Founders, Don’t settle for anything less than world-class design

I probably don’t need to tell you how important great user experience and quality product design are for your startup - McKinsey showed that great design is a 2x revenue multiplier. Forrester’s research claims it’s even higher.

It seems everyone wants their product to have great design - but it’s much harder to actually prioritise great design whilst scaling your company - as a founder, it’s often not your #1 priority….

This is where I come in.

I can help you take the limited time and resources you have for design and make the most of them. I bring years of experience at top companies scaling design teams, implementing discovery and design processes and conducting user research that is all ultimately in the service of two things: moving fast and creating a product that your users love.

fractional design leadership brings the value of a design exec at a fraction of the cost

Do you struggle with any of the following?

  • Is a contractor a better choice? What about agencies? If you’re hiring, do you need a junior or a lead? What’s the difference? Full-time or part-time? Do you want a UX thinker, a visual designer, or a blend? What about marketing and creative designers?

  • Your budget is tight, you’re competing against cashed-up competition, and you probably haven’t really hired a designer before. What do you look for in a portfolio? How do you conduct a design exercise? How to separate the OK from the great?

    And then, if you luck out and hire someone great - how do you give them the growth opportunities, feedback and coaching to prevent them from jumping ship the moment another big tech company floats a tasty offer? 

  • Onboarding junior and mid-level designers takes time - it can be weeks or months before they are up to speed. Only then do you realise your challenges - your designer is only as good as the way you brief and give feedback to them.

  • Do you worry about engineers being blocked? Does it always feel like design is moving too slow? How do you start to troubleshoot and improve your designer’s delivery speed?

If you have these problems, hiring me as a fractional design leader may help

As a founder, you are focused on shipping and growing those first customer segments. Do you want to be spending your time worrying about all of the above issues, not to mention making decisions like how to run your design reviews, if you need a design system, what the best handover process is - the list goes on and on.

By spending just a small percentage of what you would be spending on your design hire, I can help dramatically improve your design quality and velocity by bringing the practices and expertise from top companies like Google, Yelp and Lonely Planet.

The reality is: You don’t need a full-time design executive at this stage of your growth.

Someone like myself paired with a high-potential junior designer (who I can help you find) gives you the best of both worlds at just a fraction of the cost.

Interested in finding out more?

I would love to jump on a call to understand your top design challenges and offer advice. If you like what you hear, we can talk about what an ongoing engagement might look like.

“ Design is still the most under-appreciated part of what makes startups win. Truly understanding that puts you ahead of 90% of the competition. ”

— Tomer London, Co-founder of Gusto

The problem with hiring just a…

A beginners guide for how to think about your first design hire(s).

For more help making your first hire - reach out! I’d love to help.

  • They probably don’t have the expertise to partner with the business or help you scale, and may take some time to onboard - you’re going to have to put in a lot of work to unlock their full potential.

    But, if you find someone great the effort can be worth it as they will become a core part of your team.

  • Hard to find, but will produce some amazing design work - although they will be expensive!

    They are probably not going to want to help with your social media, marketing and decks, and may get frustrated with the low-level execution and pivots.

    Another consideration: many Principals have a narrow (but deep) skillset - they may not be able to partner with you and the business, help you scale and establish good processes.

  • This is also an expensive hire but will bring a wealth of expertise.

    The big caveat is: you will probably still need someone to produce the day-to-day design work for your engineers.

    Do you really need 40 hours a week from a person just to tap their expertise?

  • Upwork, Fiverr, etc can be really cheap and fast - works really well for straightforward small requests.

    But if you are building a product with any complexity, communicating what you need can be a challenge and you will find yourself spending a lot of time to define and iterate on exactly what you need.

  • If you have a tightly scoped design task, agencies can be a good (but expensive) option. Quality is usually quite high and communication is handled by experts.

    You are like to only get exactly what you ask for (your brief is everything) - they won’t help you hire or help plan for how design will evolve as you scale.

How hiring me works

We jump on a free call to discuss your top design needs

I’ll offer as much advice as I can in the meeting, and we’ll decide if I can add value to your organisation.

I spend several hours a week with you on your top design problems

Based on your needs, this will usually be for design reviews, coaching, strategy or hiring, although we’ll decide together on the highest-impact activities

I pull in additional expertise and resources as needed

Urgently need a design prototype? Need to run a qualitative research study? Want a new brand identity? I can leverage my network to find you someone great.

what I can help with

  • Recruitment and hiring (incl. agency selection)

  • Pitch decks, narratives and storytelling

  • Prototyping your MVP

  • Onboarding your designer(s)

  • Coaching and career development for your team

  • Opportunity identification: Audits, funnel & heuristic analyses

  • Design and product process and best practices

  • Solving design velocity issues

  • Design reviews and quality control

  • Design systems development and prioritization

  • User research setup and approach

  • Brand strategy and approach

  • Cross-functional design needs - content, design ops, marketing

How much does it cost?

My pricing scales with the level of engagement - for fractional design leadership services you can expect to pay a small percentage of your design budget.

My goal is to make sure you see that investment returned to you several times over in the form of quality and velocity improvements. This is on top of the impact my user-centric strategic partnership will have on your improving your product and feature decisions.

Beyond fractional design leadership, I can also help you organise the hands-on production of assets (prototypes, research, mocks). Pricing for this varies based on your needs.

For an exact quote, reach out to schedule some time to chat. I’ll talk you through how it all works, understand your top challenges and make a recommendation on the best engagement for your current needs

Related case study

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I recently helped two established founders prototype the MVP for a generative AI tooling product that helps prompt engineers improve the quality of their LLM-based products