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Catt Small

Catt Small

2.2K Subscribers

Staff Product Designer with 16+ YOE at tech companies including Etsy, Asana, SoundCloud, & more.

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Catt Small will help you become a hands-on design leader

Catt is a Staff Product Designer, game maker, and developer. She started coding around the age of 10 and designing at the age of 15. She graduated from SVA with a BFA in Graphic Design in 2011 and later received an MS in Integrated Digital Media from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering in 2016.

Catt has driven the design and launch of major product experiences that have impacted millions of people. The experiences she designed have drastically increased UX quality and revenue, unlocked an IPO, won awards, and led to successful patents. She enjoys helping people become their best selves and has proactively mentored many talented designers throughout her career — in addition to over 80 amazing individuals through Merit.

You can view her work at cattsmall.com.

Previously at
Asana
Etsy
SoundCloud
Nasdaq

Alumni reviews

Persuasion for Designers

A thorough and hands-on course! The activities were very useful in helping me understand who I should spend time and energy on persuading.

Chloe

Cohort 1
UX Writer · Co-operators

Staff Designer: Influence & Lead as an Individual Contributor

Catt's class was incredibly insightful and valuable. Throughout each session, she covered a wide variety of topics in detail alongside resources to dive deeper and actions you could immediately take. She was generous with her time in live jam sessions. As a content designer, I wasn't sure if this would be too product design focused, but I found every topic relevant to my own experience.
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Megan

Cohort 6 - Jan 2026
Senior Content Designer · Expedia Group

Staff Designer: Influence & Lead as an Individual Contributor

Catt's Staff Designer course was valuable in helping me (1) develop a deep understanding of the senior IC product design career track and (2) understand the key skills and requirements needed to move forward in that track. Her style of teaching is straightforward, personable, and insightful. Thank you Catt!
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Jules

Cohort 6 - Jan 2026
Lead UX Designer · GoGuardian

Staff Designer: Influence & Lead as an Individual Contributor

I found this course both practical and inspiring. I love how Catt covered both the daily struggles of a staff designer such as building relationships, gaining influence and managing time, as well as important product work like shaping vision and strategy. I now have a lot of valuable tools to add to my toolbox, some of which I have already started applying in practice.
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Dasha

Cohort 6 - Jan 2026
Staff Product Designer · Mentimeter AB

Staff Designer: Influence & Lead as an Individual Contributor

Overall, the course felt complete, grounded in real-world experience, and highly relevant for designers either stepping into Staff or actively operating in that space.
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Victor

Cohort 6 - Jan 2026
Senior Product Designer · Welltech