So I kind of just made it up as I went along. Instead of trying to map out a career path and worrying about where I was going to be in five or ten years, I followed my interests and tried not to worry too much about measuring my success in traditional ways such as title changes and promotion announcements.
I enjoyed this read by Pamela Vaughan on career progression. This sounds similar to how career progression works at Automattic as well. Team lead positions are not viewed as promotions, just a different type of work. Teammates can step down from a lead position without it being viewed as a demotion. There also isn’t a corresponding decrease of pay.