When a startup is born, it must make crucial decisions about its product, market, and user experience. This is where the Founding Designer, a strategic player capable of giving a visual identity and a coherent user experience to a nascent project.
The Founding Designer: a designer like no other
To put it simply, a Founding Designer is the first designer of a startup. Unlike a traditional designer, their role isn't limited to a single area of design. They must leverage their skills across multiple disciplines, from graphic design and marketing to user experience, including creating a brand identity and developing a design system or UI kit, and even UX writing.
Its Key Missions
- Shaping the product vision by working closely with the founders.
- Define a strong visual identity that resonates with the target audience.
- Optimize the user experience (UX/UI) to ensure an intuitive and efficient product.
- Adopt a product and strategic approach, and not limit itself to graphic design.
- Evangelizing the importance of design within the company and with the different teams.
- Laying the foundations for a future design team, by structuring its development and ensuring its skills development.
More than a designer, he is almost a founding member. He can also hold a participation in the company, which makes him involved in management, investments and fundraising. This gives him a key role in strategic decisions and a direct interest in the success of the startup. He is thus at the crossroads of design, product and strategy.
A Key Role in Early Stage
In the early stages of a startup's development, the founding designer plays a key role. Even before the company finds its market and validates its business model, they must lay the foundations for a strong visual identity and a seamless user experience.
At this stage, resources are limited and every decision has a major impact. The Founding Designer must be able to experiment quickly, to test concepts and continuously improve the first versions of the product. His goal is to propose a viable solution that can evolve quickly based on feedback from early users. He must also know working with limited resources without compromising quality and consistency of design.
It is in this logic that the Lean design stands out as a particularly effective approach. It encourages a pragmatic approach where each design element is tested and adjusted based on user feedback. Rather than seeking perfection from the start, the goal is to iterate quickly and evolve the product based on real market needs. The challenge is toget to the point to avoid wasting time and energy, while ensuring an intuitive and engaging user experience.
Example of a successful Founding Designer
Figma – Dylan Field
Co-founder and trained designer, he revolutionized the world of collaborative design with Figma, with emphasis on accessibility and real-time collaborationHis visionary approach has enabled Figma to become an essential tool for designers and developers.
The Challenges of the Founding Designer
Based on feedback from several Founding Designers such as Méderic Manière, Adrien Griveau and many others, this role requires adaptability and resilience to all tests.
Working at an early-stage startup means operating in an uncertain, often chaotic environment, where priorities shift rapidly and resources are limited. To succeed, a founding designer must develop several essential skills:
- Demonstrate great adaptability in order to respond to the constant developments of the project.
- To be polyvalent, taking on several roles beyond design (product strategy, branding, user experience, etc.).
- Structuring and organizing chaos, by putting in place clear processes to ensure consistency in product development.
- Take on expanded responsibilities, ranging from product vision to business strategy.
- Managing the pressure of deadlines while ensuring a high level of requirement and quality.
- Play a mentoring role for designers who will join the team, in order to transmit a solid culture and methodologies.
The Founding Designer is therefore much more than a simple executor: he is a true strategic pillar, capable of combining creative vision and business approach to grow the startup from its first days.
Conclusion
The Founding Designer is much more than just a designer: he is a strategic pillar in building a startup. By combining design, product and business vision, it plays a key role in the success of the company, especially in its early stage phase.
If you're an early-stage startup, investing in a founding designer can make all the difference between a product that struggles to find its market and one that wins over its first users.
Anaëlle Staelen, UX/UI designer and Product designer at UX-Republic
