Everyone Talks About Product–Market Fit. A Good Designer Can Help You Find It.
One of the things I find curious about the startup world is how often people talk about value — and how rarely they actually know how to find it.
One of the things I find curious about the startup world is how often people talk about value — and how rarely they actually know how to find it.
One of the most common mistakes I see founders make is thinking about design too late. They’ll bring in a designer to “make things look nice” after the product is built—when the features are locked in, the UX is baked, and the real strategic decisions have already been made.
Hiring your first designer can feel like a black box. You know design matters. You want your product to feel polished, trustworthy, and easy to use. But what kind of designer should you hire first?
You worked hard to raise money. You pitched. You hustled. You got the cheques. Now what?
In 1949, a crew of elite smoke-jumpers parachuted into Montana’s Mann Gulch to fight what looked like a routine wildfire. But within hours, the fire turned deadly. As the flames roared up the slope, their leader, Wagner Dodge, made a radical move: he lit a fire of his own. By burning the grass ahead of him, he created a patch of scorched earth the wildfire couldn’t cross. He lay in the ashes as the main fire swept over.
Starting a company is a crash course in humility. You’re juggling 100 decisions a day, half of which you’ve never faced before. You’re trying to build a product, grow a business, and stay sane—all at once.
Here are seven principles I’ve seen trip up first-time founders (myself included). If you're just getting started, I hope this saves you some scar tissue.