What to Look for in Your First Designer
The critical traits of range and pace
Historically, I have found that hiring for first designers is a bit more idiosyncratic than building out an engineering team or a first business hire. Oftentimes, founders' networks intersect less with designers and even if they have an appreciation and eye for design, founders often have a more cursory view of what makes a designer successful in an early-stage company. It can result in frustrating and slow processes.
I’ve helped dozens of companies hire their first designers but never documented a process. Two of our early-stage portfolio companies at Terrain are now hiring founding designers, and this caused me to reflect on what founders should look for and how they could find the best designer for their stage and needs.
This is meant as a guide to help any early-stage founder find some solid ground when scoping their first design hire. This isn’t a how-to-hire or a when-to-hire guide; those are important but different topics.
What follows is a profile on what to look for in a great first designer and how to best attract them to your company.
And if the following designer sounds like you, I’ve put a bit on two opportunities hiring below; feel free to reach out.
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Despite good intentions, most startups approach their first design hire all wrong.
This isn’t their fault. They are fed many big ideas about design quality. They learn about design from a very limited set of sources and leaders. They look at these companies known for “good design” and see polished landing pages & products, robust design systems, high-end brand campaigns, and specialist after specialist in their ranks. They often conflate PMF, budget, visual decoration, and actual good design. I don’t want to name names, but just think about a few examples you know.
And when the time comes to hire. I’ve heard the same refrain again and again…
“Our freelancer is maxxed out and design is a bottleneck, so we’re looking to hire.”
“We paid a designer to make a design system/brand and need someone to apply it across materials.”
“We really value design and want someone from [insert hot, tasteful company of the moment.]”
“I really like Jony Ive.”
These searches often begin from scarcity, 3 weeks after you needed it. They are overly focused on pixel-perfect portfolios and impressive backgrounds. This isn’t how you create the template for an ideal teammate. Early-stage companies need something fundamentally different than what large enterprises or famous freelancers provide.
When searching, founders should start by flipping the orientation away from these qualities and instead focus on their company and needs. How do you specifically answer the question “Why you?” — what are the uniquely compelling aspects to your company that no one else can provide, and what do you really need from the role?
From there, you can get started. The best designers for startups consistently demonstrate range and pace—qualities essential for getting things off the ground and installing a design culture. So, what exactly are range and pace, and how do you identify them?
Range & Pace
Range is a flexibility with tools, surface areas, outputs, and knowing which to lean on and when. The ability to change altitude from details to the bigger picture—scrutinizing an animation's timing one moment, then articulating how the product roadmap affects investor perception the next. This isn’t a generalist; it is someone with discernible skills and is capable of both business reasoning and tactical design execution.
Signs of genuine range:
Skill and obsession in their lane, but vision for the entire business. They ask insightful questions about customer acquisition costs, engineering tradeoffs, support loads, and onboarding emails. They proactively define foundational elements, like your first design system, and anticipate future needs that may affect other parts of the company. They understand design extends beyond the primary product flow and can articulate stories incorporating the whole picture.
Opinionated on outcomes, flexible on solutions. They hold strong views on quality and taste but readily adapt when presented with new perspectives. They admire and learn from other business functions—sales, markets, engineering, customer service—seeing all of these as essential design inputs. They have the humility to pass responsibilities to someone better suited when appropriate. Startups resemble basketball teams: everyone is on the court together, and knowing precisely when to pass, when to shoot, is how you win as a cohesive team.
Willingness to do what it takes. This is a big one for me, personally. They need to be able to get dirty and do work that others may see as “below” them. This doesn’t mean they will only be doing this type of work, but they will step up where it counts: speaking to users, building testing frameworks, learning to read the data, understanding what economic limitations may apply, and questioning deep-seated ideas or philosophies.
Pace is speed of design execution, a comfort with shipping quickly before perfection, and an ownership of the outcome. Pace doesn't necessarily mean grinding nights and weekends. Great designers who move quickly aren't frantic—they're even-keeled, efficient, and intentional. They know when polish is essential and when rough edges are perfectly fine.
You'll recognize real pace when you see:
They ship, consistently. Their actions demonstrate short feedback loops and getting things done. Ideas move from sketches to prototypes to user reactions in days—not weeks. If something is out of their skill set they ask for help or learn it and keep moving.
Always on-top of new tools and ideas. This doesn't mean being religious about tool optimization or trend-following but they need to have a finger on the pulse of what is happening in design. They actively explore new ideas, have opinions on favorites and dislikes, adopting and discarding rapidly. They pour over new concepts because they're excited about them, not because anyone is telling them they have to. They're never stuck using outdated workflows or styles for the sake of it.
Obsession with outcomes, not outputs. They'd rather ship something imperfect today than something flawless next month if it means faster insight. They do not reinvent the wheel or get hung up on decoration, they want to see things improve for the product, not their portfolio.
Together, these qualities create the organization's breathwork—expand wide to imagine the grand structure; contract fast to lay the next brick. Outside of founders, designers are some of the best positioned to provide this and over time that inhale-exhale becomes the pulse of the product.
Spotting "Range & Pace" in action
These are not qualities that show up consistently in specific companies or alumni. It is certainly not about titles or seniority. But there are signs:
They have a portfolio (if not a site, they share work online or have live projects) filled with their own experiments, side projects, and shipped MVPs—not just attractive, conceptual screens or exhaustive case studies and sticky notes.
They can flex top-tier quality (or potential) in a few ways, be it visual design, brand, motion, prototyping, code. They need to have a few clear spikes that they are quick at to pair with a broader set of abilities.
They're responsive, proactive communicators throughout the hiring process and show a willingness to create their own momentum.
You never catch yourself making excuses for them because they're “hot talent.” Their hiring behavior matches exactly how they'll act on day 30.
They are a calming force, welcoming faster cycles rather than panicking or pushing back because of those constraints.
Lastly, on one of the oldest demands for modern design: “Should designers code?” I reframe the ask: I think a designer needs mastery over their medium. Increasingly, yes, this can mean code, but it can also manifest in other ways… Maybe they have an ability to design something so perfectly brilliant that they cause engineering partners to move 10x faster, or they offer tremendous value to marketing, that works just as well. Again, it is about the right outcome, not the specific output.
The “Why you?”
This is where things get specific. Finding a designer with range and pace is one thing, identifying why they should join your company is another. Even if you just raised a hot, oversubscribed round, and are growing like a weed, this is a good exercise. Designers are in demand like never before and there are shockingly few who really fit the “first designer” archetype.
Make two lists to give focus to your search. Clearly define:
What your company specifically needs in design: brand identity, product interfaces, onboarding, etc.
What makes your role uniquely appealing: cutting-edge tech, special customer base, and creative freedom.
This clarity will make it easier to recognize what actually matters and how to get it.
Building a design culture that sustains
The best way to attract a great designer is to create a culture that already values design. This does not happen overnight and, like most things in a startup, starts with you, the founder. Some notes on how to cultivate a thriving environment:
Design literacy starts at the top. You don't need to move pixels yourself, but you must learn what good design looks like and why it matters. (read terrain.com/design-literacy for more on this.)
Define your north star for quality. Without clear direction, pace becomes chaos. Give your designer a clear vision and sense of what matters most, then trust their judgment on how to get there.
Give autonomy with clear, specific feedback. Step back and trust their expertise. Great designers thrive with autonomy and adequate heads-down time. When you come in with feedback, learn how to deliver it — understand the right fidelity and know what matters when (don’t let a button color get in the way of seeing the product thinking).
Make reasonable expectations. You wouldn't ask one front-end engineer to handle your entire stack. Likewise, don't expect one designer to do all visual design, research, animation, and branding indefinitely.
Occasionally, let them have time to pursue bold, unconventional ideas. It keeps creativity alive and freshness flowing.
Early-stage design isn't shipping the perfect screen or hype video; it's training a muscle to accelerate your team's overall rate of learning and assembly. Hire deliberately for range and pace, nurture a culture where design is more than aesthetics, and watch the whole org shift into a higher gear.
The right first designer won’t just make beautiful work, they will put oxygen into the system.
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If you are a designer reading this and want to make this actionable, here are two first designer opportunities for the right individual with range and pace:
Systems Product Designer – Seed-stage (stealth)
Build the rails & ecosystem that enables makers to earn real money on day one.
Experience and excitement to own a marketplace, rewards, payouts, and ecosystem experience.
Mobile Product Designer – Seed-stage (stealth)
Bring workflows formerly reserved for power users and desktop software to mobile.
Passion for making a code editor and brand that feels like magic.
Both roles are in-person in SF and come with strong comp and equity packages. Each company is highly ambitious and led by experienced founding teams. No arbitrary tenure or pedigree requirements—only clear evidence of range and pace in your work.
DM or email me willem@terrain.com if either sounds right for you.
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Thanks to Frank Guzzone, Carly Ayres, Kevin Twohy, Cameron Koczon, Duncan Fraser, and Brandon Jacoby for reading earlier drafts of this essay.
Really cool article, also great read for designers ✨