UX for Lean Startups

Foreword

This book will make you a better designer. If you’re already a designer, that probably sounds pretty good. But I believe this is true for just about anyone, from engineers to MBAs.

I have had the privilege of working with Laura Klein for many years. She is a fantastic designer and has worked on many outstanding products. (Don’t tell her I said this, but she’s also a pretty good programmer, too.) But her talents as an individual contributor are surpassed by her ability to impact whole teams. And I am pleased to report that this extremely rare skill has now been translated into book form.

Laura has a special talent for helping nondesigners access the arcane toolkit that is sometimes called interaction design, usability testing, user experience (UX) design, or—as is my preference—making things that work. Whatever you call it, every modern company must realize that good design drives growth, customer satisfaction, and continuous innovation. This book will put those tools immediately in your hands, no matter what it says on your business card.

Startups require good design, but they can’t always afford a full-time designer. In fact, many of the most famous startups had nobody on staff trained in traditional design. Unfortunately, the kind of rapid, cross-functional collaboration that startups require is often at odds with the traditional approaches most designers grew up with. So in order to take advantage of the strengths of the design discipline, we need new approaches that support ...