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Summary
At some point in your career, you'll likely have to choose between Senior IC and Design Management roles. The manager's path is clear, and the tradeoffs have been well-considered. But what if you don't want to manage others? What if you'd rather continue as an individual contributor? Will you get bored and find your career stalling out? Or is there an IC role that will help you continue to grow? In this panel, we will hear from Staff and Principal Designers who've managed to stay on the IC track while growing their careers. We'll get into some of the day-to-day nitty-gritty of what it means to be a Staff Designer or Principal Designer, and how to make this role a reality within your organization.
Key Insights
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There is no one linear path to IC leadership; each panelist’s journey shows diverse backgrounds and transitions.
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Senior designers often excel as subject matter experts, while staff designers focus more on navigating ambiguity and cross-functional influence.
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Principal designers tend to work on broader business problems and larger strategic initiatives, sometimes generating new revenue opportunities.
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Roles like lead, staff, and principal vary widely in title meaning depending on company size and maturity.
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Building influence through storytelling, communication, and relationship management is crucial to advancing as an IC leader.
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Maintaining and updating hard design skills, such as mastering Figma’s auto layout, remains important even in senior roles.
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Creating evergreen documents within an organization enables asynchronous influence and helps scale design impact.
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Advocating for IC leadership roles often requires collective action, competitive research, clear problem framing, and treating proposals as experiments.
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IC designers can and should own parts of UX strategy by balancing desirability, feasibility, and viability across product teams.
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Balancing day-to-day execution with long-term vision and strategy is a key challenge for staff and principal designers.
Notable Quotes
"I think there isn’t one linear path and sometimes you face career stumbles but you need to get back up and find momentum."
"Senior designers are subject matter experts, staff designers navigate ambiguity, and principal designers create business impact."
"Titles mean different things at different companies, so asking about expectations for levels is critical."
"Managers and principals both drive craft and strategy but management tends to focus more on people; IC roles more on outputs."
"You have to be proactive in identifying opportunities and influence through solid communication and relationships."
"I’ve never stopped designing completely, even as a manager or director, but the balance shifts toward strategic work."
"Creating evergreen design documents helps you influence projects asynchronously without being in every room."
"Propose new IC roles as experiments to test their impact and get easier buy-in from leadership."
"You don’t have to become a manager to advance; principal or staff IC tracks can be just as influential."
"With new tech like Gen AI, staff designers need to integrate new possibilities into strategic roadmaps to minimize risk."
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