I was recently asked by a startup founder what makes a great design leader. I found this question interesting because it resonated deeply with my journey as a design leader and people manager.
He was in the process of hiring a design leader and received many excellent looking portfolios. However, he didn’t know how to evaluate them or what a great startup design leader would look like. He currently had a product designer who was primarily responsible for delivering a great UI. But as the product grew in complexity, a more holistic view of product design and the customer journey was needed.
The must-have requirements for design leaders always depend on the size of the design team, the UX maturity, and the complexity of the product. In this post, I’ll share what I believe defines great design leadership for startups that have reached product-market fit.
I’m not going to talk about design leadership in a large tech organization. That’s a different game.
The First Product Designer ≠ Design Leader
First things first. Before I dive into the leadership principles, I want to clear up a common misconception. The first designer in a startup doesn’t necessarily have to be a Design Leader. They are primarily focused on delivery and executing the founders’ visions in a visually compelling way. Those designers are highly skilled in UI design and have a strong bias towards action. They are creative thinkers with an entrepreneurial spirit. At this stage, the product is easy to understand. The features and flows are clear. The mental model of the application is straightforward.
Why You Need a Design Leader After Product-Market Fit
Your startup will reach product-market fit once it has a solid base of first customers and your solution is delivering consistent value at a growing scale. At this point, Founders are thinking about what’s coming next. Feedback from your first customers will give you new perspectives on opportunities and ways to improve your product. At this stage, you may even question your initial idea. Without the right structure and leadership, you will drown at this stage in walls of sticky notes and unsatisfying ROI on your User Research efforts. You need a design leader.
Three Leadership Principles for Startup Design Leaders
A product design leader in a startup must bring the following three leadership principles to the table:
Practicality over Perfection
Startups move fast. A good Product Design Leader prioritizes solutions that work today and can evolve, rather than chasing the illusion of flawless execution. This often leaves little to no time for in-depth product discovery. A great product design leader makes decisions with limited information. It means acting on informed gut instincts rather than waiting for perfect data. They are helping the team avoid “paralysis by analysis” at all costs.
Hands-On over Managerial
A design leader must lead and inspire by doing. My favorite motto is clear: Show, don’t tell — Lead by example. You need someone who is a doer, not a manager. This person loves to get knee-deep into UX design or doing user interviews. This person must inspire your existing and future designers.
This is something that’s close to my heart: product design leaders, and even product leaders at this stage, absolutely must build empathy with their customers firsthand. They can’t afford to rely on filtered reports.
Great Storytelling over Process
A good storyteller adapts their narrative to their audience. For example, you need to meet your founder at their level of strategic altitude and understand what they’re looking for. They probably don’t care about the specific UX research method you’re using, but they’ll be impressed when you show how your user insights directly impact their business goals.
It’s equally crucial to provide engineers with the context behind your designs. The “why” behind your decisions. When they understand the reasoning, they will find stronger solutions.
Conclusion
A great design leader in a startup isn’t just managing from the sidelines. They’re in the trenches with the team. They provide clarity when things get messy, connect the dots between user insights and business goals, and inspire others by showing, not just telling.
