The Art of Design in Technical Startups

The following is excerpted and adapted from my private notes during my time at Predikto (2014-2018), exploring the critical role of design in technology companies.

What is Design, Really?

Design is the study of how media communicates with people. It’s far broader than just making things look pretty - it encompasses aesthetics, messaging, and the communication channels themselves. Design intends to evoke specific responses from consumers, whether that’s compelling a purchase, eliciting an emotion, or facilitating understanding.

The breadth of design is evident in the fields where it’s critical:

  • Architecture
  • Typography
  • Web Design
  • Advertising
  • Marketing
  • UI/UX
  • Copywriting

If culture is how a company subconsciously views itself, design is how the outside world subconsciously views the company. This distinction is crucial for understanding design’s role in technology startups.

The Inside-Outside Asymmetry

The outside-facing view of a company is radically different from what’s perceived internally. This asymmetry is particularly pronounced in technology companies, where massive portions of the company’s work, employees, product, and culture are opaque to the outside world.

Think about Google: users see a nearly blank web page that “finds things for them.” They don’t see:

  • Thousands of engineers
  • Millions of lines of code
  • Vast server infrastructure
  • Complex algorithms
  • Years of research

This asymmetry is especially challenging for early-stage companies. While the company is consumed with developing new technology, end-users only see:

  • A website
  • Marketing materials
  • Early product versions

Who Touches the Customer?

Every role interacts with customers differently:

Management

  • Shapes company vision
  • Participates in early sales
  • Oversees all customer touchpoints

Sales

  • Most intimate customer interaction
  • Makes pitches and demos
  • Often educates in nascent markets

Marketing

  • Manages subconscious communication
  • Owns website and social media
  • Prepares leads for sales

Product

  • Controls post-sale user experience
  • Owns interfaces and interactions
  • Filters customer feedback

Engineering

  • Handles support and bugfixes
  • Manages implementations
  • Limited but critical customer contact

Research

  • Can be walled off from customers
  • Communicates through product/sales
  • Focuses on future possibilities

The Art of Communication

Communication isn’t just about information - it’s about context. You can’t transmit information without context; tone, timing, and even the consumer’s environment color how information is received.

While much of the context is uncontrollable, design attempts to manage what it can through:

  • Visual themes (color, typography, style)
  • Written and spoken elements (tone, language)
  • Communication channels (medium, frequency, content)

Design as a Multiplier

The impact of good design compounds:

  1. A single well-designed product has linear gains over competitors
  2. Multiple products with cohesive design create non-linear gains
  3. Users gain productivity through familiar interfaces
  4. Design consistency builds trust and stability

Think about Microsoft Office: proficiency in Word makes users more likely to choose Excel over alternatives, regardless of technical merits. The familiarity and consistency create a powerful stickiness.

The Design Authority

Because design touches every customer interaction, it needs centralized authority. Options include:

  • A head of design at leadership level (larger companies)
  • Design authority with cross-functional influence (smaller companies)
  • Close alignment with product leadership

The key is ensuring design consistency across all touchpoints to build trust and stability.

Design as the Future Factory

Design has a unique role in ideating future possibilities. Like concept cars in the automotive industry, design can explore what the future might look like, rather than just how it will work. This creates a powerful feedback loop:

  1. Design controls customer communication
  2. Design ideates future possibilities
  3. Research develops enabling technologies
  4. Engineering validates technical feasibility
  5. Product/strategy positions and prioritizes
  6. Engineering builds to design/product specs
  7. Design/marketing signal to market
  8. Customer interaction feeds new ideas

The Perfect Loop

In the end, we have a beautiful cycle:

  • Design ideates what users will do and feel
  • Research dictates how it could be done
  • Engineering dictates how to do it in practice
  • Strategy dictates how to sell it

This cycle, when working well, creates a continuous flow of innovation that’s both technically feasible and deeply attuned to user needs.

Note (2024): As AI increasingly shapes both product development and user interactions, thoughtful design of both products and companies becomes even more critical. The challenge isn’t just making technology work, but making it FEEL natural, trustworthy, and valuable to users. The element of trust and comfort in a product and company is more and more important every cycle.