The Staff Designer

Grow, Influence, and Lead as an Individual Contributor

By: Catt Small, Brian Lovin (Foreword by)

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Paperback | 9 December 2025

At a Glance

Paperback
250 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.86 x 15.24 x 1.73

Paperback

$95.69

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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 Book

This 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.

Industry Reviews

"The perfect blueprint for making REAL impact as an independent contributor."
-Ridd, Co-founder of Inflight and Host of the Dive Club podcast
“An essential read for any designer looking to grow beyond the senior level with influence and impact.”
—Femke van Schoonhoven, Design Manager, femke.design
“Catt's book nails the mindset shift every staff designer has to go through: navigating ambiguity, influencing the business, and scaling your impact. An essential read for every designer serious about leveling up.”
—Senongo Akpem, VP of Design at NavaPBC
“Staring into the senior void? Catt’s book is like a friendly coach, giving you cross-company insights and frameworks to drive your UX career forward.”
—Cheryl Platz, former Principal UX Designer at Microsoft and the Gates Foundation; author of Design Beyond Devices
“This book should be required reading for designers who start to wonder what’s next. It takes the gnarliest challenges of climbing the individual contribution ladder and presents bite-sized, approachable frameworks and lessons anyone could implement the same day.”
—Abby Covert, Chief Sensemaker at The Sensemakers Club
“Staff designers are more important than ever in today’s environment. Catt’s book will help you thrive as one.”
—Jenny Wen, Design Lead at Anthropic
“A ridiculously practical guide to an often-undefined area of super senior leveling and success.”
—Hang Xu, Design Recruiter and founder of Designer Friends
“In the fast-paced, chaotic world of startups, many designers grow in seniority out of necessity, rather than readiness. Catt’s book offers actionable insights from a diverse range of experiences and voices, with thoughtful research that I found easy to learn from and apply in my own work, especially as I recently assumed the mantle of staff designer. I highly recommend this book to anyone on their journey to seniority, and beyond.”
—Asia Hoe, Staff Product Designer and Public Speaker

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