A love story about a designer leaving his corporate wife and falling in love with a startup chick.

1. From
Corporate Design
to
Startup Design
A Story
@amirkhella

2. Once upon a time...

3. A designer worked in a large corporation.

4. He worked with smart people
designing great products

5. He liked what he was doing...

6. But he wasn’t in love...

7. so one day...

8. Honey.
We need to talk.

9. I’ve been seeing
other people...

11. on TechCrunch.

12. I’m leaving you.

13. Three years later...

14. He’s worked with many startups

15. He’s designed several products

16. And he’s madly in love

17. Why?

18. Corporate
vs.
Startup

19. Let’s add all these features. Our
competitors have them, we
should too.
to
Let’s make our product simpler
than our competitors’, and make
our customers’ lives easier.

20. Let’s make sure we have
everyone’s consensus before we
integrate this design.
vs.
to
I like this design a lot. Let’s
implement it next iteration and
see how customers will like it.

21. Make sure you don’t step on
someone else’s toes. Mind your
own features.
vs.
to
If something is broken, just fix it.

22. Yes, you need to come to the office
every day. Everyone else does.
vs.
to
I don’t care where you work, as
long as you get things done.

23. We need to decide on V2’s
roadmap. Let’s schedule an off-site
next week.
vs.
to
We need to decide on the next
iteration. Let’s gather by the
whiteboard.

24. Let’s finish writing all the specs by
Friday for the spec review meetings
next week.
vs.
to
Let’s call developers for some
brainstorming and sketching. They
will be coding this feature next
week.

25. Please set up a meeting with the
“login box” team to integrate our
new feature with them.
vs.
to
Paul coded the login box last week.
Talk to him and he might have time
to integrate this tonight.

26. Our .com site is owned by an
external vendor. Contact them
through vendor relations to set up
a meeting.
vs.
to
I just added you to the source
control. Upload the design on the
staging server and we will push it
out this week.

27. Let’s schedule a meeting with the
usability department. It will take
them 3-6 weeks to recruit users
and run the tests.
vs.
to
Here’s a list of our early adopters.
Let’s invite them over to get their
feedback. Make sure we order
some pizza and beer.

28. The color of this button is not
compliant with our corporate style
guide.
vs.
to
I agree. This button needs to have a
more inviting color. Let’s do some
A/B testing and measure
convergence.

29. Good suggestion. Unfortunately
our product roadmap is already
set. Keep it in mind, and we’ll revisit
it in 2012.
vs.
to
Great suggestion. Let’s add it to the
backlog and revisit it next week.

30. The business team is busy creating
the business plan. You can try
emailing them, but they won’t have
time to talk with designers.
vs.
to
I know I am the CEO, but I like being
part of feature design discussions.

31. Yes, I heard you. But we’ll do it my
way.
vs.
to
You’re the design expert here.
What do you think?

32. Ugh! I can’t believe it’s Monday
morning already.
vs.
to
Wow. It’s already Friday...
Can’t wait ‘till next week!

33. Do Your Customers a Favor...

34. Give Your Designers Some

35. That’s all, folks.
•Follow me on Twitter: @amirkhella
I tweet links, quick insights and advice about
Design Thinking for Startups
•Read How it all began
A personal story about how I left my job to change the
world :)
Amir Khella
UX Consultant
amir@fictiv.com