Startup Stages And How To Build A Design Team Around It

If you are looking to hire a product designer, understand the need of your product & the stage it’s currently in before you start hunting. Every stage in the digital product development phase is a crucial one, its requirements are specific which need the right design skills & experience to deliver the best output to your users. We know this more since we’ve launched 120+ digital products for 80+ founders over the past 7 years. What a ride and learning experience it’s been for our team.

Today’s digital hiring space is cluttered more than ever, while it’s easier to connect with new talent, it's overwhelming to dissect skills you really need on the team. Promising profiles, exceptional work portfolios & use of smart vocabulary makes every talent look greater than the previous one you shortlisted.?

Here’s defining 5 crucial stages of product design & the kind of designer you should on-board:?

1) The Launch Phase (Pre-seed, Seed)

Where your product’s at: You have a vision & you need help to visualize it into a functional product, quickly. Founders in this phase are looking for a problem-solution fit.?

Hire a Product Designer with: Convergent thinking skills to give a visual story for your idea. They should help you prioritize the most impactful features & create an end-to-end flow with the least amount of slippages in functionality.

Things to keep in mind at this stage:?

• It can get tempting to jump into endless brainstorming sessions and come up with endless possibilities regarding product features and designs, but this can get counterproductive because a lot of the product insights can only be formulated after actual users start using the product.?
• In case you want to enter the market with a splash, invest in a visual designer who can think of the overall brand language for your product idea.
• It is important for the designer(s) and developer(s) to work closely to come up with effective solutions rather than the developer spending ample amounts of time building custom elements that have a low impact on the overall product journey. Remember speed is critical in this phase.?

2) The Traction Phase (Series A)

Where your product’s at: Now that the product traction gradually starts to increase, it becomes quite crucial to build an efficient system and add value-added features that can complement your core product offering. Founders in this phase are looking for a product-market fit.

Hire a Product Designer with: Lateral thinking skills who will help preserve what is working so far and at the same time add features that can further enhance the product.

Things to keep in mind at this stage:

• In the previous phase (Launch Phase), the founder’s focus is more toward building a semi-auto product that leverages templates. It could get a little inconvenient, slightly expensive to run, and/or at the mercy of other service providers. But given the need of the hour, it’s feasible since it helps founders quickly gain momentum to get the product up and running.?
• Invest in creating custom visual elements and leverage motion design to create an extra wow effect for your product. We recommend spending at least a few weeks exploring multiple visual styles and directions before you overhaul the UI.
• Remember, the overall look and feel of your product matters the most during this phase, it will help your product get noticed in a crowded marketplace.

3) The Growth Phase (Series B-C)

Where your product’s at: Your product should have gained considerable users by now as per the product offering probably with a high cash burn rate. Founders in this phase are looking for a business-model fit.?

Hire a Product Designer with: Divergent thinking skills and some technical knowledge. This ensures improvement in product metrics, chances to explore more feasible solutions and conduct A/B tests.

Things to keep in mind at this stage:

• A miss-step in the design can lead to losing/impacting multiple active users. On the other hand, adding the right feature to the product can help leverage the entire user base.?
• There will be endless back and forth that occurs between designing a value proposition which creates value for the end-users and a business model which creates value for the organization.?
• As the verticals in the organization start expanding by the time it reaches this phase, it is likely that the design team will have multiple requests from each department. This can get overwhelming for the design team, hence it is crucial to appoint a lead designer with people skills that can manage and prioritize the design tasks for the entire team.?

4) The Maturity and Expansion Phase (Series D+)

Where your product’s at: Congratulations! You have done a great job bringing your product so far. All the problems you will have going forward will be good problems. Founders in this phase are looking for a demand-serviceability fit.?

Hire a Product Designer with: Thought leadership skills which will help take the product in new directions while conducting workshops & using insights across the board.

Things to keep in mind at this stage:

• At this point, the product, having journeyed through multiple phases and stakeholders can become a bit complex to use. Therefore, in this phase, founders should make a stark decision to discard features that no longer provide value or use and also at the same time leverage on creating separate products out of the features that are working really well.?
• Begin brainstorming with your internal team on how you can continue to innovate the product further and ways you can capture a larger market presence.

In case you are looking to design a product or join our team, feel free to write to us at [email protected]