14. Different types
# of Designers of designers
employees
contractors consultants
founders
Roles
15. So I got out of the
building...
And started interviewing everyone I knew
who might know something about being a
designer founder...
16. Mitch Kapor
Electronic Frontier & Mozilla Foundations
Founder of Lotus 1-2-3
MIT Mangement Science
Radio DJ & Meditator
Yale Cybernetics
Summer Science Program
Public school
18. Software Design
Manifesto
Despite the enormous outward
success of personal computers, the
daily experience of using computers
far too o en is still fraught with
di culty, pain, and barriers for most
people, which means that the
revolution, measured by its original
goals, has not as yet succeeded.
19. More Than Interface
Design
Today, the so ware designer leads a
guerrilla existence, formally
unrecognized and o en
unappreciated. There’s no spot on the
corporate organization chart or career
ladder for such an individual.
20. More Than Interface
Design
The so ware designer is concerned
primarily with the overall conception of
the product.
The look and feel of a product is but one
part of its design.
21. Firm Grounding in Tech
Many people who think of themselves
as working on the design of so ware
simply lack the technical grounding to
be an e ective participant in the
overall process. Naturally,
programmers quickly lose respect for
people who fail to understand
fundamental technical issues.
23. John Lilly
Mozilla
Reactivity
ATG Apple Labs
Trilogy
Stanford Computer Science BS/MS
Stanford CS198 Section Leader & Coordinator
Ran Toyon Eating Club
25. Ryan Freitas
Director of Product
About.me Founder
Second Verse Principal
Plinky Director Product Design
Adaptive Path Director
MetaDesign Interaction Design
Sapient Sr Info Architect
Interval Logic GUI Developer
USD Cog Sci/HCI
27. Christina Brodbeck
Founder
YouTube Founding UI Designer
MRL Ventures Web Designer
NASA UI Designer
SFSU Flash Teaching Assistant
Giant Campus Design Instructor
Keynote Systems
Communication Design
Urban Programs Resource Center
Web Designer
33. Jason Putorti
Bessemer Venture Parnters DiR
Intuit Creative Director
Mint Lead Designer
Fitting Group Consultant
Novaurora CEO
College Prowler CTO
3N2 CTO
Freelance Web Design
52. Jennifer Lopez &
Abby Sturges
Stanford Product Design
Stanford Product Design
Newmark Industries
Hopkins Center for the Arts
Radius Product Dev
Dartmouth
Carnegie Mellon
59. What Do We Mean
by Design (not just visual)?
Visual Design
Interface - Navigation - Info Design
Info Architecture - Interaction Design
Functional Specs - Content Reqs
Underlying Tech - IP
User - Product - Biz Hypotheses & Objectives
PRIVATE
60. What Do We Mean by
Designer Founders?
Engr Design Biz
Visual
IA
IxD
User Research
61. What Do We Mean by
Designer Founders?
Engr Design Biz
Visual
IA
IxD
User Research
Designer founders
need to continuously
guide their product &
organization through
the design stack cycles
62. What Do We Mean by
Designer Founders?
Engr Design Biz
Front end Visual Customer Support
Platform speci c IA Sales
Customer/Biz
Back- end IxD
Development
User Research Biz model & Operation
Tech DNA & Product Mngt.
Mngt.
63. What Do We Mean by
Designer Founders?
Engr Design Biz
Front end Visual Customer Support
Platform speci c IA Sales
Customer/Biz
Back- end IxD
Development
User Research Biz model & Operation
Tech DNA & Product Mngt.
Mngt.
Designer founders need
to continuously move
horizontally with skills
in engr & biz stacks
64. Critical Mass of
Engineering,
Design & Biz Skills
Don’t worry so much about
de nitions & titles...let the product
impact speak for itself...
65. Assertion #1
As the consumer tech market becomes
more crowded, di erentiated brand &
experience design is becoming critical to
both short & long term success
66. Assertion #2
Successful designer founders will attract
the remaining distribution of aspiring
design talent
Designer Founders
Awesome
# of Designers
67. Assertion #3
Designer founders have unique skills (not
just visual) to understand human needs,
make products that people actually want,
& communicate persuasively
Visual Design
Interface - Navigation - Info Design
Information Architecture - Interaction Design
Functional Specs - Content Reqs
Underlying Tech - IP
User - Product - Biz Hypotheses & Objectives
68. Assertion #4
Having a multi-disciplinary designer
founder that can lead & model design
practices is a competitive advantage
especially when combined with
engineering & business co-founders
Visual,
Interaction,
Engineering,
Jason Putorti, & Biz Skillz
Designer Founder
69. Assertion #5
Partners have an appetite for designer
founders who are capable of leading
product innovation within their companies
70. Lastly
“The most important social evolution within the computing
professions would be to create a role for the so ware
designer as a champion of the user experience.... What is
design? ... It’s where you stand with a foot in two worlds—
the world of technology and the world of people and human
purposes—and you try to bring the two together.”
-Terry Winograd
71. Lastly
“The most important social evolution within the tech startup
professions would be to create a role for the designer
founder as a champion of the user experience.... What is a
designer founder? ... It’s a person who stands with a foot in
two worlds—the world of technology and the world of
people and human purposes—and brings the two
together.”
-Enrique Allen
72.
73.
74. The Future of
Designer Founders
in Tech
designerfund.com
designerfounders.com
@enriqueallen
