CHALLENGE

Joining a startup as the first designer (or design leader) comes with a unique set of challenges. Beyond the standard responsibilities of a product designer (e.g. user research, user experience design, prototyping), you are implicitly expected to teach the founders (and the company) what design means. You need to establish a function they have (likely) not done before. You need to know when it makes sense to push back, and when to bend the knee.

Building trust in a relationship is always hard. Doing so with founders is on another level. But it will be the difference success and failure as a design leader.

APPROACH

There are plenty of courses (and more qualified instructors) to help you with the craft and practice of product design. This is not that course.

Instead, this course will focus on the interpersonal (and often invisible) aspects that hold great designers back. It will help you develop stronger relationships with your founders / partners. It will help you establish a voice for design at your company (or find out they don’t want one).

We will work through the most common challenges early designers face, the root causes behind them, and methods to overcome them.

There will be four sessions, each covering a specific topic.

1. Defining the role of design: Every startup is different. The purpose of design will inherently be different too. It is important to understand the constraints you are operating within. Only then can you frame design in the right way. 

2. Prioritizing the right work: Founders are idea machines. They operate with blinding speed. Sometimes it can feel like Shiny Object Syndrome. Sometimes it feels like you’re taking crazy pills. I will share methods to focus your founders and reduce the thrash. 

3. Advocating for more resources: At some point, you can’t prioritize any better. You simply need to grow the team. We will discuss various ways you could grow the team and how to position yourself in the best way possible. 

4. Deciding to grow or go: I like to focus on things we can control. Eventually, you will reach the limit on how much you can change your environment. What are the signs you have reached that limit? How can you avoid the same mistakes in your next role? How can you better evaluate companies on their understanding of design? Everyone will end the class with a clear perspective on where they can further push, or that it’s time for something new. 

Each session includes three sections designed to help you deeply understand the above topics and apply your learnings in real-time.

1. Feel: I believe we learn (and retain) best from stories. Each session will begin with a real story (or two). They will feel relatable (and maybe a little painful) to hear. Then we will shift into a group discussion to diagnosis the situation.

2. Understand: I believe names are powerful. Once we have diagnosed the problem, I will name it so we can have a shared language. Then we will unpack the root causes and introduce methods for solving them (e.g. founders do not have the language to critique a design, you must give them options to choose from).

3. Apply: I believe teaching is the best way to assess understanding. Students who are currently going through a similar situation will volunteer to share their story. We will use the lesson to diagnosis and develop a plan to resolve it (together). This not only allows us to practice what we are learning, but leverages the rich coaching / support from a group of peers.

Whether this is your first startup experience or you’ve lived through the chaos multiple times, you will build your confidence as an early hire and leader (and have fun doing it!).