00:00now's the super practical section of how
00:02to find and choose designers we can get
00:04through this really quickly happy to
00:06answer questions afterwards about it but
00:09you know the basic questions we always
00:11get asked is you know well when when and
00:13how the reality of it is there are so
00:15many ways to answer this but this is
00:16just you know super boilerplate advice
00:19it's that preceeds seed and probably pre
00:22a you still need a co-founder probably
00:24to do it and then you could probably get
00:26by with a little bit of consulting by
00:29series a you should probably unless you
00:31truly have nothing that has a user
00:34facing element which is rare I mean even
00:36developer api's today you know I would
00:38argue that you need a developer API
00:40designer who sort of runs through this
00:43whole process but just for a developer
00:45experience is incredibly valuable
00:47that's make-or-break for you know even
00:50highly technical products you know that
00:54that's when you should really start
00:55thinking about your first hire and then
00:58you know by Series B what you really
01:01should think about is how do you hire a
01:03team a lot of people reach series B and
01:06they're actually you know they're still
01:07at the first higher stage and the
01:09difficult part is if you actually have
01:111015 engineers and you're trying to hire
01:13that first designer and you don't have
01:15you're not going to hire a team that's
01:17actually like a little bit of a
01:19nightmare for a designer to work at
01:21which makes sense actually to be the
01:24only person on that whole team in charge
01:26of design and you versus 20 engineers is
01:29a very scary thing for a designer so
01:33this might be a little outdated but this
01:35is you know sort of what I've always
01:37used in the past they're just websites
01:39online to sort of find designers so it
01:42dribbles is incredible portfolio you can
01:44get a lot out of LinkedIn look for you
01:47know companies in your space that have
01:49done designed very very well and you can
01:51just very point-blank start reaching out
01:53to them behance crop I mean all of these
01:58are websites and you should just go
01:59check out AIGA even has a little
02:01database of member designers on there
02:05when I'm thinking about hiring people
02:07directly for a full-time role or even
02:09for contract there are a bunch of
02:11schools that have worked well for me C
02:13di NYU MIT RISD Parsons Stanford this is
02:19really not a comprehensive list and
02:21frankly there are so many incredibly
02:23good designers you know who have never
02:25been to a Design School in terms of
02:30finding consultants there's really two
02:33paths here one is to go ahead and find
02:36an individual so you know it turns out
02:40that there are a lot of people who you
02:42can kind of use this as a way to recruit
02:44them so some of the best folks they
02:48actually really like to work on a lot of
02:50different projects all of the time and
02:53you know there's actually a very large
02:55pool of individuals for basically
02:56individual consultants and they're hard
02:58to get and you might have to email a lot
03:00of them but you can reach out you can't
03:03hire them as temp consultants and if
03:04there's a really good fit that could be
03:06a way to get to know them to come on
03:08board a really cool trick that I've
03:10heard for people who just need low cost
03:13like logo design and visual design
03:15there's actually an incredible number of
03:17people out there in the world who are
03:19not first world designers and they're
03:22totally available on 99designs Fiverr I
03:25think this is not you know they're
03:26probably a bunch of other places like
03:27that the trick that I've heard that you
03:30could use is you can actually take your
03:32job put it on one of these job boards
03:35and then don't just do it for you know
03:37one don't don't just hire one job you
03:39could hire 20 jobs and then look at the
03:42output of those 20 different people and
03:44then personally befriend the person who
03:47does some of the best work and you'll
03:49find people in you know all around the
03:51world Philippines Thailand Eastern
03:54Europe everywhere real I mean Africa
03:56Asia Europe like you know even the
03:59United States people who are incredibly
04:01talented who you know actually but
04:04they're just starting out in their
04:05careers where they don't know how to
04:07actually get great jobs and you could be
04:08that way too that they learn about
04:11startups you know design firms they're
04:15just so many you know the difficulty
04:18with design firms is you kind of have to
04:20find one that is willing to work with
04:24you know many of them the bread and
04:25butter for the best design firms truly
04:27is working with Fortune 500 companies
04:29for outrageous sums of money so it can
04:32be very difficult to find ones that will
04:34work with startups you know they get
04:37labs is the one out of DC that I use the
04:39most but they're you know our giant
04:42direct directories and frankly referrals
04:44are sort of your best bet and then I
04:46want to call out a company that just
04:49graduated from YC a few weeks ago called
04:52play-doh design their URL is use
04:54play-doh calm you should definitely
04:56reach out to them I think that they do a
04:59very very amazing job so how do you
05:04actually attract a designer to work at a
05:07start-up and you know really sort of the
05:11ideal at Series A or even where you're
05:14at right now is like you know if you are
05:16a truly a consumer focused company you
05:19kind of need a co-founder on there who
05:21can actually run this for you but later
05:25on especially you know and if you're a
05:26three or four person team you can
05:29ideally unicorn to come join and give
05:31them you know a much more senior role
05:33that that'll be fairly important at
05:35series a but once you do have a larger
05:38team of five to ten engineers it gets
05:40really scary for a designer who's used
05:42to working with teams work working for a
05:44design firm or working at you know um
05:48via Facebook or one of the large tech
05:50companies like they're used to sitting
05:52with other people who spend all of their
05:53time thinking about all of the things
05:55that we were just talking about with
05:57wireframes and users and personas and so
06:00it can be incredibly scary for those
06:02designers to come and work for you much
06:04later stage if you don't plan to hire a
06:06team that is diversified that you know
06:09that you know it just gives them a
06:10really good day-to-day you know and then
06:15at the end of the day like being able to
06:17be very crisp about what those roles are
06:18that's the other part of hiring a team
06:20that's incredibly important it's going
06:21to be very very hard to find a unicorn
06:23but often you can break it down by the
06:26exact things that I mentioned like
06:27they're incredibly good PM's who have
06:29great resumes who have great backgrounds
06:32who you know that's one coherent role
06:34interaction designers sometimes they
06:37things that are pretty but they are
06:38incredibly empathetic they're able to
06:39think through you know they're great
06:42writers they're incredible communicators
06:44and that's what you would look for in
06:45that rule and finally visual design
06:47that's probably the part that is that
06:49you know oh yeah but it's often stands
06:53on its own it doesn't have to and so
06:56it's just a different skill set and then
07:00really quickly I mean it's actually very
07:02effective for startups who want to hire
07:04design teams to actually write about it
07:07content marketing works extremely well
07:09social media works incredibly well and
07:12you know if you're all engineers but
07:14you're already thinking about this and
07:15talking through a lot of the terms that
07:17I was talking about well that's a
07:19culture fit for designers because you
07:21know that's basically what they want
07:23they want executives or workplaces or
07:27founders who understand and speak their
07:29language and so that's why I encourage
07:31you guys to be very open with do it
07:33yourself to do it to understand these
07:35things because even if you don't do it
07:39in you know down the road you're
07:42actually far better at evaluating
07:44managing and working closely with people
07:47who do and who are very good at it how
07:51do you actually interview these designer
07:52as well this is typically what I
07:54examined you know do a quick phone
07:56screen at the end a like it's actually
07:58you know no matter how beautiful a
08:00portfolio is it's just so hard to work
08:03with people who have sort of their own
08:04vision that cannot communicate and so
08:07the phone screen it's really all about
08:09you know great communication skills I
08:12think that's incredibly essential and
08:14then when they actually come and meet
08:17you in the team you know actually have
08:18them walk through the hard decisions the
08:20trade-offs like we spend a lot of time
08:22about product design you want to see
08:24exactly that kind of thought about
08:25personas about prioritization what are
08:28the difficult trade-offs because there
08:29always are in every type of product you
08:31could design and finally I recommend who
08:35whichever founder is has been doing the
08:37design or the product you know you've
08:39already been solving problems that you
08:41might have so the key thing there is if
08:44you've already spent your you know
08:462,000 hours thinking about a given
08:48problem you know it's the best for you
08:52to actually spend time walking through a
08:54candidate over and over again and just
08:57to make sure that you think through
08:58these things the same way that they do
09:00so you can read this later but you know
09:05it's pretty straightforward you know
09:06think about design you don't want people
09:08who're complainers actually it's pretty
09:10common you know you want someone who's
09:13empathetic and listens to your needs is
09:15you know it's usually bad for someone to
09:17talk about themselves a lot and so you
09:20know going back to the empathy point
09:21that's incredibly important you know the
09:24funniest thing that I like to use is
09:26when someone's when I ask them a design
09:28question if they just go to the
09:29whiteboard and just start drawing they
09:32fail because wait why didn't you ask
09:34about the users who's it for what's the
09:36problem and so you know these are just
09:40guidelines there's so many ways to
09:42interview you know I if you don't have a
09:45really good design leader on your team I
09:46highly recommend that you go to a friend
09:48or someone who you do respect who can do
09:50this stuff to just be like sort of a
09:53final check before you do hire someone
09:55so you know these are a bunch of books
09:59that I've sort of referred to throughout
10:00the talk this is just a starting point
10:02this is far from comprehensive but you
10:05know if you bought every single one of
10:06these books and read it that you know
10:08front to back you would be a pretty good
10:11maybe I hear a bunch of links that you
10:15should probably read afterwards - you
10:17know taste from makers is one of these
10:18PG essays that you know I think not a
10:22lot of people talk about but it's
10:24incredibly timeless so I highly
10:26recommend that and then these are links
10:28that are very specific about you know
10:30how do you write a PRD what's your first
10:32wireframe and then these other websites
10:34we just really really like because
10:36there's so much there that you know this
10:38field is incredibly deep so thank you so
10:41much for spending and making it all the
10:42way to the end of this talk it's an
10:44hour-and-a-half 90 minutes we made it
10:46through a hudner of four slides so thank
10:48you for sitting with me I will leave you
10:50with just one final thought and it's
10:52truly that you know what we're talking
10:55about with a start-up design is only one
10:57of this three-legged stool and your
11:01startup your startup success truly lies
11:03at the intersection of all of these
11:05things so thank you so much thank you
11:09for spending time with me I know that
11:11was a lot so the question is how
11:28important is an about Us page I mean
11:30yeah this isn't necessarily a design
11:32thing I actually really think it's
11:34important in that going back to our you
11:38know moment where we were talking about
11:41how alone we are as in this in this you
11:44know sort of product Baron product
11:46landscape you know you just feel so
11:48alone and the about Us page is the one
11:50place where you as founders can tell
11:52your story like everyone is spending so
11:54much time trying to be incredibly I mean
11:59they're trying to imitate Microsoft
12:00they're trying to be Google right and
12:02you know you should embrace how powerful
12:05it is that you're trying to do this
12:07thing and being a real human being
12:09answering emails and putting your name
12:12on the website I mean I would argue that
12:14that's why one of the big reasons why
12:16coinbase was so successful I mean Brian
12:19Armstrong very early on he was probably
12:21the only person in the whole Bitcoin
12:23world who was willing to put their name
12:25you know the address like I mean just
12:29basic things to make it an incredibly
12:31real real thing so I you know I think
12:33about us is very important for your
12:36relationship with your customers and
12:37that's not a design thing yes
13:03how do you ask questions that really let
13:06you accurately see your user there's a
13:08lot of times you know you might be doing
13:10a user interview and you feel like
13:12they're not yeah so I guess the question
13:16is how do you actually well you know how
13:18do you properly ask questions to sort of
13:20get the story of your user you know the
13:25hard part here is there's not really one
13:27way to do it I think it really does come
13:29back to being a good interviewer and
13:31thinking through I mean asking
13:34open-ended questions is actually a
13:35really good way to do it it's just you
13:37know tell me about your day and like oh
13:39you know tell me about you can even ah
13:42seize on emotion because the best
13:44problems to solve were actually
13:45incredibly emotion emotional ones it's
13:48like I get frustrated when blah or I get
13:51mad when blah right like those are a lot
13:54of very very strong you know going back
13:56to you know I think Jeff might have
13:59taught me this actually just purely that
14:01um you know you really want to look for
14:03things there you know hair on fire
14:05problems you know things that actually
14:09but you know get people upset you know
14:11like emotion it can be an incredibly
14:13powerful and good thing so open-ended
14:16questions and look for emotion yes yeah
14:35so first question is about prototyping
14:37and you know the I have a confession to
14:46I have not done a lot of prototyping
14:49simply because I am I'm always in such a
14:52rush to get the code done that the
14:55second I know what I want to build I
14:56just build it and then I ship it and
14:58then I'll just do it live and so I
15:01haven't personally gotten a lot of use
15:03out of prototype prototyping but I know
15:05that it's an incredibly valuable tool
15:06and that's just a weird weird one for me
15:10because I'm just always I would rather
15:12just ship the thing and have
15:13be out there yeah and then sorry the
15:17second yeah so the question is you know
15:27if you know a problem but you haven't
15:29found the solution you know the hard
15:30part there is like it's not totally
15:32clear to me that design can solve it you
15:34know what you describe maybe is either a
15:36business problem or a tech not
15:38technology problem you know it sometimes
15:43is a design problem if there's you know
15:45it's I don't know I mean the hard part
15:47is these things are so squishy right
15:48like if it's a business problem then you
15:51don't have distribution people don't
15:53know they have the problem you can't get
15:54in front of them or if it's a if it's a
15:57technology problem then it's like I mean
15:59yeah how do we actually build the thing
16:01and if we're not capable of doing it
16:03then design can't solve it right how
16:12about you just keep building things
16:13until you get it right
16:17do what Jeff said over here yes please
16:34the question is are there places where
16:37you should maintain your distance I
16:39can't think of any at the moment there
16:41probably are I mean it was a really big
16:46advantage for them to you know be out in
16:49the open I could imagine being if it's a
16:52incredibly competitive and if you want
16:55to be secretive there are cases where
16:57you don't want to be that open and that
17:00does happen especially for you know
17:03something that's easily copied or
17:05something that you know is incredibly
17:07enterprise focus so it's not important
17:09for a lot of people to know about it
17:11those are the main scenarios where I
17:14think secrecy turns out to be very
17:16important but most people tend to err on
17:19the side of more secrets secrecy than
17:21less you know the standard YC ISM around
17:25this that I very much believe
17:27you know whenever you're creating
17:29something new you're not competing
17:31against all of the other people out
17:32there you're only competing against
17:35obscurity you're you're competing
17:37against like the back button and so to
17:39the extent that that's true being as
17:41open as possible getting as many people
17:43to know about you as possible and being
17:44a human being and having that interplay
17:52question is god is controversy I mean it
17:55depends on the type of a controversy you
17:57know one of the funniest examples of me
18:00giving very bad advice and me very being
18:02very relieved that the founder did not
18:04take that advice was a company called
18:06Soylent so they came in through YC they
18:09were working on something totally
18:11different in networking equipment and I
18:14sat down with them in this room for
18:15office hours and they said great news we
18:18have this incredible we have you know
18:20all of these orders people love this
18:21thing oh by the way we're gonna stick
18:23with the name Soylent and I said please
18:25please don't call it that do you know
18:27what that means haven't you seen the
18:28movie and it turns out that you know the
18:30entire reason why they were able to get
18:32probably a billion dollars worth of
18:34earned you know free advertising the
18:36reason why they have an incredibly
18:38powerful business today is purely
18:40because they found exactly the right
18:42kind of controversy 90% of people who
18:45love food hear about it and say this is
18:48terrible I hate it in fact they hate it
18:50so much there at dinner and their top
18:52telling everyone they know about it and
18:53then ten percent of people hear about it
18:56and they're like oh my god I need that
18:58now so there are cases where controversy
19:02can be incredibly powerful
19:05they're sorry thank you guys
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