5 steps to creating a strong design-led startup
The key mistakes startups make with design and how to avoid them
I’ve worked for big companies and startups alike. So I have seen companies with robust design processes and thousands of designers. It also means I’ve seen startups flounder to hire their first designer and figure out how to integrate them into their product development process.
I’ve identified some common mistakes made and misconceptions startup founders have when it comes to product design as well as insights and actions to take to set your company up for success.
1. Understand that design is a crucial and early member of your startup team
The first mistake I see made is that design is often not a founding, or even full-time member of the team. A conversation I often have with founders goes something like this:
Me: “So it seems like you’re having some issues with design quality and processes.”
Founder: “Yes, that’s right.”
Me: “I’m curious about your team. Is your engineer full-time?”
Founder: “Yes.”
Me: “Is your product manager full-time?”
Founder: “Yes.”
Me: “Is your designer full-time?”
Founder: “No, they’re a contractor.”
Me: “Have you considered hiring a full-time product designer?”
Founder: “…”
The mistake here is thinking that product designers are only there to create UI’s. A core skillset of a strong product designer is product thinking (read more about that here).
This skillset means product designers add a lot of value to startups early on. They ask the hard questions, help engineering define the product architecture and overall contribute to the product strategy and direction.
Treating design like a second-class citizen will create a lot of extra work later, paying down design debt and retroactively trying to create proper product development processes. We’ll talk about that later.
2. Know the type of designer you’re looking for
So you know you need a product designer but you don’t know which skillsets you need them to have or even how to interview and assess candidates. You’re not alone.
I see a lot of startup founders in this position. The first step is to know the core skillsets of product design in order to figure out which you need to prioritize. I’ll touch on each skill briefly, but my friend Aaron James goes into these skills in more detail in his article “A guide to becoming a senior product designer”. I recommend taking a look to take your knowledge of these skills to the next level.
Hard Skills
- Product Thinking: This refers to your business acumen. You deeply understand both business goals and user problems and how to design a product that solves for both. You know the definition of product-market-fit and iterate the product until you reach it.
- Interaction Design: You know how to create easy-to-use products. You have deep knowledge of common design patterns and components and how to use them to solve user problems. You also know when those patterns don’t work and can effectively create new ones. Bonus points to those who can incorporate motion design through prototyping micro-interactions.
- Visual Design: You have an eye for detail. You design beautiful user interfaces and deeply understand color, typography, layout, hierarchy, etc. You also understand the intersection between how the interface works (interaction design) and how it looks (visual design).
Soft Skills
- Intentionality: You have strong rationale to back all of your interaction and visual design decisions and you can communicate that rationale clearly and effectively. This allows you to solicit feedback and iterate on your work to make it better over time.
- Proactivity & Drive: You don’t require a lot of hand-holding. You are self-sufficient, at times going above and beyond to write product briefs, define product solutions, plan and execute design sprints and workshops and gain alignment with stakeholders.
- Self-Awareness: You are keenly aware of your strengths and your weaknesses. You use this knowledge to lean into your strengths and take action to improve upon your weaknesses. This allows you to grow in your career as a product designer.
Which of these skillsets would complement your existing team and bring your product to the next level? Some questions to ask yourself:
- Do you already have a design system in place? If so, perhaps the designer you’re looking for doesn’t need to be particularly strong in visual design.
- Are you early in the product definition process? Are you trying to untangle hairy design and architecture problems? If so, perhaps the designer you’re looking for should be strong in product thinking and intentionality.
- Are you hoping to build a sleek new consumer app requiring illustrations and animation? If so, perhaps the designer you’re looking for should be strong in visual design with the added bonus of strong prototyping skills.
- Hoping your new designer will take the reins, write product briefs and lead workshops and brainstorms? If so, perhaps the designer you’re looking for should be strong in proactivity and drive.
Be sure to keep in mind that your design needs will change over time. So consider hiring a designer who has potential to grow. And create an environment where growth is encouraged and celebrated.
3. Assess and hire the right designer
This is what I’ve found the most difficult for startup founders. They can articulate what kind of designer they are looking for but don’t know how to assess and hire the right designer amongst a field of applicants. These founders often come from product management or engineering backgrounds, so it’s no surprise they don’t have a lot of experience hiring designers.
The most effective way to assess the skills of a designer is to take a look at the work they’ve done in the past. It’s the reason the “portfolio review” is the most common interview format (there are a lot of other design interview formats, but that’s for a future article). Ask your candidates to spend 30 minutes presenting a few projects followed by 30 minutes of questions.
But what questions do you ask? How do you know if the designer you’re interviewing has the skills you’re looking for?
The following is a list of questions that I commonly ask to asses each skillset during a portfolio review.
Product Thinking
- What is the human problem you’re solving?
- How do you know it’s a real human problem (i.e. what research insights or data backs it up)?
- Why does the business care about this? What business metrics or outcomes might the solution affect?
- What was the actual outcome of this work?
- Was it successful? Did you meet or exceed the business metrics? If not, why?
- Knowing what you know now, what might you go back and do differently?
Interaction Design
- What was the hardest interaction design problem you came across?
- How many iterations did you go through? How did you choose the end solution?
- What is one example of how this started out more complex and you simplified it over time?
- How do you use design to guide the user to an intended outcome?
- Did you prototype the flow, adding motion design to ensure it’s a quality experience?
Visual Design
- Did you work within existing pattern libraries or OS guidelines? Or did you develop something new? Either way, why?
- How did the use of color, typography and other design choices help you solve the problem you identified?
- Do you have rationale for each design decision, big and small?
Intentionality
- How have you improved an experience over time, based on user feedback?
- Could you walk me through iterations you’ve made in an experience and what decisions led to the final design?
- Tell me about a time when you had to compromise based on technical constraints or otherwise. How did you come to a compromise?
Proactivity & Drive
- Tell me about a time you’ve helped set the strategy or goals for a project.
- Have you ever led a project by writing product briefs, running design sprints or creating alignment amongst leadership?
Self Awareness
- What is your design super power? What sets you apart from other designers?
- What skill are you still working to develop? What steps are you taking to improve?
- Where do you see your career in 5 years? How do you plan to get there?
For more on how designers prepare their online portfolios, read my article “5 Ways to Improve Your Design Portfolio Today”.
4. Develop a solid design system
A major mistake I see often is founders not investing in a strong, foundational design system. “Why is this important?” you might ask. Great question.
First, it ensures a cohesive brand and product experience from the beginning. This not only creates a great user experience for customers, but also signals to your organization that good design is important. A strong, design-led culture is invaluable and will pay dividends throughout the history of your company.
Second, and more practically, it will save time and effort for both designers and engineers moving forward. Every startup I’ve worked with has invested in creating a design system, the difference is when they do it. Those that wait years do it out of necessity. The user experience has devolved with inconsistent styles and interaction patterns sprinkled throughout the product. Each new designer that has joined the company has added their own flare, mostly out of necessity because a certain component didn’t exist and there was no system to follow. When this startup inevitably does create a design system, it’s a huge endeavor. They either hire a contractor at great expense or pivot in-house designers and developers away from high-priority work.
By contrast, the startup that invests in a design system from the beginning, sets a strong foundation from which future designers can iterate and evolve. It also saves time for engineering who doesn’t have to create new components or UI patterns each time design hands off a new project.
“But what goes into a strong design system?” Another great question. Here’s what I think comprises a comprehensive design system:
- Brand Guidelines. This includes links to all brand assets (logo, wordmark, etc.) and documentation for how to use color, logo, typography, photography, etc.
- Component Library. This is a repository of user interface components that can be used in combination to create screens and flows. Typically this will live within a design file like Figma. Sometimes, at more established companies, this will live as code. Mailchimp Pattern Library is a great example of this.
5. Set up a strong design process
Finally, it’s important to incorporate design thoroughly into your product development processes. And that doesn’t mean to shoehorn design into your current processes, or work around it. It means creating a process that includes design early and often.
As mentioned, a key skill for product designers is “product thinking”. So involve them early in strategy conversations. They’ll help uncover user and business problems, brainstorm solutions, and define product-market fit.
A core relationship to get right is that between design and engineering. They should be in lock step throughout the development process, creating a tight feedback loop. Engineering should be involved in early design iterations to voice potential technical limitations and get started on the the underlying infrastructure. Likewise, design should be involved throughout the engineering process to provide feedback on visual and interaction design to ensure it is built as designed.
Other processes you might want to instill include:
- Product Briefs: These are documents for each product/feature/project that outlines the people problems, business problems, assumptions, timelines, product requirements, open questions, design links, etc. They should be the single source of truth for a given project and kept up to date.
- Daily Standups: If your team is small and moving quickly, it’s often helpful to meet daily (or every other day) for a 15-minute status update. This helps the team stay on the same page and unblock each other. These help the designer know where they can provide the most value and ensure quality product ships.
- Design Critiques: Hold these weekly with your team. The designer will run it and bring their latest work for feedback. Product management can provide feedback on how the designs ladder to people problems and the overall product strategy. Engineering can provide feedback on technical feasibility and alternative solutions based on platform constraints.
There you have it: observations and insights from working with startups to help them bring their design process and quality to the next level. In summary:
- Design is a crucial and early member of your startup team
- Know the type of designer you’re looking for
- Assess and hire the right designer
- Develop a solid design system
- Set up a strong design process
