I decided to be vulnerable and run a course. It’s been one of the best moments of my career so far. Here's what I'm taking with me into the future.

Lessons learned from the first cohort of Staff Designer

https://cattsmall.com/blog/2024/lessons-learned-first-cohort-staff-designer-course

Build a robust toolkit of techniques to level up your influence, scale your impact, & show value as a design leader without direct authority

Staff Designer: Influence & Lead as an Individual Contributor by Catt Small on Maven

Drowning in meetings and tactical design work? You need to regain control of your time so you can do more of the work that matters.     Use this free set of tools to identify opportunities to clean up your calendar, create focus time blocks, and improve at estimating your work. You'll have more time to do more strategic design thinking and set better expectations with cross-functional partners.     Enter your email below to get free printable worksheets and a spreadsheet that is free to copy.

Time Management Tools for Designers by Catt Small on Maven

As professional designers, we have limited hours to create high-quality work. When your creative energy is drained through team meetings and low-impact work, do you burn yourself out to finish on schedule? It doesn't have to be this way—you can take back control! In this free session, you'll sneak a peek into the tools a Staff Product Designer uses to make the most impact she can in 40 hours/week.

Time management for designers: carve out more time to create

The fifth annual GDoCExpo Direct is packed with new announcements from dozens of amazing games by creators of color. Tune in for exclusive reveals, the lates...

The GDoCExpo Direct 2024 - Indie Games Showcase

Join us this October at our friendly and inclusive conference for web designers and front-end developers. Boost your web design and development skills, the smashing way.

Front-end & web development conference and workshops — SmashingConf New York 2024, October 7–10.

https://maven.com/catt-small/staff-designer

https://maven.com/p/a9e14e/unblock-your-design-career-reach-the-staff-level-in-2025

One book is called “Remix” and the other is called “Design Remix”. They are not by the same authors.

got to make some illustrations this week and... it turns out i missed graphic design a lot

Here are some things I learned while working on my most recent side project: a class for very seasoned designers to level up their leadership skills! 🤓

https://cattsmall.com/blog/2024/lessons-learned-first-cohort-staff-designer-course

The next cohort of my Staff Designer course starts in less than a month! We have a great crew of participants already, hailing from companies of all sizes including Adobe, Asana, Amazon, and Instacart.

Join us and level up your IC design leadership skills! ✨

I’m going to share the things I wish somebody would’ve taught me about Staff+ Product Design — a combo of team leadership and hands-on design work — in a series of virtual workshops.

Sound compelling? LMK what would be most impactful for you: https://maven.com/forms/d4c52a

Hey designers with too many meetings and too little focus time: I made free tools to help you protect your calendar and get more time to do work that matters.

Time management is key! It's how Staff+ designers do high-impact work in the same hours as a mid-level designer. 🗓️✨

Get out of meetings and into the zone ✨ I'm running a free session about time management for designers on July 22! 

As designers, we have limited creative hours. Let's make space on your calendar to be more impactful — within normal working hours.

Register for free 👇🏾

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is so good

so today at 4pm ET one of my side projects will be sharing some cool announcements from indie game devs in our community 💥 it'll b v nice so click thru and get notified about when we go live gdoc.events/direct2024

I will now be using "its 100% worth it because it makes me happy" to justify any purchase under 1.8M

Anyone else gonna be at SmashingConf NY next week? smashingconf.com/ny-2024/

The first cohort of Staff Designer was a blast, and I'm excited to share that I'm doing it again in October! Join me in the next cohort to connect with other seasoned designers and strengthen your IC design leadership skills 🥳

🔗 https://maven.com/catt-small/staff-designer

helping a very small company uplevel their design is a great way to remind yourself that design is so much more than politicking

My course about succeeding as a Staff Product Designer is live! Grab a spot: https://maven.com/catt-small/staff-designer

Over 3 weeks, you'll learn to influence as an IC, excel at stakeholder communication, and impact strategy. Excited to connect w other seasoned designers!

I don’t have an iPhone so I have to Post™ from my iPad, hello

#Clarity2024 will be an online event this year, held September 25&26, 2024.

Early Bird presale tickets are available now.

Stay tuned for more announcements including revealing the speakers!

clarityconf.com

Kinference is just saying “oh hey!” to people you haven’t seen in years, over and over again until you lose your voice

thinking about having side projects? don't

Can’t wait to see more of the John Wick Cinematic Universe, Akira needs a spinoff

read.cv needs a linkedin import function. hats of to all of you who manually entered your work history, not gonna be me

In other news I’m starting a new gig tomorrow~

Tonight was the last session of a 12-week Typography and Branding continuing ed class I’ve been taking! I haven’t done graphic design in a long time, and I see so many flaws! But nonetheless, please enjoy the fruits of my labor~

Today I was on a panel about innovation, so obviously I’m now extremely existential

I have never heard of Porter Airlines in my life and I’m not loving the experience so far

Running a FREE workshop tomorrow, Dec 20, at 12pm ET!

I'll cover common issues that block senior designers from career growth, then we'll set goals for making moves in 2025.

Don't miss it: https://maven.com/p/a9e14e/unblock-your-design-career-reach-the-staff-level-in-2025

These are both interior design books. I bought the first 10 years ago and the second this week. The SEO battle must be real 😶‍🌫️

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