The Importance of Engaging a Designer BEFORE a Developer

It’s a process…people! Something I’m still learning.

Building software is a hard thing. Well, it’s relatively easy to build software, but it’s really hard to build software that people actually want.

This is where design comes in. If you were start a new company and want to build an app, you could go out and find a developer in a matter of minutes. Depending on their availability, you could have them build your app, say, in two weeks!

In just two weeks you would have a real life functioning app! The speed is exhilarating and the excitement incontrollable. Then…two weeks later you only have 10 users, hopefully ten!

“What? I built this great thing. What aren’t people using it?”

Every startup founder is delusional — in a good way. That’s the only way you can push through the status quo and actually create something amazing. However, so often we only see how this will go amazingly awesome and that I’ll work this way and that way.

This isn’t reality. You can hear me say it now or spend $25k on app development and find out then.

In my opinion, this is the best opportunity for design to really make a difference. Instead of rushing into development, start with your idea and ask 10 people if they would use it.

Once you gain some idea validation, it’s time to build “something.” Start by engaging a design team or designer, depending on your budget. For roughly $1000–10k you can get a logo created, wireframe built, interactions planned, and a mockup created.

With this, you have a startup idea without spending a dime on development. Sure, you don’t have a real-life product, but you can gain valuable feedback but putting this mockups in front of people.

This is the most valuable thing. What do you users think? What do users want? Design is the best avenue to accomplish these early validations and pitch ideas to investors and possible co-founders.

If you do the math, it looks like this:

Option 1: Dev first

I have an idea, time to build. Hire a dev to build an MVP for $10k. Talk to users. Users want something different. Hire dev to rebuild for $10k. Users want something different…

Total: $30k+

Option 2: Design then Dev

I have an idea, consult with a designer. Hire a designer to build a plan, wireframe, and mockup for $10k. Talk to users. Users want something different. Hire a designer to make visual changes: $1k. Have your dev build that for $10k.

Total: $21k

Now, a loss of $9,ooo doesn’t seem like “THAT” big of deal, but this is just one iteration cycle. Startups iterate and pivot until they find product-market fit. It’s like stumbling around in a dark room — design paired with user feedback is the flashlight.

If you have to rebuild your app every time you get user feedback because you rushed into development, you’ll end up spending thousands of dollars on wasted code you’ll abandon weeks after you spent all this money on building something.

If you are developer, the concept still stands. Design is important because it gets you closer to launching something to show a user and ultimately quicker to product-market fit.

Don’t spend weeks and $$$ on wasted code. Plan it first with a good product designer.

Thanks for reading,

Preston Attebery / Designer & Founder

www.designcue.io