The value of hybrid design and coding skills in product development

Most founders make their first product/engineering hire a developer. Mine was a product designer. Early on, I got asked: “Why would a startup hire a designer before anything else?” My answer was simple: at the earliest stage, the most important thing isn’t code. It’s how fast you can prototype, validate, and pivot. So, I hired for it: ~60–70% design thinking and ~30–40% visual design. A great product designer (with real autonomy) brings design thinking:  • Talking to users and building personas • Uncovering pains and gains • Rapidly prototyping to collapse the feedback loop • Iterating and validating without ego Before that, I worked with contract designers. Helpful, but hourly work tends to optimize for visuals, slows the loop, and gets expensive fast. That’s what unlocked speed for us. And it’s why I’ll always argue that early-stage product designers are the real most valuable players.   It’s not about making something pretty. It’s about seeing beyond the pixels, solving a real problem—and doing it fast enough to matter. Who was your first hire, and why? #MVP #firsthire #startups

Hiring is broken af. After years of building design teams at Zenly and amo, I’ve seen how painful it is. For both founders and candidates. As a designer, it’s messy and frustrating. As a cofounder/head of, it’s exhausting. Every week, I hear from friends secretly looking for their next move. And every week, founders DMing if I “know someone great.” I send the intros. Sometimes it leads nowhere, but sometimes it just creates amazing stories. I’d like to do something a bit more “official” about it. Before the end of the year, I want to help connect a few handpicked designers to a few top companies. No middlemen. No bs. It starts with (free) 15-minute calls. Hiring top talents, career clarity, comp negotiation, portfolio feedback, angel investing — whatever helps you level up. Opening 10 slots for next week. First come, first served. DM me for the link to book 🫰 Thanks for sharing this!

Timing is Everything — Especially in Development The harsh reality is that beautiful ideas often get buried by cheap labor and the "learn on the job" mentality. While this approach may save costs upfront, it can cost you the market. In today's fast-paced world, success depends on timing. If you're building a product, make sure you're hiring competent developers who can deliver results quickly, and with quality. Speed and excellence aren’t mutually exclusive; they can go hand-in-hand when you’ve got the right people in place. Don't gamble with your product—invest in talent, get to market on time, and watch your vision come to life. #tech #softwareDevelopment #productLaunch #hiring #businessStrategy #innovation

If your job description could apply to 200 companies… It’s not a job description. It’s a red flag. Founders often ask why they’re attracting average applicants. It starts here. I’ve read hundreds of startup job ads. Most of them sound like this: “We’re looking for a passionate, collaborative designer to work in a fast-paced environment.” But there’s no voice. No clarity. No stakes. You want elite talent? Write like you know EXACTLY who you’re talking to. Here’s what I tell founders: → Call out your mission → Be radically specific about the kind of work → Show what “good” actually looks like in your world ↳ Example: “We need a designer to: → Uplift our UI and enhance our design system → Improve the language in our checkout and product pages → Help engineers refine interactions” This beats “We’re the Amazon of pet food” 🔥Don’t outsource this part. Your job description is your first filter. Write it like it matters, because it does. #design #ai #johnisaac #careers #tech #ux #recruitment #startups

The next unicorns won’t be built by full time teams. Here's what I mean: Traditional startups hire full-time for everything. Marketing manager. Head of sales. Three developers. A designer. $60k–$90k per month in salaries. Before they've validated anything. The smart ones are doing it differently: Fractional CMO for 10 hours/week Sales specialist on retainer A flexible team of developers you can scale up or down AI tools handling the repetitive work Same output. 70% less burn. I've seen this firsthand at mmt.work. A client needed to build their MVP. Instead of hiring 4 full-time devs, we assembled a pod: 1 fractional PM (15 hours/week) 2 product-minded developers (contract) AI handling QA and documentation Result? MVP shipped in 12 weeks. For a fraction of the cost. Flexible squads aren’t just cheaper.They’re faster. No HR overhead. No office politics. No "that's not my job" conversations. Just skilled people, clear outcomes, and structured accountability. The unicorns of tomorrow won't be built by lean teams that know how to orchestrate talent, not hoard it. Are you still building the old way?

Searching for your Founding Designer? I've worked with a lot of founders to hire their first product designer. A common thing I hear is, "I'd like to bring in a designer who has worked at [insert unicorn company]". It's a natural desire for a safer choice. The brand name signals credibility to investors and future hires, and experience with a successful product can feel like a de-risked hire. Often, I meet with founders who have already spent considerable time and effort trying to hire their founding designer with little success. Here’s why: Specialist vs. Generalist: A designer from a large company often has a specialist remit, while a start-up needs a versatile generalist who can handle all aspects of design alone. The Cost: Early-stage start-up budgets often can't match the compensation from well-funded unicorns, making competing with them tricky. Mindset Mismatch: A designer at a scale-up is used to a proven market fit and a defined process; a start-up requires comfort with ambiguity, chaos, and an ability to pivot quickly. The Hiring Process: Lengthy, drawn-out recruitment processes with take-home tasks often deter the very designers you want to attract. When working with a founder to hire their founding designer, I advocate for moving the conversation away from looking for a brand name and toward a specific mindset: The Pioneering Mindset: They thrive in ambiguity, build from scratch, - creating the process and structure as they go. A True Partner: Look for someone who is a thought partner -ready to work directly with founders and challenge them when needed to build the best product. Mindset over Title: Regardless of seniority, you're looking for someone who can demonstrate strong problem-solving and foundational thinking. Foundational Ownership: The right candidate takes full ownership from discovery to launch, turning a vague idea into a testable prototype. Finding a founding designer can feel like a search for a needle in a haystack. With the right mindset, however, you can cut through the noise and find the right hire. I partner with founders to navigate the common pitfalls of bringing on their founding designer. If you’re ready to find the architect for your vision, let's chat.

 Why I think most “future-proof” plans are just expensive guesses Everyone wants to build something “future-proof.” Future-proof tech. Future-proof hiring. Future-proof infra. Sounds smart on a pitch deck. But here’s what I’ve seen in real teams 3-year roadmaps that get thrown out in 3 months. Products with 100 features but 80 never used. Infra scaled for 10x while real usage stays flat. The truth? Most future-proof plans are just expensive guesses with nice slides. We build for imagined problems. We scale for users we hope will come. We optimize before there's anything to optimize. And we end up burning 10x time, money, and energy on things that never even happened. So what’s better? 👉🏽 Build for flexibility, not predictions. 👉🏽 Make your systems change-ready, not change-proof. 👉🏽 Hire learners, not perfect fits. 👉🏽 Document tradeoffs, not just roadmaps. Future-proofing isn’t about predicting the future. It’s about staying fast when it changes. Curious What’s the most expensive “future-proof” decision you’ve seen? #FutureProof #BusinessStrategy #StartupLessons #Leadership #Agility

Stop Hiring More Developers. Fix Your Process First Your product development team is drowning. Releases are late. The board is asking tough questions. Your instinct? "We need more developers!"   𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽. 𝗬𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲. I've watched dozens of scaling companies throw bodies at delivery problems. Here's what actually happens: • You hire 5 developers at $150K each = $𝟳𝟱𝟬𝗞/𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 in new costs • Your velocity 𝗗𝗘𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘𝗦 for 3-6 months during onboarding • Communication overhead explodes exponentially • Your best developers spend 40% of their time mentoring instead of shipping   𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵? Most teams operate at 35% efficiency. Not because they lack talent -- because their processes are broken.   𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲: A Series B startup was bleeding $2M annually on a 40-person team delivering like a 15-person team. Instead of hiring 10 more developers, we fixed their process.   𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁: 82% predictability, 30% productivity boost, $0 in new headcount. The math is simple:   • 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: $750K/year forever   • 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: $180K once Before you post that next job listing, ask yourself: •  • What's your Sprint Predictability Rate?   • How much time goes to rework vs. new features?   • Can you accurately forecast delivery dates? If you don't know these numbers, you don't have a people problem. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺. Your developers aren't failing you. Your process is failing them.   𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 - 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀, 𝗼𝗿 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲? 🔔 Ring the bell if you like it ♻️ Repost to tell others fixing their process problem is a better choice! 🎯Follow me for more like this. #TheProcessMechanic #SoftwareDevelopment #TechLeadership #EngineeringManagement #ProcessOptimization #StartupGrowth #ScaleUp #ProductManagement #AgileTransformation #CTOInsights #DeveloperProductivity #TechStrategy

Totally agree with this. Hiring more developers doesn’t necessarily solve delivery issues - in many cases it only adds more complexity and slows things down. From my own experience, improving processes, communication, and predictability has a much bigger impact on productivity than just scaling headcount.

Robert W Woodcock 🚀 You are 100% right. The instinct to hire more developers is often just a way of avoiding the uncomfortable truths: - Skills gaps hidden by headcount inflation - Ego battles where speed = power - Politics that reward “growth” over “effectiveness” None of these belong in a healthy company. Throwing bodies at the problem only compounds the chaos. Process discipline, clarity of accountability, and ruthless focus on flow are what unlock true leverage. Until those foundations are fixed, every new hire is just another person stuck in the same broken system.