[munaf]

Designer and ex-founder weighing in. One thing I felt was that we had conflicting advice and incentives.

On one hand, incubator advisors, investors, and startup writers would say:

(1) "You should read pg's essays. You have to spend more time finding a market fit. Study your users. Make that your priority."

Frequently, from the same crowd, we'd also something along the lines of:

(2) "Make decisions faster. Ship it. Execution."

My design training was well-suited to (1), and completely undermined in (2). The problem was that we heard (2) a lot more because the main people we were talking to were investors and incubator staff, and their overriding priority was having a functional product with paying customers.

Of course design processes can move faster and balance planning with execution at a startup pace. But that doesn't happen much. The more common scenario is for a designer to be shown a working prototype and then make it prettier / more usable. And maybe that's the most reliable way for startups to get off the ground? I have no idea.