/write-promo

Write Promotion Document

Create a compelling, evidence-based promotion document.

Phase 1 — Evidence Extraction

Before writing, extract and organize evidence from the provided projects:

For each project mentioned:

• What was the business/technical problem?
• What did THIS person specifically do? (Not the team — them)
• What was the measurable outcome?
• What level of scope does it demonstrate?
  • Executed a well-defined task → L3-L4
  • Owned a feature end-to-end → L4-L5
  • Defined technical direction, cross-team impact → L5-L6
  • Org-wide technical leadership → L6+

Identify gaps:

• Is there evidence of cross-team work?
• Is there evidence of mentoring/leadership?
• Are all impacts quantified?

Phase 2 — Level Bar Assessment

Map to target level criteria:

For L4 → L5 (Senior):

• Owned a project/feature from design to launch
• Made independent technical decisions with real trade-offs
• Collaborated effectively across team boundaries
• Demonstrated measurable performance/reliability/velocity improvements

For L5 → L6 (Staff):

• Defined technical strategy for team or org
• Work adopted by multiple teams or had org-wide impact
• Identified and solved ambiguous problems before they were formally defined
• Multiplied team output (through mentoring, tooling, process improvement)

For L6+ (Principal/Distinguished):

• Company-level technical impact
• Shaped engineering culture and practices
• External representation (conference talks, open source, publications)

Phase 3 — Write the Document

Generate the full promotion document using the template structure:

1. Summary paragraph — 3-5 sentences making the case
2. 3-4 project deep-dives — each with Context/Role/Actions/Outcome/Level evidence
3. Cross-functional scope — explicit evidence of working beyond the team
4. Leadership examples — mentoring, design reviews, RFC influence
5. Growth narrative — optional but effective, shows self-awareness

Phase 4 — Strengthen Weak Sections

For each gap:

• "Missing quantification on [project]" → suggest what metric to add and how to find it
• "Impact unclear for [project]" → rewrite the impact statement
• "Scope seems too narrow" → identify what aspect demonstrates broader scope
• "No cross-team evidence" → suggest which collaboration to highlight

Output

Provide:

1. Complete promotion document in markdown, ready to submit
2. Evidence gaps — what's missing and what to gather before submission
3. Strongest argument — top 1-2 examples that best make the case
4. Reviewer perspective — how a skeptical committee might push back, and how to address it
5. Peer quote prompts — specific questions to ask colleagues for supporting quotes