Building a Design Practice within a Startup

During my career, I’ve been able to collaborate with different groups, within Enterprises of different scales. Traditionally these have been experiences where a design group is already in place, and a process by which design problems are tackled is already established. However, I have also been fortunate to collaborate with different startups, and be tasked with a different type of challenge, namely creating a design practice and a design team. A startup by definition, according to Wikipedia is defined by — “A tech startup is a company whose purpose is to bring technology products or services to market. These companies deliver new technology products or services or deliver existing technology products or services in new ways”. In general it has largely become expected for startups to be characterized by a spirit of innovation, flexibility, entrepeneurial motivation, and a highly driven pursuit of excellence and market disruption. This makes for a ser of interesting challenges for a design practice to exist, and to be shaped. This article aims to shed some light on my experiences in that context, and how I managed to devise a design centric process (and hopefully this can also be of use for smaller design groups that are starting to shape up).

One of the key aspects of a Startup is how close the teams are — everyone has come together for a purpose of delivering something to the market, and ultimately to the consumers, that is bold, different and innovative. This closeness, in a lot of ways, makes for a fertile ground for a designer to explain and evangelize a process. In my particular case, that will guide this article, I had an opportunity to be a part of a large team, that had already been operating for a while, and with a relatively mature adoption rate for the product that was (and is) being delivered. Below I itemize the characteristics, and how I set about putting together a practice within this organization.

1. Context — Context always involves understanding a multitude of elements that converge within an Enterprise of any scale. This traditionally is summarized and placed under the umbrella of research. It’s important for a designer to understand exactly where he’s being inserted to, and that obviously means getting information on multiple levels. Within the startup it’s crucial for the designer to understand what teams are in place, understand what different team members do, if they are co-located or geographically disperse, what means of communication are utilized, all that makes the collaboration between teams a success. It’s also crucial to understand the product and the organization — what is essentially at the core of both — what questions do they answer, what type of solutions are delivered, and how are the consumers and users are perceiving both. On a larger scheme of things, it’s important to understand how the market on that particular vertical operates — what is the jargon, what are the key players and main competitors, how technology drives and impacts that domain, how revenue is generated (and monetization possibilities) and of course, how design is shaping that particular segment. Researching all these items is obviously a task that requires gathering information from other teams members, information that is comprised of analytics, market reports, roadmaps, early consumer auscultation, anything that provides further insight into the project and team. In my specific example, all this information was crucial to provide not only the essential context, but also to start building a practice, one grounded on documenting everything that is and will be consumed by other designers and teams members within the organization.
2. Transparency and Clarity — In order for a designer to succeed, it’s crucial that he/she is able to communicate clearly and with utmost transparency what the goals are, for any type of solution that is being advocated. Particularly in Startups where the enthusiasm and pressure to deliver is always there, the temptation to accelerate and provide answers can prevail, something that at times may not bring the best solution to the foreground. In my particular example, where I was indeed the first designer in the organization, it was important to define what a lean design process entails, and how that responds to the needs of the different teams. In order for that to occur, I promoted conversations, scheduled workshops, and communicated how I envisioned the process coming to life, based on findings that substantiate good design solutions, but that marry the needs for what development and product teams need. I had an opportunity to explain the process to all the teams, and bring to the surface the usefulness of incubation exercises, of the importance of research (and not just competitive analysis), of quick feature workshops (with the production of artifacts such as sketches), of rapid prototypes and user testing (and also user auscultation and quick surveys), of defining a product guideline that establishes consistency within the product suite across multiple platforms, of how branding plays an integral part of defining the product and the positioning of the company within the market. All these different components are going to vary in terms of how exhausting and deep a designer can go, but the goal remains the same — in dynamic environments where solutions are needed, a designer adjusts, and starts shaping a process that crystalizes how features are built, grounded in design principles of innovation, usefulness, clarity, long lasting, all that Dieter Rams so eloquently advocated for.
3. Flexibility and Documentation — One of the key principles of working within a startup is the flexibility to tackle multiple demands. It’s part of the DNA of startups that there’s a constant influx of different design tasks to be accomplished and done. Being able to prioritize them and position them within the process, is part of the challenge, and what makes these opportunities always enticing. In my example, it was important for me to document, and use tools that allowed for a greater transparency in terms of design tasks and prioritization across the board and teams (tracking tools such as Trello, Jira and others became very important). The benefit of documenting and bringing clarity to a process, relies on the fact that this can then be used for team augmentation, specifically for when other designers join the team. It’s easier to bring other team members to the fold, when there’s a backdrop, a process in place, something that obviously will mutate and become more refined, but that initially provides an essential starting point when recruiting and bringing talented members to the group.

Developing a design practice within a startup is definitely a challenge. Of all the interesting outcomes that traditionally come of it, a crucial one is how it expands a designer’s scope and process, beyond focusing specifically on just one aspect of finding a solution. It’s not just about perfecting a micro-interaction or gratuitously inserting a trend that is on the market — it’s about understanding the product, the teams, the consumers, the business requirements, and marrying all these factors with the principles that drive the organization. Now, more than ever, a designer and a well established design process, is a resourceful catalyst that can impact the future and success of any organization.