Adopting a Design-Led Approach in Your Startup
This blog post explores the transformative power of a design-led approach for startups, emphasizing its role beyond aesthetics to become a core component of business strategy and customer experience. By examining the success of design-driven companies like Apple and Ikea, it offers insights into attracting top design talent and cultivating a design-thinking culture. The post also highlights the importance of curiosity and strategic questioning in designers, shared from a RISD and Y Combinator alum’s perspective.
Learning from Successful Design-Led Companies
Recognizing the strategic value of the design discipline elevates its impact across the organization. It also helps attract top-tier design talent and fosters a culture of design thinking across all departments. This holistic approach to design can shapeshift your company into a design-led company like Apple, Target, or Ikea. They’re cash-printing Goliaths that don’t put their customers in a position of feeling buyer’s remorse when opening their wallets up. As Fry from Futurama would say, “Shut up and take my money!”.
Elevating the Strategic Value of Design
Adopting a design-led approach for your startup means not just focusing on aesthetics but understanding design as a fundamental component of business strategy and customer experience. This approach is crucial for startups aiming to differentiate themselves in a competitive market and build long-lasting customer relationships.
It’s a red flag when a designer is eager to jump into Figma and start ‘designing.’ We always tell our designers at NUMI that Figma is simply an implementation detail and not the mark of a great designer. It’s about pen over pixel. Are they oozing curiosity and hungry to take notes when learning about your company? Are they asking questions about where your product came from, where it is today, and where it’s going?
These are the green flags you’re looking for in a designer, and it starts with you inspiring this behavior before asking others to exercise it. Be the change you want to see! I share these insights as a RISD and Y Combinator alum with a decade of experience, including my founding product designer role at Imgur and NUMI Co-Founder. Hopefully, it’s a bit helpful as you start your founding journey :)
