How staff designers can lead without being a manager with Catt Small | Ep. 211 скачать в хорошем качестве

How staff designers can lead without being a manager with Catt Small | Ep. 211

Staff designer Catt Small shares how to grow influence, lead without managing, and transition from senior to staff designer in modern product teams. Episode web page: https://bit.ly/4aZZQ6r 00:00 Intro – The staff designer path 01:08 Catt’s journey into product design 06:02 Why the staff designer role is unclear 11:01 Invisible work and building influence 15:37 Navigating politics with empathy 21:18 Managing energy as a staff designer 28:00 Coaching designers on fidelity 34:19 AI for product designers 38:09 Mindset shift to individual contributor leadership 41:00 Where to find The Staff Designer book Most designers think the only path to leadership is management. But what if the real power move is becoming a staff designer? In this episode of Insights Unlocked, Catt Small shares how to grow into true individual contributor leadership — leading without managing, influencing without authority, and driving meaningful impact across product teams. 🎙️ What you’ll learn in this conversation: 1️⃣ How the staff designer role really works (and why it’s often misunderstood) 2️⃣ The mindset shift from senior to staff-level designer 3️⃣ What “influence” actually means in modern product organizations 4️⃣ How to navigate politics with empathy and emotional intelligence 5️⃣ Why invisible work in design drives real strategic impact 6️⃣ How to manage your energy as a senior individual contributor 7️⃣ When to use AI as a product designer — and when to rely on judgment Catt also shares insights from her book, The Staff Designer, including how to partner with your manager, avoid premature high-fidelity work, and build trust across cross-functional teams. If you're a senior designer wondering what comes next — or a leader trying to support high-performing ICs — this episode offers a practical roadmap. 💡 Leadership doesn’t require a team of direct reports. It requires clarity, confidence, and the courage to step forward. 👉 Listen now and subscribe for more conversations on UX leadership, product design leadership, and building customer-centered teams. 🔔 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes of Insights Unlocked. Get the latest updates from the team at UserTesting, connect with us on LinkedIn:   / 564709   UserTesting is fundamentally changing the way digital products and experiences are built and delivered by helping organizations get insights from customers–from creation through execution. Built on top of a world-class, on-demand sourcing engine, customers can receive fast, high quality, opt-in feedback from both our proprietary and partner-sourced audience networks around the world. UserTesting offers the industry's most comprehensive experience research solution. Unlike approaches that track user behavior or collect customer listening data on live experiences, then try to infer what that data means, UserTesting enables companies to get input earlier in the process, helping to reduce guesswork, and bring experience data to life with human insight. The company, formed through the combination of UserTesting & UserZoom, has more than 3,400 customers worldwide, including 75 of the Fortune 100 companies. To learn more, visit www.usertesting.com.