The badges are a complementing tool to the Ladder - while ladder outlines career paths, badges reward behaviors and achievements we respect and appreciate in our team members.
Simple. Badges must meet the following criteria:
Do: Prepared an educative talk for an audience of ~50+ people Don't: Uploaded a few well-structured presentations
Do: Reviewed 100 pull requests, helping his teammates to get on the right track Don't: Invested 100 hours in reviewing code
Do: Wrote a resourceful documentation for 10 new features Don't: Left several instructions for his team-mates of how to proceed
The Ladder rewards technical excellence alongside effective behaviors and communication skills. It doesn't, however, cover all aspects and abilities one may possess and we should appreciate. Thus, the badges should serve as an additional tool to celebrate accomplishments, despite the fact they don't necessarily lead into a promotion.