The Staff Designer with Catt Small

What if your next big career move didn’t involve managing people—but managing impact? Catt Small joins Lou to unpack the rise of the staff designer: a role that's redefining what senior-level growth can look like for designers who want to lead without becoming managers.

Catt shares insights from her forthcoming Rosenfeld book, Staff Designer: Grow, Influence, and Lead as an Individual Contributor, where she draws on her own experience at companies like Etsy, Asana, and Dropbox—alongside interviews with nearly 30 other design pros—to clarify a path that’s increasingly relevant in today’s flattened organizations.

Catt explains why staff designers thrive at the intersection of strategy and execution, influence and diplomacy. Staff design isn’t about hierarchy; it’s about navigating complexity, guiding quality, and mentoring others, all without direct reports. Whether you're a senior designer wondering what’s next or a leader trying to support IC career growth, this episode reframes design leadership for the modern era.

 

What You'll Learn from this Episode:

• What defines a staff designer and how the role differs from senior design or management
• Why diplomacy, influence, and communication are core to the job
• How the staff designer role supports cross-functional strategy without direct reports
• Ways the role enables mentorship and growth for other ICs
• Why this path is increasingly relevant in today’s flattened design organizations
• How Catt’s book offers actionable tools, illustrations, and exercises for growing in the role

 

Quick Reference Guide:

0:10 - Meet Catt and hear why she wrote a book

2:45 - Catt’s path from senior designer to staff designer to author

4:21 - Senior designer vs staff designer

6:46 - Staff designer as diplomat

13:33 - The 9th DesignOps Summit – September 10-11, 2025

14:32 - The tricky dynamic of guiding without managing

19:20 - Rethinking design roles for 2025

24:27 - Catt’s gift for listeners

 

Resources and Links from Today's Episode:

Staff.design https://staff.design/

The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Klemp https://www.amazon.com/15-Commitments-Conscious-Leadership-Sustainable-ebook/dp/B00R3MHWUE 

Staff Designer: Grow, Influence, and Lead as an Individual Contributor by Catt Small https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/the-staff-designer/ 

 

Quotes:

“A staff designer is everything that a senior designer is, but more.” 

“When you’re a staff designer, you are essentially unstucking the entire team.” 

“There’s a lot of growth that senior designers usually experience when they get to work directly with staff designers.”  

“It’s interesting because you’re trying to figure out how to be a peer but also lead people.”

“You are essentially designing how you want to show up.”