
Designers and product managers are a bane - ilrwbwrkhv
This post is inspired by another comment that I made but startups generally should try and avoid hiring designers and product managers for as long as possible.<p>These days is seems like it&#x27;s a given that you need these two groups to hack on a project and that in my opinion is mistaken.<p>When it comes to a lot of tech products, the original hackers often found an interesting angle which makes the product unique. PMs and designers often don&#x27;t understand that so there is a chance of them moving away from it.<p>Designers have a habit of following trends and often don&#x27;t have the courage to do anything which is unique and goes against trends. Especially the ones that you can afford at an early stage startup. If you want to make your product look as generic as the next one, bring in a designer.<p>PMs have a habit of adding feature after feature because that is their major means of contributing. Even if a product doesn&#x27;t need those features, PMs often have nothing to do so they keep adding them. A pure hacker team on the other hand can often spend down cycles polishing the app and fixing bugs.<p>Of course at the end of the day if there are some really awesome PMs and designers you know, include them in your project but please don&#x27;t do that as a default.
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muzani
I disagree. The primary job for both groups is UX. The secondary job is making
sure that the product communicates that it is solving the target market's
problem, and at what price.

A top tier PM is little different to a hacker - they're there to get a dozen
prototypes out a week, and hone in on what works. A good startup PM would also
be doing it _faster_ than a hacker - user interviews, PowerPoint
presentations, drawings on napkins, debates, Coda/Squarespace/Google Docs.

A designer is there to communicate the solution. Good UI builds user trust,
especially something like a bank, where a glitch throws off confidence. Good
UX helps to keep customer confidence long enough and upsell further things.

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olegious
You're describing bad product managers and designers.

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galaxyLogic
So who should a startup hire first?

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wmeredith
Obviously engineers! This is HackerNews after all. Listen to OP. No need to
design something usable or have a product roadmap to market. Just start
building!

/s

