The rise of "super" Senior ICs
With Garron Engstrom, an IC Design Director.
As design teams continue to flatline we are seeing more requests than ever for “Super Senior ICs” and I can only see that continuing.
In this article I speak with Garron Engstrom an IC Design Director at Meta to discuss how to operate at the senior levels as an IC.
TL;DR:
What is a “Super IC” in Product Design
IC vs Management
Differences between senior and a “Super IC”
Mistakes companies make when hiring at this level
The IC career progression
How to influence as an IC
Let’s dig in.
All answers below are from Garron.
Q: What defines a “Super Senior IC” in Product Design?
I define the Super IC as a senior+ level (“Staff”, “Lead”, “Principal”, “Distinguished”, “Director”) Individual Contributor (IC) who has no interest in transitioning to a manager role and has the ability to progress in their career as an IC. This person is typically an L7 or higher and has at least 10 years of experience in product design.
Q: What trade-offs have you had to make by choosing the IC route over management? Are there any misconceptions about this path?
I’m incredibly fortunate to work within a highly mature design organization that has a fully formed IC career ladder. So personally I don’t feel I’ve had to make any trade-offs. It was a windy route to get to where I am but it was all necessary; I wouldn’t leave any of it on the cutting room floor. But it’s not lost on me that a lot of senior designers, maybe most, are making hard decisions to stay in an IC role and not switch to management—lost influence, lower compensation, less growth.
That’s exactly why I’m on a mission to evangelize the rise of the Super IC.
I envision a world where every product designer can grow in their career without needing to switch to management.
Q: How do you see the expectations for Super Senior IC’s inside organisations?
The expectation of designers at this level is that they drive large, ambiguous initiatives, define vision and strategy across multiple teams or product lines, and influence executive decision-making. They mentor more junior designers, set the bar for design excellence, and ensure that design systems, processes, and frameworks scale across the org.
Q: What skills or behaviours distinguish top-tier ICs from those who plateau at senior level?
I see 5 main skills or behaviors that separate the senior IC from the Super IC:
High business acumen: They are exceptional at product thinking (can go toe-to-toe with any PM) and can balance user needs and business goals. They often develop frameworks to help think through complex problems.
High emotional intelligence: This helps them read a room, influence without authority and build strong cross-functional relationships. They know when to empathize and support and when to push and provide tough feedback.
Quick learner: They can build domain expertise unbelievably fast and be productive in a new space in no time. This allows them to be a fixer: to airdrop into a team or problem space and unblock or catalyze the team.
Vision: They pair prototyping and storytelling to paint a picture of the future and build consensus amongst the product team. Their vision is so compelling that engineers can’t wait to start building.
Fast: They can produce the same volume, quality and impact of work as several other designers combined (this is the idea of the 10x designers).
Also, the more senior you get the more likely you are to start falling into a bucket, or “archetype”. Each archetype represents a unique grouping of skillsets and ways in which Super ICs operate and have impact within their organization. It’s non-exhaustive, but the main archetypes include:
The Visionary: Paints a picture of the future and aligns people to it.
The Craftsperson: Sets the bar for excellence and teaches others to reach it.
The Systems Thinker: Builds frameworks that scale product & team output.
The PM Hybrid: Owns ambiguous 0→1 spaces and drives delivery.
The 10x Designer: A force-multiplier in speed, quantity and impact of work.
If you are looking for support as you grow in your Super IC career, check out my free Design Career Guide. I outline the Super IC career progression, expectations at each level, and much more.
Q: What mistakes do companies make when hiring super senior ICs?
First, they think they need a Super IC when they don’t. You need to ensure you have the scope and complexity of work that requires a Super IC designer. There is nothing that kills motivation and morale of a high level individual than working on low impact, low complexity work.
Second, they need to make sure they actually hire a Super IC. I’m sure we’ll get into this later, but you need to have clear level expectations and hire for the right level you are looking for. We see a ton of title inflation in the industry and as an organization you’re not helping yourself or the designer by doing that. As an example you’ll see a designer with 6 years of experience hired as a “Senior Staff Product Designer”. What this signals to me is that you don’t have a very mature design organization, and you don’t actually have the complexity or scope of work for high level, high performing individuals. And worst of all, you’re setting that designer up for failure. They’ll lose credibility in the industry for having a title way beyond their skills and experience.
Third, I am seeing a rise in the player-coach role, which I have mixed feelings about. For the right organization and the right person, this can be an incredible role and a great dynamic for the team. But more often than not, in my experience, the individual is doing two jobs with 50% focus and 50% impact. So I’d recommend getting focused on what the team needs. Do you need a manager, do you need a Super IC or do you need both?
Q: How should orgs think about levelling, comp, and career progression for Super Senior ICs?
I’m so glad we’re getting into this because I don’t think we’re going to see real investment and normalization of the Super IC designer role industry-wide until companies create the right frameworks.
Here’s what companies need to do:
Define the IC career progression: The obvious one is that companies can allow designers to continue to grow in their career without moving into management. This is what is called “parallel tracks”. Meaning a certain level IC correlates to a certain level of management and moving between them is not a promotion or demotion but rather a lateral move.
Set clear expectations for each IC level: Next they can create clear performance and scope expectations for each level. For managers it’s somewhat understood what gets you to the next level: your team grows, you hire more managers under you to support the growth. Eventually you move into a senior manager role, then director and eventually VP. This type of career progression is much less defined for Super ICs. Having clear expectations is what allows designers to feel in control, grow in their career, and get promoted.
Pay ICs the same as managers at the same level: This one is pretty self-explanatory. Each IC level should correlate to a management track level. At each level the ICs and Managers should have the same compensation ranges.
Q: How can companies set very senior ICs up for success?
This one is pretty simple: Put them on the hardest problems and build community.
Super ICs are uniquely positioned to help companies tackle the hardest problems. As I mentioned in the skills question, they are often generalists, broadly skilled in all design skillsets, have exceptional business acumen (can go toe-to-toe with any PM), high EQ and can build domain expertise unbelievably fast. They pair prototyping and storytelling to paint a picture of the future and build consensus amongst the product team. These are the skills necessary to solve hard problems for your organization. So unleash them.
Finally, build a community around these Super ICs. Something that not enough people talk about is how isolating it can feel the higher you get in your career. The higher you go in seniority, by nature, the less peers you have. But this isolation is exacerbated for Super ICs. At least in my experience there are far more design managers than Super ICs. The climb to the top can feel lonely and like you have less support and community.
If you’re a Super IC and don’t feel like your company is doing enough to support you and build community, then check out The Super IC Collective. We’re building a private space exclusively for Super IC designers to connect, share insights, discover opportunities, and elevate their craft together.
Q: Why did you choose to stay on the IC path?
Well it was actually switching to management that made me realize the Super IC path was the best fit for me. I was always on the fence about management but a lot of factors converged in 2020 that led me go into management. I managed 9 designers across a portfolio of products within the Social Impact org at Meta.
Funny enough, it was becoming a father that changed the course of my career. I was on a six-month parental leave in 2022 when I called my manager and told her I wanted to come back to an IC role. Holding your newborn can really bring priorities into focus.
A few things I realized about management:
We always think about work outside of work, but for me, as a manager it manifested as stress: Do my reports have enough scope? How do I unblock that one project? How do I support that report who is struggling?
I was in meetings from 9am to 5pm. As an introvert, by 5pm I was physically and emotionally exhausted and had nothing left to give my family.
I didn’t feel I was having the same outsized impact for the organization that I felt I was having as an IC.
All of this led me to the conclusion that I needed to get back to an IC role after my parental leave.
But here’s the thing: I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. My time as a manager made me a far better IC designer. I learned how to manage up, have impact through others, and help others grow in their careers—all things that are important as a Super IC.
But zooming out from myself, I think this is a common story that designers face, I was just lucky enough to be in a position to easily transition back to IC. This forced transition into management creates job dissatisfaction and burnout for designers.
And I’d hazard a guess that it’s a losing proposition for businesses as well, likely leading to lost productivity and lower retention.
Q: How do you influence company strategy or product direction as an IC without a formal “title” like director/VP which can gain respect internally?
The title definitely can help, and organizations that have highly mature design functions will have titles that go all the way up to Director, VP, Distinguished Designer, etc. Having one of these titles as an IC immediately gives you authority on the team. It signals to the team that you are there to drive strategic and organizations impact while also rolling up your sleeves and getting into the mud with the team.
But even without this title there are things you can do to gain influence.
First, and this sounds obvious, doing strong work over a long time horizon will create a reputation in your organization that you are the person a team wants when there is a highly complex or mission-critical project. Once you’ve built this kind of reputation, it bestows upon you a lot of the same benefits as the official title.
Second, often once you reach Super IC status (L6 or higher typically), you are in a unique position within the organization. You bring unique value by having deep product understanding as well as access and influence with leadership. As an example, junior designers are super close to the product, but with no real access to leadership. On the other hand org leaders are the leadership layer and have access to even high levels of leadership but are usually quite disconnected from the product. Super ICs fill a very important niche—they have access to leadership, often being in the leadership circles, meetings and reviews. At the same time they are still very close to the product and can often be the one voice in the room that can advocate for customer needs, discuss the constraints in detail, and therefore influence strategy.
Thanks Garron for your time. Make sure to follow his work and look into the Super IC community he’s crafting.
Until next time!
Thank you for this! I'm 15 years in and still have an appetite to build product. My role has switched from UX -> research -> PM -> Manager, over and over - I love it. But, I feel a little weird about it because I'm constantly wondering how I might come across to recruitment and HM's.