) | Score 10 (Triple Strong – Pod MVP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Executive | You escalate project decisions to the Pod Lead >3x/week. You miss capacity updates. Your projects are always “almost done.” Other architects have to cover for you. | You make routine decisions for your 2-3 projects. You update the pod’s capacity tracker weekly. Your projects deliver on time ±1 week. | You make binding decisions on the pod’s most complex projects without escalation. You proactively swap project assignments to balance pod workload. The Pod Lead trusts your judgement over their own on your projects. |
| 2. Influencer | You work in a silo. You share nothing. Your peers ignore your docs. You complain about “lack of standards” but do nothing to fix it. | You share your work. 1-2 peers occasionally reuse your templates. You present in pod meetings when asked. | 3+ of your 4 peers actively reuse your patterns, templates, or decision frameworks. Your peers cite your work in their project docs. The pod’s decision-cycle time drops because of your standards. |
| 3. Relationship Builder | You only speak to the Pod Lead during formal 1:1s. You compete with peers. You’ve never helped a peer unblock. The Pod Lead doesn’t share confidential LoB info with you. | You have a professional rapport with the Pod Lead and peers. You respond to Slack messages promptly. You are cordial, but not go-to. | The Pod Lead shares pre-decision LoB portfolio changes with you. Peers come to you first for design advice. You mediate disagreements between peers without being asked. The Pod Lead calls you the “glue” of the pod. |
| 4. Strategic Thinker | You only think about your own projects. You resist portfolio triage. You say “yes” to everything. You have no 2027 view. | You compare 2-3 New vs. Existing opportunities when asked. You contribute to portfolio discussions with basic data. You have a 1-year vague roadmap. | You proactively run quarterly portfolio triage for the entire pod. You recommend what to kill with data. The LoB leadership asks for your input on 2027 investment decisions. You predict architectural debt 2 quarters out and propose fixes before it becomes a crisis. |
| 5. Execution | Designs die in your hands. You hand off to delivery teams and never follow up. Projects you touch miss deadlines or fail in production. You don’t monitor post-launch. | You shepHerd projects through delivery. Your projects ship within ±2 weeks of estimate. You run basic post-launch monitoring. You handle minor production issues. | You close the loop on every project you touch—from design to deployment to post-mortem. Your projects ship on time, with < 2 critical bugs in the first 30 days. You proactively identify and fix delivery bottlenecks before they delay the pod. The delivery team requests to work with you because you make their job easier. |
WEEKLY ADAPTATION RULE
Every Monday morning at 8 AM ET, look at last week’s scores:
- If any role scored ≤ 4: That role is your “Emergency Focus” for the week.
- Example: If Execution is a 3, cancel your Thursday Strategic block and spend that time creating a deployment checklist and shadowing the delivery team.
- If Execution drops 2+ points: This is your most critical warning. Stop all strategy work and ship something—even a small milestone. Execution is the role that makes all other roles credible.
- If you score a 10 in any role: Immediately document the specific event. This becomes Exhibit A in your self-assessment.
- If your average dips below 6 for 2 weeks: Send a candor check-in to the Pod Lead: “My self-score is lower than I want. Here is my plan to fix it. Do you agree with my self-assessment?”
QUARTERLY TRAJECTORY MAP (Q3 + Q4)
To earn the Triple Strong, your average score across all 4 roles must hit ≥ 8.5 by the end of Q4, with no single role below a 7.
Target Arc:
| Timeframe | Executive Target | Influencer Target | Relationship Builder Target | Strategic Thinker Target | Overall Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start of Q3 (July) | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4.0 (Baseline) |
| End of Q3 (Sept) | 7 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 7.0 (On-track) |
| End of Q4 (Dec) | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9.25 (TRIPLE STRONG) |
FINAL TRIPLE STRONG PROOF PACKAGE (Oct 15th)
Submit this to your Pod Lead:
- Your Weekly Scoring Card (all 24 weeks of Q3+Q4, showing the upward trajectory).
- Your Weekly Scoring Card (all 24 weeks—showing upward trajectory across 5 roles).
- The 3 highest-scoring weeks (where you hit a 10 in one role) — with the specific event and its impact on the business.
- The 3 highest-scoring weeks (with specific events and impact on the pod).
- The 1 lowest-scoring week (where you scored a 4) — and a 2-paragraph reflection on how you adapted and recovered (this shows growth mindset).
- A 1-pager summary of your pod contributions:
- How many decisions you made without escalation (Executive).
- How many templates you created and how many peers adopted them (Influencer).
- How many peer disputes you mediated (Relationship Builder).
- How many portfolio triages you ran (Strategic Thinker).
- How many projects you designed AND shipped to production—with 0 critical incidents (Execution).
- A “Design-to-Deployment” cycle time chart showing your improvement from Q3 to Q4.
Why this wins:
- Your manager in India cannot argue with a numerical, weekly, self-scored trajectory that ends at 9.25.
- It proves you are self-aware (you know when you are a 4).
- It proves you are self-correcting (you adapted weekly).
- It proves you are consistent (not a one-hit-wonder).
Print the rubric. Tape it to your monitor. Score yourself every Friday at 4 PM ET. By December, you won’t just ask for a Triple Strong—you will present it as an undeniable fact.
