2024/2/28 10:25 A F ame o k fo Finding A De ign Pa ne And ee en Ho o i

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

AF a e kf Fi di g A De ig
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P ed Se e be 14, 2022

Design partners, or the first few users of a compan s software, are often a ke part of the earl
software development process. B providing valuable feedback on ever thing from product
functionalit to user experience, to pricing and packaging, the right design partners can help a
compan launch and find product-market fit faster. That said, despite their importance, man
companies lack a framework for assessing how to find and engage a potential design partner,
and end up wasting valuable time with unimpactful partners that are providing misleading
feedback or not using the product in the right wa .

Having worked with do ens of startups in their ero-to-one journe , we have seen countless
companies successfull (and unsuccessfull ) work with design partners. To help ou find and
evaluate these critical collaborators, we have summari ed our learnings into a three-part
assessment framework based on urgenc , capabilit , and representativeness.

D ?

Before we la out our framework, let s first expand on the necessit of using design partners.
D
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. Not ever compan needs them, but having a handful of transparent, engaged users or
prospective customers can guide ou through our first iteration of the product s functionalit ,
user experience, pricing and packaging, and more.
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Different companies start engaging with design partners at different stages of their development,
as partners can swing between being research subjects and true earl customers who will
(eventuall ) pa for our product.

What we ve observed is that the former is better than the latter. Wh is this? It s because our
number one priorit is to iterate quickl on the MVP. You want our users to tell ou, what is the
problem the are facing, what is the solution toda , and is our product a better alternative than
the status quo in the most raw and honest form possible. Design partners are not cheerleaders
or lighthouse customers, nor do the replace the need for a core product insight or
that ou gain from having studied the market. Their critiques should help ou build
something useful and usable for our broader customer base. If the turn into initial pa ing
customers, that s great! The ve validated our h pothesis. But to start, ou should focus less on
whether the are going to pa ou and more on if the experience the pain point ou want to
address or represent the future ideal customer profile. Also, keep in mind that the product ou put
in front of them can be a mock or protot pes and be manual on the backend, as long as ou can
effectivel communicate the idea and collect feedback.

S , ?

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TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

When ou are read to work with design partners, we recommend ou assess them using three
ke criteria:

Representativeness (of a broader market)

First, the design partner should represent the market ou wish to serve. How similar are the
needs and s stems of the design partner to those of the companies ou interviewed as part of
our and to those of the overall market? You want to avoid
overfitting to a particular customer or, worse, building out custom software that onl serves one
customer.

Representativeness can also refer to the bu er persona of the design partner. Are ou working
with the right internal stakeholder at our design partner s compan ? Are the the one who is
going to reflect a similar stakeholder within the organi ational structure at other potential
customer companies? Your target bu er persona ma change over the course of the design
partnership too, and ou ma reali e there s actuall a stronger fit for our product with a different
bu er that s OK!

2. Urgenc

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The best design partners have a real need for our product. The are excited to work with ou
and help ou shape the product because the are invested in finding a solution. Often, prior to
using our product, the ve evaluated or tried other products or even hacked together a stop-gap
TA BLE O
measure F C O N.TThe
internall ENTSwant a new product right awa !

Urgenc is usuall higher at scaling companies that value speed and efficienc vs. larger
companies, which generall move more slowl , take more time to build trust with, and need to
secure more approvals before implementing something new. Earl stage startups (Seed, Series
A) usuall have a lot of urgenc , but the ma not be the best design partners because their
requirements shift often, and the tend not to spend time evaluating alternatives.

One benefit of finding design partners with high urgenc is that the can help ou spot segments
of the market with higher velocit . The same pain point can be shared broadl among an industr
or organi ation, but not all segments are the best first adopters. You want to find the launchpad in
a segment with higher urgenc either because the are being hit the hardest b a technolog
transition or the legac solution has ke limitations. For example, Databricks launched their fast
cloud anal tics engine as companies struggled with managing large Hadoop clusters on premise.
Plaid provided mobile-first onboarding and a faster API-based authentication and account linking
process because legac micro-deposit options were too slow plus, Venmo was asking for their
service. These higher-velocit segments can catapult ou into the broader market.

3. Capacit

Finall , the partner needs to have the capacit to actuall work with ou. This means the can
technicall implement the product (e.g., the are collecting the right data, have the right software
stack, etc.). It also means the have the personnel capacit : the right person with whom to work.
Ask ourself, do the have an emplo ee who can be the internal champion of this project? Do
the have the abilit to actuall implement the software? Do the have the time to provide regular
feedback? CEOs often get excited about products, but the aren t the bu er or user and can t
actuall force an organi ation to use a tool, or to use it man times. You want to find a real bu er
who can inform ou about their implementation details as well as their bu ing decisions.
Obviousl , the should also be willing to experiment.

While earl stage startups have urgenc , the can be harder to work with because the aren t
stable enough internall . A number of things ma be changing internall (the organi ational
structure, the budgets, even the product), and less mone is spent on experimenting. On the flip
side, the can also be easier organi ations to navigate, especiall when the product is complex.

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Once ou have selected the right design partners, there are a number of tactical considerations
ou should take into account to make the relationship as productive as possible.

S aB L E
TA g OeF CC O NeT EaN T S

When starting to find design partners, warm connections are best. Just ask around! We ve also
seen companies have a fair amount of luck posting on Twitter or LinkedIn or through targeted
cold outreaches. This is because an one who responds to a post or a DM about being a design
partner likel has a burning need for our product and has been seeking a solution; ou can
evaluate if the have the right user profile ou re looking for after.

S c g e Re a

Once a design partner has agreed to work with ou, the most important thing to optimi e for is
having recurring feedback over time as the product iterates. Make sure the answer questions
like: How well does the product work? How does it interact with their existing workflow and tools?
What are the potential hurdles to get it set up? Does the MVP match our expectations for what
was promised?

Sometimes a founder or executive will agree to a design partnership, but the actual person (or
team) at the compan who must use the product is not on board. Depending on who ll be the
eventual internal champion, getting feedback from onl one, but not the other ma result in
disconnection or mis-identification of persona. You ll want to have both the potential bu er and
the actual user in the design partnership arrangement. The latter could be reall beneficial
especiall in the phase where ou re validating the usabilit and features sets of the product.
Ideall b the end of the period, the are using the product on their own.

To keep ever one on track, we recommend ou sign a contact with our design partners, though
this is not 100% necessar . A contract is helpful when it comes to defining the amount of time
ou ll be collecting feedback from our partner. It also helps ou clearl set the expectations
around feedback, ensure ever one is in agreement, and define the length of the engagement
(e.g., one, three, or six months, with biweekl check-ins via phone calls or meetings). Contract
discussions can also help ou discern if a design partner won t have enough time to provide the
level of feedback ou need information that s more helpful before ou re too far down the path
with someone.

Se ec g A Idea N be f De g Pa e

We recommend starting with five to 10 design partners. Sometimes companies get excited b the
amount of inbound interest the re seeing in the product and will tr to sign up more than 20.
Having a lot of demand can be a great sign of pull, but the more partners ou have, the more

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conversations and expectations ou ll need to manage, especiall if ou need to shift direction or

tr something new. It s better to have just a few initial design partners to iterate quickl with, and
then turn the rest into earl customers once the product is read to go to market. The number of
TA B L Epartners
design O F C O Nou
T Echoose
N T S also depends on the t pe of product ou need feedback on. If ou re

building for a specific persona and going deep on a particular functionalit , sa an authentication
tool, finding 5 high-qualit design partners ma be enough. But if ou re building a hori ontal
product for a sales ops team, ou ma want to go broader to find companies in different sectors
and stages to uncover more market insights.

C e g Pa e I Pa gC e

Notabl missing from the framework above is a design partner s willingness to pa and the
proposed si e of a potential contract. When ou re initiall bringing on design partners, receiving
feedback is more important than getting paid and debating contract si e. In fact, getting into
pricing models and negotiations earl on can distract from and slow down the process of getting
a product built. That said, if ou sense that the design partner is willing to pa , that s a great sign
of market pull and business viabilit . Just remember to focus less on optimi ing the contract
value until the product is read .

Ideall , after our design partner has been using our product and ou feel like the product is
read for market, ou can begin focusing on our first set of pa ing customers. If our design
partner contract alread has a dollar value attached to it, this is the time to upgrade it into a
proper sales contract. If our design partner did not agree to pa to use our product, this is the
opportunit to explore their willingness to pa based on their experience with the product. You
don t need a perfect pricing strateg when converting design partners. Instead, it s important to
understand the mental model of how our designer partners perceive value, i.e., do the care
about saving time, replacing engineering headcount though outsourcing, or displacing an
incumbent?

Occasionall there s a trap that specificall ensnares technical founders: the design partner will
value the founder s technical skill set more than the product itself, and the are willing to pa to
retain that expertise. Whether or not ou proceed with this engagement depends on the status of
our product. We are not against selling consultative expertise before or during the product
development phase, since hands-on experience in the earl da s can provide deeper insights
and allow faster, more error-tolerant iterations of the product. However, once the product is read ,
continuousl doing this can be problematic because 1) it s hard to scale, 2) the adoption journe
and product value is entangled or covered up b the founder s expertise, and prevents proper
discover of missing features.

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Ideall , ou can convert some of our design partners into initial customers. That said, it s
perfectl fine to wrap up the design partnership without a signed sales contract. If the partners
are not a great fit, thank them for their time and move onto our next sales pitch.
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Finding product-market fit is not a linear journe , but using design partners is one effective wa to
help ou collect high fidelit feedback as ou progress on our journe . Keep in mind that as ou
go through this process, ou ma need to work with several cohorts of design partners before
ou finall land in a market that has enough demand to full jump start our compan . So don t
be afraid to churn out several of our earl partners, or sacrifice some revenue in the process. At
this point of our compan s development, it is more important to learn about the market and our
users first, and then closel inspect their behaviors, so ou can build the right product to solve
the right problem. We d love to hear about our stories of searching for design partners; please
email or DM us @J H and @S _A .

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S A is a partner at Andreessen Horowit , where she focuses on SaaS and

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