Insights
Notes for founders thinking about design.
What we've learned running design sprints and audits for early-stage teams — written for people building products, not other designers.
Design sprint vs. full redesign: which does your product need?
Not every problem needs a ground-up rebuild. A framework for scoping the right amount of change for where your product actually is.
Why founders should sit in on user research
A summary slide never carries the tone of voice a user used when they got stuck. What's lost when founders only read the report.
Building a design system that survives your first 10 hires
Most early design systems die the day a second designer joins. How to build one that scales past founder-led design.
In-house vs. agency vs. consultant: picking the right design partner
Each model solves a different problem. A practical way to match your stage and budget to the right kind of design help.
The onboarding audit: 11 places founders lose new users
A checklist we run on every fintech and SaaS audit — the exact friction points that quietly cap your activation rate.
SaaS website design that actually converts: what we check before a redesign
A polished homepage and a converting homepage are not the same thing. Here's what we audit before touching a single pixel.
Designing AI features founders can trust: UX principles beyond the chat box
Adding an AI feature is easy. Designing one users actually understand and trust is a different, much harder problem.
Who should build your brand identity? A founder's guide for SaaS companies
Your brand identity outlives your first pitch deck, your first hire, and probably your first pivot. Here's how to get it built right, once.
Heuristic evaluation: the fastest way to catch UX problems before users do
You don't always need a research study to find what's broken. A structured expert review can surface most of it in a day.
Have a specific problem in mind?
Skip the reading — tell us what's broken and we'll walk you through it on a call.