Where Are The Desiger Founders?
Why don’t more designers take the leap into entrepreneurship?
I often see three barriers holding designers back:
Perfection paralysis: Time is death for startups and this requires founders to be ruthlessly fast with product iteration and decision making. Most designers care a ton about craft, as it’s in their DNA. But this can also prevent fast progress.
Hesitation to pursue other disciplines: Many designers hesitate to delve into non-design disciplines like fundraising, operations, or sales. Interestingly, if you’re willing to work on these, it can actually improve your design ability because it helps you practice tying design solutions to business outcomes, like improving customer conversation and retention.
Fear of leaving comfort zone: If you’re a talented product designer, you’re likely already gainfully employed. Starting your own company requires you to leave your comfortable corner and pursue the unknown, with a high likelihood of failure.
On the other hand, designers are also equipped with some entrepreneurial advantages:
Instant prototyping: Designers can bring ideas to life quickly without having to hire others. The ability to get real looking prototypes in front of customers drastically increases the speed of feedback cycles, helping to launch products faster.
Trend prediction: Designers excel at predicting what’s next and spotting evolving customer behaviors. Airbnb, Pinterest, and Dyson were all founded by designers— each starting as non-obvious ideas.
Taming complexity: One of the biggest superpowers of a good designer is their ability to take a complex problem and distill it in a simple way that anybody can understand. Whether it’s pitching to investors or rallying a team around a vision, this is a skill that helps tremendously when running a company.