Creating a design culture at a tech startup

1. The tiny internal agency
How multidisciplinary designers can maximise
impact at early-stage startups

2. Hello.

4. This is a MVP (Minimal Viable Presentation)

5. This is highly contextual

9. My zigzag journey into product
management
Graduated with a CS degree
Interaction Designer @ Minitheory
UX Designer @ BitTitan
First employee & UX
Designer @ StashAway
Head of Product @ StashAway
Agency
B2B
B2C

10. So... what do you actually do?

11. 50%
meetings, design reviews, and 1-1s
40%
split between research, product
backlog, design, and QA
10%
writings, message, emails

12. Early-stage startups

13. User Experience Technology
Business Product
management

14. Business
User Experience
Technology
BrandingManagement
Product

15. Product
Business
User Experience
Technology
BrandingManagement

16. Design-driven Organisation

17. UI/UX Designer
User Experience Designer
Product Designer
UX Designer
Interaction Designer
Experience Designer
Design Director
Junior Designer
Senior Designer
UX Design Analyst
Visual Designer
UI Designer
Motion Designer
User Researcher
Information Architect
User Experience Architect
UX Specialist
Content Strategist
Service Designer
Design Consultant
UX Writer
...

18. The Internal Agency

19. Guided by a set of values and principles

20. Not as a resource, but as a partner

21. Holistic, interdisciplinary services

22. Design everything

23. Self
Process
Culture

24. Culture

25. Great products are not created in silos

29. Own the entire experience, end-to-end

34. Process

35. V1
V2
V3
V4

36. Discovery cycles

37. https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/design-process-what-double-diamond

38. Dev
Sprints
Discovery
Cycles
Ideate
Prototype
Research
Test
Measure
Learn
Iterate
Backlog Backlog Backlog

43. 34%
increase in deposit amounts

44. Self

45. Have a “growth mindset”

46. Stay centered and mindful

47. Find mentorship

48. Thank you!
zenan@stashaway.com

49. Q&A

50. How do you identify prioritised features to design
and develop, and get your stakeholders' buy-in?

51. How do you design for compliance or regulations
related to finance or data privacy?

52. Any advice on career change towards this
industry without experience?