The Staff Designer
Description
Staff design is a combination of team leadership and in-the-pixels design work, all without managing direct reports. This handbook will guide you to success?whether you're already navigating a staff design role, or you're deciding if you should embark on the journey. You'll learn to build influence with soft power, improve your communication, and impact strategy at scale.
Who Should Read This BookThis book was written for UX practitioners who are considering the staff design role, including:
- Senior designers who want to get promoted to the staff level by identifying and filling their competency gap.
- UX practitioners who want to learn about the role before choosing between hands-on and management paths.
It's also incredibly helpful for staff designers in need of new tactics to shift from reactive to proactive, build influence, and become the leader they want to be.
Takeaways- Learn what the difference is between a staff designer and a senior designer.
- Compare the duties of a staff designer in a small, medium, and large company settings.
- Make time for visioning and planning projects while you set healthy boundaries.
- Create and drive a product vision.
- Know how to build influence without authority.
- Scale your impact and prove your value as a staff designer.
More details
Person
Catt Small is a Staff Product Designer who has done design work for companies of all sizes including Asana, Etsy, SoundCloud, and Nasdaq. She started coding around the age of 10 and designing at the age of 15. She graduated from SVA with a BFA in Graphic Design in 2011 and later received an MS in Integrated Digital Media from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering in 2016.
An observer at heart, Catt focuses on ways to improve the lives of people through design. She is interested in ways to increase empathy through interactive media. Many of her personal projects center around the human experience and tackle issues related to interpersonal relationships, self-expression, gender, and race.
In addition to her product design work, Catt makes video games by herself and with friends. She is co-organizer of the Game Devs of Color Expo, an annual event that amplifies the creative power held by people of color in games. In her spare time, she writes about professional development and creates artwork of all kinds.
Catt's work has been covered by many publications including Net Magazine, VentureBeat, BuzzFeed, and Black Enterprise. She has spoken at schools and events across the world including Yale, Columbia University, AIGA Design Conference, Beyond Tellerrand in Germany, UX Week, Microsoft's Codess Seattle, Google's Women Techmakers NYC, and TEDxFoggyBottom. Her games have been in a variety of exhibitions at venues such as IndieCade and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. You can view her work at cattsmall.com.
