founding designer, explained - by jerry - chain of thoughts

what makes it great (or quietly miserable)

throughout my career i’ve worked with multiple founders across multiple teams, and lately i’ve been hearing from more and more friends looking for founding designer roles and asking about my experience. i realized the founding designer role is still mysterious to many people, so this is my attempt to write down a more honest way to break down how joining as a founding designer is different, and what you need to look into before you sign that offer letter. i’ve been sitting on this question for a while, and i keep coming back to the same discomfort: most people treat a founding designer…

related reading

• founding designer, explained - by jerry - chain of thoughtschainofthoughts.net
• How to hire - Sam Altmanblog.samaltman.com
• What "The Best" Looks Like | Alex Kurilinkuril.in
• 10 things I learned from 10 years at Figmaclairebutler.substack.com
• What I Learned as a Product Designer at Apple | by Andrea Pacheco | Mediummedium.com
• What I've learned so far about design advising and angel investingbrianlovin.com
• Everything I Learned From Designing in Startups — The Hard Way 🫨blog.opendoorscareers.com
• Breaking in: A guide to landing your first product design rolefigma.com
• You hired a wrong designerelectriccapital.substack.com
• Building the initial team for seed stage startups at andrewchenandrewchen.com
• The Attributes of a Design Engineer - Kathryn Gonzalez - Independent Design and Engineering Directorryngonzalez.com
• Design Hiring Observations - by Tom Scottverifiedinsider.substack.com