The Leap to Leadership
Moving from individual contributor to design lead at Zorp was the most challenging transition of my career. One day I was designing features. The next I was building a design function, hiring a team, and setting standards for an organization that had never prioritized design before.
The skills that made me a good designer didn't automatically make me a good design leader. I had to learn new skills, fast, while the company was scaling around me.
Here's what I learned -including the mistakes I wish I could undo.
Startup Design Is Different
Speed Over Polish
At agencies or larger companies, design timelines stretch to accommodate refinement. At startups, time is the scarcest resource. Ship dates are aggressive. Scope cuts are constant.
I had to recalibrate my standards. Good enough today beats perfect next month. This isn't lowering standards -it's understanding that the standard is appropriate for context.
Ambiguity Is Normal
Established companies have defined processes. Startups are figuring it out as they go. Requirements change. Priorities shift. What was critical yesterday is deprioritized today.
Designers who need clear briefs and stable requirements struggle in startups. Thriving requires comfort with ambiguity.
Everyone Does Everything
In startups, job descriptions are suggestions. I designed, yes. I also wrote copy. Did user research. Built prototypes. Managed vendors. Created pitch decks.
This breadth was exhausting but educational. I learned where I added the most value.
Resource Constraints Are Real
No budget for user testing? Figure out alternatives. No time for research? Make informed bets. No developer capacity? Simplify the design.
Constraints forced creativity. Some of my best solutions emerged from severe limitations.
Building Design Culture
Starting from Zero
When I joined Zorp, design wasn't valued. It was visual decoration applied after engineering finished. Changing that perception required:
Early wins: Find quick opportunities to demonstrate design value. Fix an obvious UX problem. Improve a metric. Create visible improvement.
Articulation: Explain what design does in business terms. Not "this looks better" but "this will reduce support tickets."
Relationships: Build trust with engineering, product, and leadership. Design influence comes through relationships, not authority.
Patience: Culture changes slowly. Every interaction is an opportunity to model design thinking.
Establishing Standards
Without standards, design is chaos. I created:
Design principles: What we believe about good design. These guided decisions when I wasn't in the room.
Component library: Reusable elements that ensured consistency without requiring review of every screen.
Review process: Structured critique that improved quality and developed team capability.
Quality bar: Clear expectations for what "done" means. What level of polish for which contexts.
Standards created predictability. Teams knew what to expect from design.
Protecting the Team
Startups can be chaotic. Constant pivots, urgent requests, shifting priorities -these can burn designers out.
Part of my job became shielding the team from unnecessary chaos:
- Filtering requests to identify what actually mattered
- Pushing back on unrealistic timelines
- Creating space for focused work
- Advocating for sustainable pace
This protection wasn't about isolation. It was about focus.
Hiring and Mentoring
Hiring in Startups
Startup hiring is different from established company hiring:
Values over experience: Cultural fit and adaptability matter as much as portfolio quality. I'd take a growth-oriented junior over a rigid senior.
Generalists over specialists: Early-stage startups need designers who can do many things adequately over designers who do one thing excellently.
Builders over maintainers: Some designers excel at improving existing systems. Startups need designers who can create from nothing.
Hustle compatibility: Not everyone thrives in startup pace. Better to assess this honestly than hope someone adapts.
Interview Process
My interview process evolved:
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Portfolio review: Not just work quality, but how they talk about it. Do they understand why decisions were made?
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Design exercise: Not take-home torture. A short, collaborative problem-solving session to see how they think.
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Team interaction: Have them meet potential colleagues. Culture fit matters.
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Reference checks: Actually call references. Ask specific questions about collaboration and growth.
Mentoring New Designers
Startups often hire less experienced designers because budgets are tight. This requires investment in mentoring:
Clear expectations: What does success look like? What are the priorities?
Regular feedback: Don't save feedback for reviews. Continuous feedback enables continuous improvement.
Growth opportunities: Assign stretch projects. Let people try new things.
Autonomy with support: Give ownership of outcomes while providing support when needed.
Career conversations: Even at startups, people care about growth. Help them see paths forward.
Balancing Speed and Quality
The eternal startup tension: move fast vs. do it right.
When Speed Wins
- Validating whether something should exist
- Testing hypotheses with real users
- Competitive threats requiring response
- Early product before product-market fit
In these contexts, speed creates learning. Perfect design of the wrong thing wastes everyone's time.
When Quality Wins
- Core product experiences users see constantly
- Trust-critical features (payment, security)
- Public-facing brand touchpoints
- Features that will be expensive to change
Some things need to be right. Identifying which is the leader's job.
Managing the Tradeoff
I developed a framework:
Reversible decisions: Move fast. If we're wrong, we'll fix it. Irreversible decisions: Take time. The cost of error is high.
Not every design decision is equally important. Invest attention where it matters most.
Mistakes I Made
Trying to Do Everything Myself
Early on, I didn't trust the team enough. I was involved in every decision, reviewed every design, and became a bottleneck.
What I learned: Hire people you trust. Then trust them. My job was to enable the team, not to be the team.
Not Documenting Early
I kept standards and processes in my head. This didn't scale. When the team grew, knowledge wasn't transferable.
What I learned: Document from day one. Even if documentation feels premature, it forces clarity and enables scaling.
Avoiding Difficult Conversations
When designers weren't performing, I waited too long to address it. I hoped problems would resolve. They didn't.
What I learned: Have hard conversations early. Kindness isn't avoidance -it's honest feedback that enables improvement.
Underestimating Politics
I focused on design quality and assumed good work would speak for itself. It didn't. Internal politics affected what shipped.
What I learned: Influence matters. Building relationships, communicating effectively, navigating organizational dynamics -these are design leadership skills.
Burning Out
I worked unsustainable hours, thinking the startup needed it. It didn't need a burned-out design leader.
What I learned: Pace yourself. Startup intensity should ebb and flow, not be constant. Model sustainable work for your team.
What Made It Work
Despite mistakes, some things went well:
Focusing on Impact
I measured design by business outcomes, not output. This aligned design with company goals and built credibility.
Building Trust with Engineering
Engineers are design's closest partners. I invested heavily in these relationships. We became collaborators, not adversaries.
Creating Psychological Safety
My team knew they could experiment, fail, and learn without punishment. This safety enabled risk-taking and innovation.
Staying Hands-On
Even as a leader, I continued designing. This kept my skills current and helped me understand what the team faced.
Celebrating Wins
Startup life can feel like endless problems. Celebrating successes -even small ones -built morale and reminded us of progress.
Advice for Aspiring Design Leaders
If you're transitioning to design leadership at a startup:
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Expect identity shift: Your value comes from team output, not personal output. This takes adjustment.
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Build relationships: Design influence comes through trust. Invest in relationships with engineering, product, and leadership.
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Create structure: Startups lack structure. Your job is to create enough structure for quality without killing agility.
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Hire carefully: A small team means each hire matters enormously. Take hiring seriously.
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Protect your energy: You can't lead well while burned out. Sustainable pace matters.
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Stay curious: Leadership doesn't mean you stop learning. Keep designing, keep exploring, keep growing.
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Embrace imperfection: You will make mistakes. Learn from them. Model learning for your team.
The Ongoing Journey
I'm still learning. Every day presents new challenges, new decisions, new opportunities to do better.
Design leadership at a startup is demanding. It's also deeply rewarding. Building a team, establishing culture, seeing design impact business outcomes -these achievements matter.
If you're considering the leap, go for it. Just go in with eyes open. The skills that made you a great designer are necessary but not sufficient. Leadership is its own discipline.
Learn it. Grow into it. The startup world needs design leaders.
Thinking about design leadership? Feel free to reach out -happy to share more specific experiences.