“I feel like we, along with many of our contemporaries, have proven that design is a differentiator, that design can help you expand your business, that design is a critical component.” – Joe Gebbia, Co-founder of Airbnb

There’s been a large focus on design and the thinking that goes into its processes in the tech industry in the past few years. Companies like Atlassian have gone from 1 designer: 25 engineers in 2012 to 1:9 in 2017. Intercom, a popular and widely-used customer messaging platform has their designer to engineer ratio at 1:5.

Facebook, Google, and Amazon hired 65 percent more designers for their companies and acquired more than 35 design agencies in 2017.

What’s caused this new focus on design? Startups and companies have realized that design is a key differentiator for their products and a source of competitive advantage. But as an early-stage entrepreneur when should you focus on design and how do you budget for this aspect when it comes to building your startup?

Join us as we discuss these important design topics to consider for your startup

• Important design principles when it comes to building a website or app
• Building an in-house design team vs outsourcing
• Creating a brand
• Color psychology, typography, etc.
• Aligning design and development
• Enhancing your business development with design
• Creating a design strategy
• Design thinking and user experience
• And much more!

About the panelists

• Kelsey Scherer, Product Design Manager at BuzzFeed (@kelsa_) – Kelsey is currently a Product Design Manager at BuzzFeed, a digital media company that reaches hundreds of millions of readers around the world with its fun quizzes and videos, as well as with hard-hitting news coverage. Previously, she was the Design Director of Vox Media’s Storytelling Studio. Before that, Kelsey led the design of storytelling tools on Autotune, a platform for creating embeddable graphics. Kelsey has also worked on the relaunches of Racked and Eater, with the Vox Media advertising team, and helped plan various community-based events with other members of the product team.
• Sarah Butler, Director of Creative & Brand at Code Eight (@sb_studios) – Sarah Butler has spent 8+ years helping entrepreneurs with their branding, strategy, and creative initiatives within the fashion, hospitality, retail, and software tech spaces. She is currently the Director of Creative & Brand at Code Eight, the first company in Store No. 8, Walmart’s tech innovation arm. Prior to Code Eight, Sarah spent 3 years building out the visual brand of Greenhouse Software. When not writing, designing, or brainstorming new tech ideas, Sarah can be found obsessively perusing furniture at West Elm.
• Regy Perlera, Product Designer at Nike (@perlerar) – Regy is a Product Designer at Nike, where he works on the SNKRS app. He is also a Design Consultant for StockX, an online marketplace for sneakers. Previously, he was a Member Experience Design Lead at Oscar Health where he carried out a redesign of their mobile properties. Regy has also worked with Kanye West, Lil Yachty, Travis Scott, and Amazon. His work has been featured in BuzzFeed, Complex, Hypebeast, and Fader.
• Andrew Chin, Product Designer at Dropbox (@chinandrew)– Andrew is a designer and a product thinker. He’s been a Product Designer at Dropbox where he works on user experience, interaction design, and user interface design. Prior to joining Dropbox via Bridge, Andrew has spent 5 years in product development at Square and Apple. He is also a proud Canadian and an University of Waterloo alum. When he is not designing, Andrew enjoys tinkering with tech gadgets, practicing yoga and Instagramming.

Schedule:

6:30 – 6:50: Drinks & Networking
6:50 – 7:50: Panel
7:50 – 8:15: Audience Q&A
8:15 – 9:00: More Drinks & Networking