Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Moving from Execution to Strategy as a Designer

Gold
Tuesday, December 6, 2022 • Design in Product 2022
Share the love for this talk
Moving from Execution to Strategy as a Designer
Speakers: Catt Small
Link:

Summary

Designers often find themselves under pressure to create beautiful outputs rather than impact and outcomes. In this talk, Catt Small, Director of Product Design at All Turtles, will share techniques she applied in moving herself from execution to a more strategic role over 12 years of in-house work at companies spanning various industries. You'll learn to become a more strategic thinker and show the value of design at every part of the product development process. Before you know it, you'll be your PM's best work friend! Stick around to join the conversation and ask Catt your questions during our post-session Q+A, moderated by Christian Crumlish.

Key Insights

  • Designers are often involved too late in decision-making, mainly focusing on aesthetics rather than strategy.

  • Early design involvement can prevent costly product missteps, as illustrated by the SoundCloud subscription example.

  • Understanding the goals of product managers, data analysts, and other stakeholders helps designers align their work to business needs.

  • Proactively inserting design perspectives and asking strategic questions builds trust and positions designers as valuable partners.

  • Visualizing complex backend systems and data models helps engineers and product teams make better decisions impacting UX.

  • Effective facilitation and workshops can align teams around strategy, speeding up decision-making and reducing ambiguity.

  • Creating and constantly referencing vision decks supports long-term strategic alignment across teams.

  • Leaders must adjust incentive structures to reward strategic design contributions, not just aesthetics.

  • System thinkers and designers comfortable with ambiguity tend to gain strategic influence faster.

  • Balancing strategic work and detailed execution requires clear communication of capacity and setting expectations, especially for solo designers.

Notable Quotes

"Too many companies wait until they think they know the solution to a problem and then they engage design as if design's only job is to make something look pretty."

"Design ends up getting pulled in super late, and you get put in the uncomfortable position of pushing back and potentially slowing down a release."

"You want to make sure that you are working on the right products or projects by having a design-led strategy."

"I honestly have gotten the most value out of just spending one-to-ones with folks and asking what matters to you and what we should achieve as a team."

"Showing up and inserting yourself, delightfully weaseling your way into spaces where design can add value, is a powerful tactic."

"The more you can help product managers reduce risk, the more they will look at you as their best friend."

"A couple of sketches I made in 15 minutes helped engineers decide on a data model that positively impacted the user experience."

"Vision decks should be something that can be referenced time and time again, not just a binder on a shelf."

"If there aren't leaders pushing strategic design, much of the effort from individual contributors risks being ignored."

"Designers who say they are system thinkers tend to build confidence and comfort with ambiguity faster than others."

Ask the Rosenbot
Samuel Martin
Co-Design vs Faux-Design: Navigating the Complexities of Sharing Power in Co-Design
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Greg Petroff
Exit Interview #1: Greg Petroff: From Silicon Valley Executive to Sonoma County Possibilitarian
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Bob Baxley
Theme 4: Intro
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Steve Baty
Breaking Out of Ruts: Tips for Overcoming the Fear of Change
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
JP Allen
Navigating the UX Tool Landscape
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Maverick Chan
From Doodle to Demo: AI as Our Storytelling Partner
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Jayne Engle
Civic Design for the Next Seven Generations—A Discussion on Sacred Civics
2022 • Civic Design Community
Laura Weiss
There is No Playbook: Leader as Coach During Challenging Times
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Dave Gray
Liminal Thinking: Sense-making for systems in large organizations
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Emily Lessard
RFPs Without Tears: Writing Inclusive RFPS that Don't Scare Away Talent
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Laine Riley Prokay
How DesignOps can Drive Inclusive Career Ladders for All
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Alla Weinberg
Design Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Jorge Arango
Scale Smart: AI-Powered Content Organization Strategies
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Dr Chloe Sharp
Using Evidence and Collaboration for Setting and Defending Priorities
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Jane Reid
Self-care in User Research
2020 • Advancing Research Community
John Devanney
The Design Management Office
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold

More Videos

Sheri Byrne-Haber

"Accessibility isn’t just about visible disabilities; it’s about invisible disabilities and situational impairments too."

Sheri Byrne-Haber

Accessibility at Scale

June 9, 2021

Prayag Narula

"If you skip iterative testing, you risk building features nobody really wants."

Prayag Narula Hannah Hudson

Empowering Designers to do Good Research

March 11, 2022

Janelle Estes

"Inclusive research means building for diverse people, not just for ourselves or a narrow segment."

Janelle Estes

UX Research Trends

January 28, 2021

Craig Brookes

"A single line of UI text might be a small ask but can have massive impact on customer understanding and experience."

Craig Brookes Andreas Huebner Morgan Quinn

"Just Make it Look Good" and Other Ways We're Misunderstood

June 11, 2021

Marc Fonteijn

"A regular heartbeat and familiar structure are really important principles to keep a community alive."

Marc Fonteijn Ru Butler

Increase your confidence, influence, and impact (through a Professional Community)

December 3, 2024

Kate Towsey

"Research ops provides the roles, tools, and processes needed to support researchers — that’s as concise as it gets."

Kate Towsey

The State of ResearchOps: More Than Just Theory

June 20, 2019

Alla Weinberg

"Psychological safety is the foundation; without it you get a culture of transaction and silence."

Alla Weinberg

Design Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It

September 9, 2022

Shawna Hein

"The collaboration cycle requires following standards for accessibility, content, design system usage, and IA or you don’t launch your product."

Shawna Hein Kevin Hoffman

Create a Cohesive Civic Design Practice Across Agency, Vendors, and Contracts

November 17, 2022

Tricia Wang

"Systematizing work and using matrices of importance versus difficulty helps prioritize meaningful projects."

Tricia Wang

SCALE: Discussion

June 15, 2018