Don't leave success to chance

I've tried building more startups than I care to admit, I took the painful path (which I'm still on) of trialling every single bad decision you could imagine and iterating at every step of the way. The Twitter mentality of "Just start" is a glorified idealisation of the reality you're in for if you choose to do so however I've learned over the years that without great design in every aspect of the word, your product may as well be dead before you even begin. I'm not just talking about aesthetics, although that certainly matters more than you'd think, there's research, user experience, alignment, efficiency, and combining all of those factors to make your product as great as it can be.

I've spent over 10 years building products for organisations that have succeeded but when it came to my own I kept running into the same mistakes over and over again. It always came back to the lack of time management, testing and iterating of ideas, as many of you know when building a startup as a solo founder, you're wearing 5+ hats at any one moment meaning you take a step back from more hands on processes involved like research and design. In contrast to this, at every organisation or client I've with for I've always prioritised this so one day after winding down yet another failed startup I decided to switch things up.

I've honed my design skills and put them to the test with countless digital products and services. Time and time again, I've seen that good design is the key factor in user engagement, retention, and satisfaction. When your product looks and feels great, users are more likely to sign up, stick around and become loyal customers. So I created a framework for myself to organise all of my research, design, insights and user experiences work all whilst managing my time more efficiently. I've since kicked off two profitable ventures outside of my 9-5 work (which I also use this framework for) and now I'm launching it to the world in the hope that you'll also get insane amounts of value from it and that your successes won't be as dependant on chance as they otherwise may have.

You can join over 100+ others who have already downloaded Design OS now, my #1 best selling Notion template.

It's a comprehensive framework and resource for designers, researchers, solopreneurs with templates for everything including user research, interviews, design management, journey maps, competitor analysis, methodologies and much more. It's easy to use and fully customizable, so you can adapt it to your needs and preferences.

The first thing I do now when kicking off a new project is duplicate my Design OS template and align everyone involved. It's been a game-changer! I can now iterate at the speed that suits me, make informed design decisions, and create products that users love. I'm confident it can help you achieve similar success.

So if you're serious about taking your design work and/or startup to the next level, give Design OS a try. You won't regret it!