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
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Design is often involved too late, limiting contributions to aesthetics rather than strategic problem solving.
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Early inclusion of design in product strategy leads to better outcomes and customer value, as seen in the SoundCloud example.
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Conducting stakeholder interviews and understanding business and team goals helps designers build alignment and influence strategy.
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Showing up proactively and facilitating workshops can increase design’s presence and impact on decision-making.
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Quick visualization of complex system options can help engineers and product teams make better strategic decisions.
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Design leaders must advocate for incentive structures that reward strategic design contributions, not just aesthetics.
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Strategic designers, often systems thinkers, tend to adapt to ambiguity faster but all designers can grow into this role with support.
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Maintaining an integrated vision artifact that incorporates design, product, marketing, and data perspectives reduces vision fatigue.
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Regularly referencing the vision and roadmap encourages alignment and long-term strategic focus across teams.
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Setting expectations about workload and strategically prioritizing work is critical for solo or understaffed designers.
Notable Quotes
"Too many companies wait until they think they know the solution to a problem and then they engage design as if the only job of design is to make something look pretty."
"Design can really help by envisioning the future and pushing the envelope forward."
"Understanding what matters to the people around you unlocks a shared language that helps align work."
"Facility in running workshops and facilitating alignment conversations shows design’s strategic value."
"Tone is really important; you want to be supportive and avoid putting people on the defensive."
"A couple of sketches I made in 15 minutes helped engineers decide on a data model that positively impacted the user experience."
"If you are an individual contributor, you can start a campaign by delightfully weaseling your way into conversations where design can add value."
"Leaders should change incentive structures to reward strategic design because without incentives nothing improves."
"Creating a single vision covering design, product marketing, and data contributions helps reduce vision fatigue."
"Constantly referencing the vision helps teams prioritize and focus on the right projects over time."
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