Design will make or break your startup

Design is non-negotiable for startups today — It’s a level technical playing field. For most startups, it isn’t the technology that makes or breaks them.

Design instead is the modern day's companies’ biggest differentiator. It is essential to the future success of organisations, and it is unlikely that a company founded today will flourish without a robust and consistent design strategy.

Design plays a key role in selling the WHY. Focus on WHY your users should come to you and not to the competitor next door.

People don’t buy what you do; people buy why you do it.

• If you are an employee , you need to focus on education and awareness. Why do you believe in the importance of design? Share your belief with the wider company.
• If you are a founder you need to understand that the earlier you bring design into your company, the more you can reap the benefits. The earlier you listen to your customers the more willing those users will be to pay for your services. In addition to that, you have to understand that your beliefs WILL influence your company culture. If you are not a believer in a design-driven company, you will likely lose the designers that joined your journey in the first place. Or at least the good ones. Good design comes from good designers. And good designers believe in a design-first approach.
• Focus on your users and understand why they struggle.
• Make assumptions and experiments as to why those users would use your solution instead of someone else’s.

If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.— Jeff Bezos, Amazon