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Going from Senior to Staff Designer Isn't about Doing the Best Work Anymore
Advancing to Staff Designer requires abandoning the habit of producing the 'best' work in favor of externalizing taste to guide others.
What: The transition from Senior to Staff/Principal designer is a move from individual contributor excellence to institutional influence. The key skill is articulating principles that allow teams to make high-quality decisions independently.
Why it matters: This highlights the 'scaling' bottleneck in design teams: leadership is no longer about doing the work yourself, but creating the environment where others achieve high quality.
Takeaway: Start writing 'principles' rather than giving 'preferences' during design reviews to teach junior team members your mental model for quality.
Original article
Moving from Senior to Staff or Principal designer is a shift from shipping the best work to setting direction. The harder skill is externalising taste so other designers can act on it, rather than developing more of it. Six practices are offered, including writing principles instead of preferences and pre-stating review criteria.
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