Catt Small
Staff Product Designer, Dropbox
Catt Small is a Staff Product Designer who has done design work for companies of all sizes including Asana, Etsy, SoundCloud, and Nasdaq. 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.
An observer at heart, Catt focuses on ways to improve the lives of people through design. She is interested in ways to increase empathy through interactive media. Many of her personal projects center around the human experience and tackle issues related to interpersonal relationships, self-expression, gender, and race.
In addition to her product design work, Catt makes video games by herself and with friends. She is co-organizer of the Game Devs of Color Expo, an annual event that amplifies the creative power held by people of color in games. In her spare time, she writes about professional development and creates artwork of all kinds.
Catt’s work has been covered by many publications including Net Magazine, VentureBeat, BuzzFeed, and Black Enterprise . She has spoken at schools and events across the world including Yale, Columbia University, AIGA Design Conference, Beyond Tellerrand in Germany, UX Week, Microsoft’s Codess Seattle, Google’s Women Techmakers NYC, and TEDxFoggyBottom. Her games have been in a variety of exhibitions at venues such as IndieCade and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. You can view her work at cattsmall.com
Rosenverse talks by Catt:
" Staff and principal designers need to balance zooming in on execution and zooming out to define strategic vision and minimize risk. "
What's Next for ICs: Exploring Staff and Principal Designer Roles
February 22, 2024
" When I was head of product, I wasn’t enough of a domain expert or business model expert to scale the company. "
Morning Insights Panel
December 6, 2022
" A couple of sketches I made in 15 minutes helped engineers decide on a data model that positively impacted the user experience. "
Moving from Execution to Strategy as a Designer
December 6, 2022