[VIP] The Path to Staff Product Designer

How to Progress to the Next IC Level Beyond Senior (Staff/Lead/Principal) in UX Design.

Jun 18, 2025 - 02:50

0 9

[VIP] The Path to Staff Product Designer

Advance your UX career beyond senior

Progress to the next IC level after senior, whether it’s called Staff, Lead, or Principal at your organization. Learn from the designers who’ve done it themselves.

An industry-backed approach to growth
Based on how more than 50 companies evaluate employees and interviews with 19 designers on their progression at companies like Figma, Instacart, Dropbox, Etsy, and smaller companies.

This book will help you:

Understand the staff role with real-world project examples
Learn which staff skills companies require
Build an actionable growth plan
Build influence and strategic thinking with actionable frameworks
Understand how promotions work to get promoted faster

22 Actionable Chapters

Understanding the role
- Titles, levelling, and career tracks
- Management vs. IC tracks
- Staff designer competencies
- Staff projects examples
Planning the promotion
- Steps to getting promoted
- Asking for promotion
- Evaluating your gaps
- Building growth plan
What to work on
- Creating a Growth Flywheel
- Increasing visibility
- Spotting project opportunities
- Choosing right projects
Seeing the big picture
- Understanding business
- Selling ideas
- Applying leverage
- New responsibilities of Staff
- Balancing quality and speed
- Complexity and delegation
- Working with people
Stakeholder management
- Building consensus
- Mentoring and getting help
- Hiring
Communicating achievements
- Performance reviews
- Documenting achievements