What’s it like designing services as a start up, verses designing in larger established organisations?
I’ve been reflecting on my experience recently, comparing how I design services when I’m working in a small start up, verses how I work when I’m working in a larger, more established organisation. Both come with their own unique challenges which I’ll explore.
In the beginning
At a start up you’re working in a smaller team with fewer resources. The environment is more flexible that in an established organisation. The amazing thing about working at a start up is that everyone has a growth mindset. This can be true in a large organisation too, but the nature of a small start up is that it’s unlikely that people will be unafraid to take risks. I’ve noticed working in the third sector or the government this isn’t necessarily the case. At a start up your pace of change is faster than you’d expect in an established organisation. On the other hand, the impact that you’re having can be a lot bigger in a large organisation. For example; it might take longer to make an accessible design change on Sainsbury’s website, but when you do it immediately has an impact on millions of users. Alternatively, at a small start up you could always practice the best in terms of accessibility, but reach a lot less people.
Now that we’ve covered the differences between designing services at start-ups and established organisations, let’s look at how that affects your role as a designer.
User research
User research can be easier in a start up. Because you’re a smaller team, you can get everyone together quickly to talk about what happened. For example, you can run a quick workshop and discuss your assumptions and review the results from the latest interviews or usability testing sessions.
User research is faster in a start up. Because there are fewer people to coordinate meetings with, interviews, prototypes and user testing sessions can be scheduled very quickly. And as mentioned above, reviews of results also happen quickly because there are fewer people involved in the project as a whole.
User research is cheaper for start ups. This one is pretty self explanatory I think! You’ll have less money to spend so you will try and find cheaper alternatives or ways to complete user research more efficiently within budget constraints.
Start ups don’t need to follow strict rules around user research methods and techniques — they aren’t bureaucracy bound so they are free to experiment with different techniques or approaches that work best for them at that time.
However a larger team who are stricter about research methods can be a good thing; you’re more likely to avoid bias. The real trap in a start up is that they may not be able to afford a dedicated user research team — so the founders do the research themselves. This hugely biases the research, because if the user knows they’re speaking to the founder they’re unlikely to say ‘I wouldn’t use this product, it really doesn’t help me in my day-to-day’. This can particularly harm start ups — doing research but mistaking users politeness for actually wanting and needing their product or their new features. Employees of a large organisation are likely to have more distance from the research and therefore see more clearly what users are telling them.
Agility and speed of change
When you work for an established organisation, working at a fast pace is more difficult. You have to go through more internal processes and get sign off from stakeholders. The regulations of your industry also slow you down, as well as the company’s structure that may not be ideal or flexible enough.
It’s different in start-ups, because they don’t have the same budget constraints and structural impediments as large corporations do. That said, start-ups may not always be able to move quickly either. They are often resource constrained and will also face the same industry regulations that their larger counterparts do.
However, one advantage start-ups have over established organisations is their ability to work quickly and adapt to change faster than those larger companies can.
Politics
Service designers should be aware that politics can affect the process of service design in large organisations. Politics is not just a negative force, it can sometimes be used for positive change.
Politics can be an opportunity for service designers to get buy-in from executives and investment for their projects. It is also a barrier and needs to be managed.
Start up and established organisations differ in how they do service design.
Service design is the design of services (this is from a blog by Lou Downe) There can be a process of improving the quality of the interaction between service provider and customers.
The goal is to design according to the needs of customers. Employees and organisations are also involved, creating a seamless experience for all involved. Service design also takes into account both the physical elements (spaces, equipment) and processes that make up the service.
These are some key ways that I think designing services in a start up differs from designing in an established organisation.