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How to Hire a Great Web Designer, With Y Combinator's Garry Tan

35 points by transburgh 16y ago

citricsquid 16y ago
Mashable's thing is social media and how amazing it is and how amazing it will be for you and your business and how it'll make you rich, yet here in this article: > Mashable: When you come across a web designer with a trendy-looking portfolio and a slew of social media profiles, does that send certain signals to you? If so, are those signals mostly positive, negative or neutral? > Tan: I focus on the portfolio and the work they’ve done. Most everything else related to how much they use social media is not really an indicator. I find this ironic I guess, they're completely disproving the entire premise of their blog.
- il 16y ago
  They might have been fishing for a different answer.
rriepe 16y ago
Another big issue: Respect. If you don't respect the design process, or designers, don't ever expect to hire a good designer. If you've noticed that most designers are either not good, or flaky, chances are the problem is you and not the designers. Topics to avoid: How engineers contribute to the valuation of a company but everyone else detracts, how great 99 designs is, how HTML/CSS is "for people who can't program," and my favorite: How easy design is, and how you're only hiring because you don't personally have time for it. When you say stuff like this, it's not really professional for us to get loud and try to correct you. It's also not really professional for us to slowly back away, and then run full speed as soon as you turn your head. But that's what we end up doing.
- shib71 16y ago
  What about: How hard design is, and how you're hiring because you don't personally have time to be good at it.
danberger 16y ago
A post on how to pick a backend dev (eg what questions to ask) would be just as, if not more, interesting :)
sgdesign 16y ago
Good read. In fact I added my name to Garry Tan's list, and was contacted by a YC company a couple weeks back. But they were looking to get their site designed and coded for under $1k… I think that shows that not everybody practices what they preach, and a lot of startups still consider design like a secondary expense, and not like a major differentiator that needs sufficient funding.
- Turny 16y ago
  1k?! That's crazy talk. Totally agree with you. Side note: I'm looking for a designer now for a new web app I'm launching late Spring/Early summer. Well funded. If you're interested in learning more about the project shoot me an email at turnbullalexander at gmail dot com. Cheers, Alex Turnbull about me: http://about.me/alexturnbull http://about.me/alexturnbull
evancaine 16y ago
Is there any chance YC will make the directory publicly available?

35 points by transburgh 16y ago

Mashable's thing is social media and how amazing it is and how amazing it will be for you and your business and how it'll make you rich, yet here in this article: > Mashable: When you come across a web designer with a trendy-looking portfolio and a slew of social media profiles, does that send certain signals to you? If so, are those signals mostly positive, negative or neutral? > Tan: I focus on the portfolio and the work they’ve done. Most everything else related to how much they use social media is not really an indicator. I find this ironic I guess, they're completely disproving the entire premise of their blog.

il 16y ago
They might have been fishing for a different answer.

rriepe 16y ago

Another big issue: Respect. If you don't respect the design process, or designers, don't ever expect to hire a good designer. If you've noticed that most designers are either not good, or flaky, chances are the problem is you and not the designers. Topics to avoid: How engineers contribute to the valuation of a company but everyone else detracts, how great 99 designs is, how HTML/CSS is "for people who can't program," and my favorite: How easy design is, and how you're only hiring because you don't personally have time for it. When you say stuff like this, it's not really professional for us to get loud and try to correct you. It's also not really professional for us to slowly back away, and then run full speed as soon as you turn your head. But that's what we end up doing.

shib71 16y ago
What about: How hard design is, and how you're hiring because you don't personally have time to be good at it.

danberger 16y ago

A post on how to pick a backend dev (eg what questions to ask) would be just as, if not more, interesting :)

sgdesign 16y ago

Good read. In fact I added my name to Garry Tan's list, and was contacted by a YC company a couple weeks back. But they were looking to get their site designed and coded for under $1k… I think that shows that not everybody practices what they preach, and a lot of startups still consider design like a secondary expense, and not like a major differentiator that needs sufficient funding.

Turny 16y ago
1k?! That's crazy talk. Totally agree with you. Side note: I'm looking for a designer now for a new web app I'm launching late Spring/Early summer. Well funded. If you're interested in learning more about the project shoot me an email at turnbullalexander at gmail dot com. Cheers, Alex Turnbull about me: http://about.me/alexturnbull http://about.me/alexturnbull

evancaine 16y ago

Is there any chance YC will make the directory publicly available?