You often see people stating that they are joining as a solo designer in a Startup and want advice. Them being the solo designer shouldn’t directly impact their effectiveness.
Here’s what I feel matters the most towards their success:
1. What is your role?
Knowing why they opened the designer role is important before you take that job. I recommend that you ask the hiring manager this question during your interview rounds and also ask to speak to the critical members in the team you will be joining. I take it that most Founders open a position because they got some feedback from customers or because their investor told them to. They may not be ready to invest in what can make a designer effective in their role.
2. Fitting into the team:
The team would need to adapt to having an in-house designer working with them. The team members would need to understand what the role of the designer is and how they could work with them. They would need to take time to adapt their workflows or create new inclusive processes. All this is hard to do and the designer(especially a junior one) wouldn’t do very well without a sponsor.
3. You need a sponsor.
One of my key learnings has been to choose to work with someone who will be your advocate in the organisation. It’s the single most important thing to look for during the interview process. The best teams I’ve observed had CEOs being the design sponsor and their products tend to win at least in terms of product quality (a product’s success is more than it’s quality, but that’s another post) Don’t believe me? Well in *Rams*, Dieter Rams states “If you don't have someone who stands behind you, then you can forget it.” And cites it as a reason for leaving Braun.
Of course, not every Startup out there succeeds and there’s no guarantee that the team you join will survive but its always good to make sure that you enjoy the team you spend there and learn how to become a better designer.
If you are looking for advice on what you can do as a solo designer to succeed, this post I wrote after my first year as a designer may be useful.