Embracing Complexity in Design

How do the best staff designers influence and lead as individual contributors?

I interviewed Catt Small to answer that question and it turned into one of the most practical episodes yet. She pulls from her 14+ years of experience designing products like Etsy, Asana, and Soundcloud to share techniques you can use to level up your influence and scale your impact as an IC.

Some highlights:

• Ways to get out of the execution trap
• The key to having “executive presence”
• Catt’s advice for better time management
• How designers can encourage people to think bigger
• How Catt has evolved the way she does async videos
• Understanding the different archetypes of staff designers
• Behind-the-scenes of the massive “Goals” project at Asana
• a lot more

• Check out Catt’s course Staff Designer: Influence & Lead as an Individual Contributor (Dive Club listeners get $100 off)
• Catt mentions the books Radical Candor & 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership
• Micah Bennett was the designer she learned so much from