Design: Skill or Approach?

A Design Approach to Company Building

As an investor, when I look at the skill set of a funding team I am always particularly fascinated by exploring if the team has got any design DNA. Why? I simply believe that Design is much more than a key skill for a successful product development process. I think often Design can also be a general approach to company building.

To debate this topic I have decided to have a conversation with Kaj Drobin, co-founder of Tictail and in my personal opinion one of Europe’s most talented designers (check latest iphone app for confirmation)

Roberto: To start a company is the ultimate act of entrepreneurial creation. I have discussed in the past how fear is a great motivation for entrepreneurship. Therefore, skills and knowledge are the key to fear management. I do wonder how being a designer can help an entrepreneurial spirit to deal with fear. Shouldn’t the perfection of a design driven mind be of impediment in starting a company?

Kaj: I would argue that designers are particularly well suited to found companies. We’re used to starting from scratch and much of the design process is really about getting to an unknown solution. Ideation and quick prototyping allows us to not only communicate the vision clearly, but also understand how everything will actually work. Do you see a trend of more design founders in Europe?

Roberto: I do not see a lot of European startups founded by designers. I think this is something that we (Europeans) are somehow missing and for sure and an area in which we could get better. By the way I need to say that Sweden is a bit of a special place. I really believe that made in Sweden is becoming a sort of quality flag when we get to digital design. Funny to say this and be Italian! Ehmm…

However, Kaj tell me more how design skills have helped you as co-founder. To do so let me ask you a question: what are your key strengths as a designer that can also be leveraged as a co-founder?

Kaj: I think one of the things you learn is to always ask why things work the way it does, how can it be improved? What is the underlying structure?

Roberto: What I love is that as a designer you are used to the idea of creating an architecture of elements that then you use. I think this is a great training for the brain, isn’t it?

Kaj: Exactly! The same way a great programmer thinks in a very logical and structured way, designers are really good at making sense of complexity. It really doesn’t matter if it’s branding, product design or if you’re looking at the company culture.

Roberto: Basically design as a tool for dealing with complexity. Yes I can see this. And what about people management? Does a design approach help you to attract great talent and motivate people? Isn’t design a bit of an introvert type of discipline that drives you more about your inside emotions and less towards delegation and motivation of a team?

Kaj: People love well made products, so that‘s helped us attract people who really care about quality. But I guess it depends on who you’re designing for: you or your customers. If you’re designing for your customers it gets a lot easier! Also, a big part of being a good designer is to be able to direct resources to get the highest possible effect.

Roberto: Kaj, I know that you guys at Ticatil use OKRs as a way to run the business operations. As a designer don’t you feel constrained within such rigid approach? Aren’t OKRs a contradiction in terms vis a vis a design approach to company building?

Kaj: As a joke, I sometimes call OKRs our process to not have a process. But OKRs are great because it allows the organization to really focus. We work in small autonomous groups with mixed skill set, which is awesome for designers because they get to solve real problems like: “How can we help our merchants get more traffic?” instead of just “how can we make this form look nice?”.

Roberto: What I love of this discussion is that we seem to have overcome an old paradigm that used to conclude that in each company you had a mix of structured people and creative folks. Basically what we are saying is that designers although are for sure a key component of the creative soul of any company, at the same time can bring that level of simplification and structure that is needed to run successful operations.

Kaj: Yes! I also think it goes the other way around. One of the things that I believe makes Tictail unique is that everyone cares about the product. In a lot of companies you see very smart people that are not allowed to be creative. But you can’t designate the product experience to a few people, it’s a cultural thing.

Roberto: Kaj this was superb, thank you for your time. I would love if in Europe we could build a strong ecosystem of designers that become the founders of tomorrow. Can we?

Kaj: Yes!