#1 New Release in UX on Amazon

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.

3 reviews

An industry-backed approach to growth

Based on how 50+ companies evaluate employees, interviews with 19 designers on on their progression, and analysis of hundreds of design career paths.

Read by professionals working at:

What will you learn from this book?

Understand the role — Learn what skills companies require staff designers to have and what projects are they working on.
Find the gaps — Identify the skills you need to improve to be promoted to a staff designer.
Build a plan — Create an actionable plan for becoming a staff designer based on the experience of designers who have done it before.
Improve your skills — Build the necessary strategic skills for staff roles to get promoted faster.

From the author of the

best-seller

Solving Product Design Exercises

Including insights from industry leaders

Natasha Tenggoro

Staff at Figma (ex-Twitter)

Jen Pearce

Staff at Mercury (ex-Dropbox)

Johan Sjostrand

Senior Staff at Instacart

Joel Miller

Principal at Figma

Josephine Lie

Head of Design at Trainline

Sarah Fox

Staff at Etsy

Charles Hu

Staff at LinkedIn (ex-Unity)

Hanry Kluk

Staff at Rangle.io

Elina Lin

Staff at Lyra Health

Bruno Borella

Sr. Manager at Skyscanner

what's in the book

22 highly 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
- Applying leverage
- Selling ideas
- New responsbilities 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

What readers say

I wish I had access to something like this years ago. I know this book will help so many designers.

Just from the first pages, I gained more understanding of the role and the steps to get there than I have in the last few years on my own. Rather than relying solely on a manager to help me progress, I now have a map to define it for myself.

This book is an invaluable guide for growing into a strategic and influential design role. It offers clear insights, practical advice, and real-world examples that make the often ambiguous path to Staff Designer feel achievable.

Finally, a blueprint that gives you actionable steps to progress further as an IC. If you’ve plateaued at being a senior for a while, this book is for you!

Why I wrote this book

Historically, management was the only option if you wanted to progress as a designer.

As a result, we have managers who aren't interested in or equipped to manage people just because they had no other way to progress.

Today, more companies have a track for individual contributors. Senior designers can finally get to the next level (often called Staff, Lead or Principal) without managing others.

This book will help you navigate that path and get promoted.

Artiom Dashinsky

In the past 15 years I have led design at startups, owned a small agency, worked as a consultant, and built my own businesses.

In the last six years I've written about about design and UX industry in five books, including three Amazon bestsellers.

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Buying options

eBook

PDF, EPUB, Kindle

30-day money back guarantee

Paperback + eBook

Worldwide shipping

3 reviews

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FAQ

Do you have a discount for students?

Yes. If you're a full-time student, send me an email from your ".edu" address or other proof and I'll send you a 20% off coupon for the website. By now the book is used by students (and professors) at Harvard, Royal College of Art, MIT, Parsons, Stanford, CCA, UC Berkeley, Cornel, UCLA, Pratt, and 50+ more. The code is not valid on physical books.
Do you have a money back guarantee policy?

Yes. I offer a money-back guarantee for the digital products available on the website (eBooks, videos and bonus materials). I believe you'll find substantial value in these resources. However, if for any reason you feel otherwise, just contact me within 30 days of your purchase, and I'll promptly refund your money.
How long will my print copy take to arrive? How much does shipping cost?

All of your shipping costs and estimations are available at checkout. Shipping costs start at: US — $7.59, UK — $7.50, Canada — $9.86, EU — $6.99, India — $5.67, the rest of the world depending on your location is starting at $9.59.
Do you have a bulk pricing?

Yes. If you're buying more than three copies for your team/students/event attendees reach out to me for a bulk pricing cost.
I'm a non-native speaker. Will it be hard for me to understand your book?

I'm a non-native speaker as well but this book has been professionally edited and we have worked hard to make it accessible for native and non-native speakers. Read the first pages using "Read Sample" feature on Amazon page of the book to see if you're comfortable with the level of complexity.
Where can I get the PDF or Kindle version of the book "The Path to Staff Product Designer"?

The digital version (PDF, Kindle, ePub) is available only on this website and not on Amazon due to high fees (Amazon would take a 65% fee). You can use the ePub file for your Kindle device.