BUILDING A DESIGN FOUNDATION AT A STARTUP
Delivering an MVP & Styleguide in 90 Days
Overview
Greencyber*, a cyber insurance startup, had just secured its seed funding. The challenge was to translate its vision into a market-ready product and launch in under three months.
The task wasn't just to design an interface, but to build the entire design practice from the ground up. This included everything from customer journey mapping and MVP definition to creating a Styleguide that would ensure future scalability. All of this had to be done under the extreme constraints of a lean team and an aggressive timeline.
*Fictional name to protect client confidentiality.
My role
As the startup's founding designer (the first design hire), my mission was to translate the CEOs' vision into a viable MVP. Simultaneously, I was responsible for building the design foundation—the Styleguide and initial processes—that would enable the startup to scale with speed and consistency.
Impactful Results
Go-to-Market
Launched the MVP in under 90 days, validating the core business thesis and securing initial revenue.
Foundation for Scalability
Achieved an estimated 40% acceleration in future development, enabled by the foundational Styleguide.
Process & Culture Foundation
Established the Design practice from scratch, implementing a scalable process to support future team growth.
From Chaos to Structure
Para navegar neste cenário de alta velocidade e incerteza, estruturei meu trabalho em três frentes de ação principais.
Simplifying the Business Vision & Championing Scalability
My first step was to translate the CEOs' abstract business vision into an actionable product plan. Through a series of workshops, I used customer journey mapping to create a Sitemap. This became our primary tool to define and align on the final MVP scope.
This is where the core conflict emerged: Leadership’s top priority was speed-to-market, while the company's long-term vision (a whitelabel product) demanded a scalable foundation.
To resolve this impasse, I made the case for a Styleguide. I reframed the upfront investment in a design system not as a delay, but as a critical accelerator for future business velocity and success.
A Pragmatic, Parallel Approach
I adopted a parallel workstream approach to execute with both speed and consistency. As I designed the MVP screens, I was simultaneously extracting and documenting the foundational components (colors, typography, buttons) that would form our Styleguide's base.
To establish a Single Source of Truth (SSOT) and centralize the Styleguide specifications, I managed the procurement of Figma's professional plan. This action established a direct and transparent channel for the design-to-dev handoff right from the start.
Founding the Design Culture & Process
My responsibility went beyond just delivering a product; I had to build a lasting process. To ensure both implementation quality and velocity, I established two key rituals:
Synchronous Alignment
A "3 Amigos" (PM, Design, Dev) ritual for every feature kick-off, ensuring the strategic vision was aligned from the start.
Asynchronous Clarity
A detailed design handoff process in Figma, with clear specifications to ensure a high-fidelity implementation and efficiently address developer queries.
Outcomes & Key Wins
Key Wins
Go-to-Market Readiness
The MVP was delivered on schedule, enabling the startup to go to market for the first time, validate its core business thesis, and secure initial revenue.
Foundation for Scalability
The Styleguide proved to be a critical accelerator, enabling subsequent features and products to be developed with an estimated 30-40% increase in engineering velocity and consistency.
Process Foundation (Legacy)
Establishing the Design practice allowed the company to smoothly scale the team after my departure. New designers could onboard efficiently, leveraging the established system and workflows from day one.
Reflections & Lessons Learned
Pragmatism vs. Perfectionism
The intense timeline pressure forced us to focus exclusively on the MVP's components, which was a pragmatic decision at the time. Today, I would advocate for allocating a small portion of time (e.g., 10%) to foundational, abstract patterns. This would have accelerated the system's long-term scalability even further.
Adoption vs. Delivery
I launched the Styleguide with comprehensive Figma documentation, but I underestimated the effort required to drive team adoption. Today, I would establish dedicated onboarding rituals and a support channel. This ensures the system is treated not just as a 'library,' but as a living, collaborative product in itself.
Defining Success Metrics
No início, o único objetivo era "lançar". Não definimos KPIs claros de sucesso para o produto pós lançamento. Hoje, eu insistiria em estabelecer métricas de engajamento e satisfação (como CSAT) desde o kick-off para guiar as iterações futuras.