

What every founder should know about designers - kirillzubovsky
https://scoutzie.com/blog/what-every-founder-should-know-about-designers/

======
ISeemToBeAVerb
"the best designers wouldn’t dare having anything less than a gorgeous site."

LOL!!

This is the type of advice you get when you have marketers writing articles
about how to hire "top" designers.

Most of the successful guys I know are WAY too busy to worry about having a
gorgeous website. Some of the best designers I know use a Tumblr blog. One
busy friend of mine hasn't even bothered to change his default wordpress
theme.

There are many amazing designers that get their work purely through word of
mouth. Websites are only really useful if you need work.

------
feverishaaron
Much of this advice is terrible for a startup.

A client-services model isn't a good fit for a startup, due to the iterative
nature of a product in search of a business model. The entire article implies
a waterfall approach where a designer goes into a cave, does some work and
presents it for "review".

Instead, a good "startup designer" will be an empathetic generalist
(UI/IA/Front-end) with good market sense. It's important that they're
comfortable skipping a lot of "design process" and rapidly iterating with
engineering (their "familiarity with flat design" notwithstanding).

Also, many great designers don't have portfolios. That's because they're busy
doing real work. Ask to see real work.

Despite the linked article, if you're early stage you should go unicorn
hunting. It's critical to hire from the A-list for the inaugural team.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
> Also, many great designers don't have portfolios. That's because they're
> busy doing real work. Ask to see real work.

A great designer will always have a portfolio...its essentially their CV.
Asking to see real work is quite difficult if that work is proprietary.

~~~
feverishaaron
By portfolio, I mean a fancy, well-manicured site that shows static mocks. I'd
rather see a real product. Coincidentally, the two people I've given offers to
in the past month were the only two we interviewed who didn't have portfolio
sites.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
If they are trained designers, they'll have portfolios with some amount of
intermediate work, not just static websites, but maybe wireframes, graphic
design output, storyboards, and so on.

------
AnotherDesigner
This is just an ad for scoutzie. I've never heard of them and I'm sure the
"top designers from around the world" haven't either.

~~~
kirillzubovsky
Actually, they have. Freelancing isn't everyone's cup of tea, and sure, when
you can grab 100k+ for a project, you don't need to be listed on a website,
but we have quite a few really stellar individuals.

Don't hate, appreciate.

------
bobbygoodlatte
This is great advice for finding a decorator — someone who slaps a coat of
paint on a wireframe or draws a pretty logo.

Startups should hire a Product Designer. A generalist who can execute on
product vision, interactions, and aesthetics. Someone who can hold the whole
picture in their head and help mould it into something great.

