How a CEO Designs
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Hannah Donovan discusses her journey from designer to CEO, emphasizing the importance of leadership in design and business. She shares her challenges and lessons learned while navigating the tech industry, particularly as a woman entrepreneur, and stresses the need for design to have a measurable impact on users and the business. The document ends with a call to action for hiring a product design lead and promoting beta access for their upcoming AI product.
How a CEO Designs
- 1. Hannah Donovan Leading Design, 19/06/2019 Brooklyn E A R N I N G A S E A T A T T H E T A B L E HOW A CEO DESIGNS
- 2. Who is a leader?
- 3. Who wants to lead (more)?
- 4. Design like a CEO *Whether you’re leading a design team, managing products, running part of or all of a company, or founding your own business… This is how you become a better design* leader in business.
- 6. Calendar looks like Tetris New gnarly product problem What is this expense for !? Prioritizing bug fixes at lunch Drowning in emails Working on the plane, again. Someone wants a raise Office WiFi broke Weekend? What weekend…
- 7. Me around senior year, 2003 In case you forgot this time, Nelly was charting with ‘Hot In Herre’ Three years later I was the first designer at last.fm, and then I was leading and scaling the design team.
- 8. Lukewarm reaction to concept Styleguide whack-a-mole Engineering totally misinterpreted it! PM got more recognition 11th hour project…again No copywriter budget, it me! How do I teach my CEO why design matters?
- 9. Everyone should be a leader of themselves. Focus on what matters. What has impact.
- 10. If I was CEO, what would I be doing right now?
- 11. 1. DESIGNER TO FOUNDER 2. WHAT I HAD TO OVERCOME 3. HOW TO DESIGN LIKE A CEO WHAT’S ON TAP TODAY:
- 13. Like all things, it all started with a dream. 2014, LONDON
- 14. LATE 2014, NEW YORK CITY I was lucky to have help, then the adventure truly began…
- 15. 2015 BEGINS…
- 16. Challenge after challenge. It was relentless.
- 17. Burning the wick at both ends to work hard and network Rapidly adapting to multiple new workplaces, relationships Skilling up every night Endless immigration paperwork, ~20k in fees Instability, fear, loneliness, unfamiliarity, the unknown
- 18. “The most powerful form of learning comes when we're desperate. When we have no choice but to learn” – Liz Wiseman
- 19. Just when it couldn’t have been worse… 2015 – 2018, New York City / San Francisco It got worse.
- 20. Commuting between New York and San Francisco Trying to build a network and friendships in both cities… Navigating a large org during a difficult time Layoffs Negative press cycles More immigration…
- 21. But I got through. And when I did, I was different, a new person.
- 22. I embarked on the last and most difficult leg of the journey… I started a company.
- 23. Getting comfortable with calling myself an entreprenur Learning how to raise money Being a woman founder, so much sexism! Building a type of company there isn’t a playbook for Learning to ignore people who told me to play it “safer”
- 24. Got into an accelerator. Raised $2M. Built an AI product. Got my greencard. About to launch in beta* *Want access? DM @thetrashapp on Twitter or IG
- 28. WHAT I HAD TO OVERCOME
- 30. Being creative and analytical are not mutually exclusive Consider feedback, but trust myself and my opinions Career/organization “success” is not the same as self worth PERSONAL
- 31. Care about where the money comes from, how you deploy it Every action I take needs to have ROI (Impact over busyness) Think long and work quick PRATICAL
- 32. DESIGN LIKE A CEO
- 33. CARE ABOUT WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM AND HOW TO DEPLOY IT What’s important to the business? (Get coffee with your CEO and find out!) Is this work going to make the business successful? (If the business was failing a year from now, would I feel dumb for having worked on this?) How do I have more positive impact on users? (Your CEO cares about users, and your job is users)
- 36. BUSY ≠ IMPACT (EVERYTHING YOU DO SHOULD HAVE ROI) When the design is finished in Sketch etc., you are only 10% done Your job is users. If your work is not impacting users you’re not doing your job. Do things that are “outside” of your job. Your job is not just “design”, the title is misleading :D
- 37. Plenty to get on with! Lots to keep me busy! Do you need help prioritizing workload?
- 38. THINK LONG AND EXECUTE FAST Use common sense. This is not less than creativity and uniqueness. Common sense is a design skill. Measure twice, cut once. Become an excellent planner because execution time is so limited. Stop worrying about being good. Worry about being fast, and always be nice – that’s the easiest!
- 39. GOOD FAST NICE
- 40. NICE
- 41. What makes a “great” design leader?
- 43. We’re hiring a product design (lead)! @han, [email protected] DM @thetrashapp for Creator Beta Access!