This essential guide dives into the significance of building a robust design department within tech startups. Highlighting the pivotal role of design in enhancing user experiences, the post explores strategies for hiring skilled designers, leveraging cutting-edge tools, and fostering a culture that promotes innovation and collaboration. Learn how to harness design thinking to propel your startup forward.
Explore the Stoplight Method in our latest blog post—a strategic approach to estimating work with designers that balances creative freedom with structure. Learn how to apply this method to keep your design projects on track without stifling creativity.
Unlock the secrets to impactful product development through our expert UX research tips. Dive into the necessity of early user research, the art of observation, and the value of candid feedback to refine your product's design and functionality. A must-read for designers and developers aiming to create user-centric solutions.
Unlock the secret to frequent customer conversations with our latest blog. Explore innovative approaches to gather valuable feedback directly from your users, enhancing your product's design and market fit. From initiating open lines of communication to integrating into online communities, learn how every interaction can contribute to your project's success.
Discover the key strategies for a successful designer kickoff meeting. This guide offers actionable insights for founders and designers on preparation, collaboration, and establishing a shared vision, ensuring a productive partnership from the start.
Unveil the cornerstone principles of effective UI design with our comprehensive guide. Explore 10 crucial practices that promise to transform your website's interface, making it more engaging and user-friendly. Whether it's understanding the power of contrast or the subtleties of text overlay, these insights are your key to creating a memorable online presence.
In 2024, finding the right product designer is crucial for the success of your project. Learn how to navigate the complexities, define your needs, prioritize relevant experience, and utilize platforms like NUMI to find the perfect match.
This article challenges the conventional wisdom that startups must hire full-time UI/UX designers for success. It presents a compelling case for flexible design solutions, highlighting the benefits of part-time designers and design-as-a-service platforms like NUMI. By leveraging a diverse talent pool and adaptable engagement models, startups can navigate their evolving design needs efficiently while maintaining agility and minimizing costs.
Discover the importance of evidence over opinion in startup founding teams with insights from a RISD and Y Combinator alum. This post delves into the common antidesign habit of basing decisions on subjective views rather than objective evidence. It contrasts the personal expression of art with the user-focused nature of design, advocating for a shift from "I think" to "It should be" to enhance product development and user satisfaction.
Explore essential customer research techniques that can transform your product development process. This post covers strategies to move beyond basic feedback, analyze user behavior, and foster an environment where users feel comfortable sharing honest opinions. Perfect for founders aiming to create products that truly resonate with their audience.
In "Building Camaraderie Between Engineering and Design Teams," explore the founder's role in nurturing a collaborative culture between engineers and designers. This blog post delves into practical steps for enhancing mutual respect and understanding, backed by insights from a seasoned founder with experience at Imgur and NUMI. Discover how to foster an autonomous collaboration that transcends aesthetic perfection and drives value creation.
Unlock the secrets to effective startup innovation with evidence-based design thinking. Learn from a RISD and Y Combinator alum how to base your design decisions on real-world data and customer feedback to ensure your product truly meets user needs.
This blog post explores the transformative power of a design-led approach for startups, emphasizing its role beyond aesthetics to become a core component of business strategy and customer experience. By examining the success of design-driven companies like Apple and Ikea, it offers insights into attracting top design talent and cultivating a design-thinking culture. The post also highlights the importance of curiosity and strategic questioning in designers, shared from a RISD and Y Combinator alum’s perspective.
Discover how the European Accessibility Act (EAA) will impact your business from 2025, requiring adherence to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for digital content. Learn about the potential fines for non-compliance, the importance of inclusive design, and how to leverage tools and resources to meet these new standards.
A deep dive on how to do high-caliber assessments of product design candidates when you yourself are not a designer. From portfolio review to final steps, we go through what to look for, how to avoid false signals, and how to signal to the best candidates that you understand design.
A rundown of Figma's major product launches at Config 2023, including variables, auto layout, and dev mode.
JustPaid's cofounder Anelya Grant shares design's role in their journey during the most recent YC batch.
The NUMI founders talk with Kushank Aggarwal, founder of Digital Samiritan, a set of social channels dedicated to helping product people sharpen their design and marketing chops, with a focus on AI-enabled tools.
Moodboards are an undervalued tool for helping founders, product managers, and other stakeholders communicate what they want out of a design. We'll look at how to use moodboards to align everyone involved in a design process and create a more coherent final product.
Founders need to be leading the customer research process at their startup. But so often, they make avoidable mistakes when speaking with customers. Here are the most common ones and how to avoid them.
Zain Ali, the first full time designer at Instacart and Y Combinator, shares how he shaped Instacart's product, helped form the competitive gaming industry, and introduced legions of YC founders to the discipline of design.
The digital space is like a bustling city, pulsating with millions of websites, each vying for attention. A Forbes report shows there are approximately 1.13 billion websites on the internet in 2023. In this whirlpool of pixels, how can your brand's virtual footprint leave an indelible mark?
Companies are reimagining their product design by having their own design systems that guide their product development. And it’s not only big companies like Uber, Shopify, and Airbnb. According to a Forrester survey, 65% of companies acknowledge that they use design systems. So why the increased interest in design systems?
Smooth onboarding is crucial to make sure you make them most of a new hire as quickly as possible. We'll dive into how to make onboarding for design as smooth as possible. The last thing you want is for your designer to quit only a few months into the job because of poor onboarding.
Design isn't just about how things look - it's a process of understanding that founders can use to find product market fit faster.
Accessibility is a topic that comes up frequently in design. You may not realize it, but accessibility is a pillar of ALL product design - not just for disabled users. In this post, we’ll dive deep into how to run a basic accessibility test on your site that we call “The Squint Test”.
Hiring a product designer can feel daunting - but it doesn't have to! In the post, we share how NUMI approaches vetting, sourcing, and enlisting the best designers in the world without breaking the bank.
Ten Amazing Webflow Websites and a Quick Breakdown of Why they Rock
A walkthrough of the benefits and challenges that come with staff augmentation for product teams, as well as tactical steps on how to prepare for staff augmentation.
If you're looking for a product designer, you're probably wondering what questions to ask to find the best candidate. Interviewing a product designer can be tricky - after all, this is someone who will be responsible for designing and bringing your product to life. This blog post will discuss how to interview a product designer and what questions to ask them before deciding. We'll also provide tips on how to evaluate their responses. Let's get started!
Today, I thought I'd share some titles I've collected over the years. Some of the books were suggested by our very own NUMI guild pros and my designer buddies - I appreciate the help. There are a handful of books you might expect to see, but some you might not (including some from my childhood!).
