I sat down with Tom Scott to discuss the role of a Founding Designer. Plus, also what an early stage startup should look for to hire a Founding Designer.
Startups are designed to be hard and literally no day will feel the same. The highs are very high and lows can even break you at times. With that said, they are also very rewarding and that’s one of the primary reasons people start or join a startup.
There can be multiple different challenges in a startup and this is my ongoing list, which goes beyond the hard skills of a designer:
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Keep your mental and physical health in check: first things first - in order to do good work, collaborate well, explore fast and iterate enough you need to make sure your body is in sync with yourself. Get enough sleep, meditate, run, strength train or anything that works. But make sure you are taking care of yourself. Startups can be intimidating, so be selfish and take time out for yourself in order to make sure your tomorrow looks better. Do this for yourself.
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Too many challenges to be solved at the same time: There is always something on fire and needs your attention, but ruthless prioritization is the name of the game. Remember, every decision will have its consequences. Are you comfortable with X over Y? If so, how comfortable are you? What are the business stakes? What happens if you can’t prioritize Y for the next few weeks? People will look up to you and your hypothesis, insights as well. So, being comfortable with which project to take over others is very important.
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Forget your picture perfect double diamond process: I can’t stress on this enough. I might get into trouble here with fellow designers here, but let me say - there is no picture perfect process to designing good products and no one framework works for all or in every company or in every situation. Be adaptable, be bold in your approach and be more than okay to change your process with the need of the hour. But that also doesn’t mean you have to bend over backwards to fulfil every task from everyone.
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You will do a lot more than what your job entails/lines are blurred in between different roles: There will be a lot of problems which are not well defined or nobody is there to define it for you. A big part of you growing as a founding designer is to define problems, why the problem is a problem and what are the different ways of solving it without having a full fledged team. And trust me it can be a lot of fun. An opportunity is as big or as small as you want it to be. Ask yourself if you are okay with it.
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With great power comes great responsibility: Everyone wants more power and control, but very few can deal with the responsibility that comes with it. Ask yourself if you are okay with being questioned on your decisions, if you are okay with being uncomfortable for days and being okay with personal hockey stick growth. Imagine yourself in those situations and see how okay you are with it.
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You don’t have the luxury of time: You don’t have all the days and weeks to work on optimising. There will be, but it might not be now. My manager keeps saying this fascinating sentence: “ always think of how much we can do in a week’s time and let’s push through that” and it has stuck with me. I found it really valuable in how to think of time, prioritizations and what can be done.
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Thinking slow, fast and beyond: Now this is a tough nut to crack and you will only get better with time and experience. Solving for MVP, yet solving for the future so the system doesn’t break. Always imagine what your north star vision is and work backwards with different shipping cycles. You will also realize how far you and the product have come.
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Imposter syndrome: I work with a bunch of magnificent colleagues who are incredible at what they do and beyond so. You are bound to feel like an imposter. But growth happens when you surround yourself with people who are extremely talented and passionate about what they do.
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