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
-
•
Design is often involved too late, limiting contributions to aesthetics rather than strategic problem solving.
-
•
Early inclusion of design in product strategy leads to better outcomes and customer value, as seen in the SoundCloud example.
-
•
Conducting stakeholder interviews and understanding business and team goals helps designers build alignment and influence strategy.
-
•
Showing up proactively and facilitating workshops can increase design’s presence and impact on decision-making.
-
•
Quick visualization of complex system options can help engineers and product teams make better strategic decisions.
-
•
Design leaders must advocate for incentive structures that reward strategic design contributions, not just aesthetics.
-
•
Strategic designers, often systems thinkers, tend to adapt to ambiguity faster but all designers can grow into this role with support.
-
•
Maintaining an integrated vision artifact that incorporates design, product, marketing, and data perspectives reduces vision fatigue.
-
•
Regularly referencing the vision and roadmap encourages alignment and long-term strategic focus across teams.
-
•
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."
Dig deeper—ask the Rosenbot:
















More Videos

"Satya Nadella talks about empathy a lot; it’s at the center of everything he does authentically."
Monty HammontreeThe Future of UX Research (Videoconference)
December 3, 2020

"You have to engage every layer of the system—from local communities to NGOs and government power structures—to create change."
Liz EbengoThe Burden on Children: The Cost of Insufficient Post-Conflict Services and Pathways Forward
December 4, 2024

"Wireframes plus a little bit of storytelling is awesome."
Billy CarlsonTips to Utilize Wireframes to Tell an Effective Product Story
June 6, 2023

"Making bite-sized secondary research accessible allows busy designers to start right away without additional workload."
Saara Kamppari-MillerInclusive Design is DesignOps
September 29, 2021

"If you’re amazing at your job but nobody listens or acts on your work, what’s the impact really?"
Ian SwinsonDesigning and Driving UX Careers
June 8, 2016

"Canceling office hours optimizes for focus and accountability rather than shortcuts and unclear responsibilities."
Jonathon ColmanHow to Maximize the Impact of Content Design
January 8, 2024

"What users say they want and what they really need can be very different; you need to be careful about how you interpret feedback."
Maria SkaadenContinuous Design: One eye on the horizon and the other on the next wave
November 8, 2018

"I'm not a Python developer. I've used Python, but I'm getting a lot of assistance from ChatGPT to help me write that."
Bryce Benton[Demo] AI-powered UX enhancement: Aligning GitHub documentation with USWDS at Austin Public Library
June 4, 2024

"The more experienced you are, the more satisfied you tend to be with your salary, which might also correlate with actually earning more."
Marc FonteijnFirst Insights from the 2025 Service Design Salary(+) Report
December 4, 2024