Catt Small - How to influence and lead as a staff designer
Jan 17, 2025
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Catt Small, a seasoned designer with over 14 years at Etsy, Asana, and SoundCloud, shares invaluable insights on leadership and influence for staff designers. She discusses how to escape the execution trap and emphasizes the importance of executive presence. Catt also provides practical time management tips and encourages designers to promote broader thinking. With fascinating stories about her experiences, especially with the ‘Goals’ project at Asana, listeners gain a fresh perspective on navigating complexity in design and fostering collaboration.
Staff designers must foster an environment where teams are encouraged to think creatively beyond conventional constraints to drive innovation.
Understanding the problem space through user feedback and collaboration is essential for staff designers to align their solutions with user needs.
Developing executive presence is crucial for staff designers, enabling them to communicate effectively and build strong relationships that support their influence.
Deep dives
Encouraging Radical Thinking
The role of a staff designer involves encouraging team members to think beyond constraints and explore radical ideas. Designers are challenged to disengage from conventional limitations and embrace creative possibilities that may initially appear impossible. By facilitating open discussions, staff designers can inspire their teams to ideate freely, enabling the discovery of innovative solutions that might not arise in a more restricted environment. This mindset fosters a culture of exploration, where unconventional paths are considered, ultimately leading to more impactful design outcomes.
Navigating Complex Projects
Staff designers often face the challenge of managing complex projects that require expertise in systems thinking. They need to balance user experience considerations with business objectives while coordinating efforts across various teams. Successful staff designers excel in understanding both the design craft and the strategic business implications of their work. This multifaceted role not only demands top-notch design skills but also the ability to prioritize tasks within a larger company vision, especially when working on high-stakes projects.
Iterative Exploration and User Feedback
In the early stages of project development, effective staff designers prioritize understanding the problem space by actively engaging with colleagues and customers. They seek to uncover various interpretations of project objectives through interviews and exploratory conversations. By gathering insights about user needs and pain points, designers can identify opportunities that inform their design concepts, reducing the risk of misalignment with user expectations. This iterative exploration ultimately helps in creating a more relevant and successful product.
The Importance of Executive Presence
A significant aspect of being a successful staff designer is developing executive presence, which involves instilling confidence in others through effective communication. This includes understanding the dynamics of influence and the importance of fostering strong relationships within the organization. By focusing on how to articulate their contributions and framing discussions around shared goals, designers can improve their ability to impact decisions. Building rapport with stakeholders and aligning their work's impact with business objectives enhances their effectiveness as leaders.
Balancing Craftsmanship with Execution
Staff designers frequently find themselves in situations where high craftsmanship must be balanced with tight deadlines for execution. When faced with these conflicts, it is crucial for designers to communicate openly with their management about the trade-offs required to deliver quality work. Engaging in proactive conversations about prioritization and defining the expectations around project outcomes can ease the pressure. By establishing clear agreements on deadlines and recognizing the importance of high-quality design, staff designers can better navigate the demands of fast-paced environments while maintaining their creative integrity.
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
