Design in the VC world -1 hr talk
41 person video conference hosted by John Maeda. We used ‘BlueJeans’ to video conference. These are my rough notes:
Jackie Xu introduces herself - at KPCB, started on the same day, Jan 2014, prior to that was at twitter, when it was a tiny startup of 150. Helped to grow it, led global recruiting. Stint at Facebook.
There are 41 total on the call, we go through as many of the 41 as we could get to in 10 minutes ‘Where are you from, what do you do’?
John intro from Menlo Park. Shows us the break-up of who is on the call, self-identified as ‘engineer-y,’ ‘business-y,’ or ‘designer-y’. We’re all actually hybrids. Slashies!
Truncated version of the #DesigninTech deck:
Ex: in 2013, Facebook acquired Hot Studio. 16 creative firms have been atypically acquired by companies know for tech. McKinsey acquired Lunar Design. Accenture acquired Fjord. Consulting firm hires a design firm, and they are also acquiring the C-suite.
Why is this happening? Our desires are changing. How does this product make me feel?
in 2009, Intuit acquired mint. Airbnb, Vice, Pinterest, Lynda.com.
By highlighting this deck, and this pattern, we will facilitate more behavior like it.
Design can be seductive and/or clarity-producing. It can alleviate pain-points. We use these products all day long, so if the pain persists, the user will not tolerate it. Design has to connect to business thinking.
What’s the ratio of product manager to engineer, and design to engineer. Early stage startups, have 1:4 or 1:5 design: engineer
Jackie wrote a piece on culture and team building on linked-in.
what skills should I focus while in engineering school, to get to the startup world? A: less about what you’re studying, but what are you DOING to build your skillset? Marc Hemeon answers, how he hires people with passion, not necessarily based on what they’ve done. Make stuff! People WILL see it.
If I’m a designer, and want to get into business, what should I do? Nico Macdonald answers: design and business have been close for a very long time, Primary example is Eames. This is NOT new territory. Designers should break out of the design bubble and learn about the world. Read the wall st journal, the economist, read the difficult business books. Engage. Ask Questions.
Design & Education questions. John is relearning everything in Ruby.
Uber, design team of 100 people. so the leader you want is someone good at people manager. Designers who need to be pure in their design might not be great for the startup world. You have to think about all the tradeoffs, like development cycles, and other user-requests.
How do you build a culture that is conducive to designers?
Zen payroll, for example, is a startup in the payroll space. Design team of 10-ish, Their head of design was employee #1. Design team has their own core values. Facebook, product design led by Margaret Stuart, - the design goals are tied to business outcomes.
How can design factor into ideas that are considered moonshot, that don’t really have consumers? Ex: Proctor and Gamble head of innovation, it was hard for him to recruit, bc his division was the first to get cut, bc they weren’t making core products. At McKinsey, a project is 22mm, but only 2mm is made for innovation. If they need to cut, they cut out innovation.
We all get to say something. Either about the conference itself, or our takeaways, or any closing remarks.
snowghoul
prguitarman
andulkaphoto
gracieabrams
vaporwave
