Designing a product from zero to oneHow to survive and thrive in early-stage tech startups and stay in love with building products.

Joining an early-stage startup as the first designer can be challenging but rewarding. The founding team's design sensitivity plays a crucial role in shaping the designer's experience and impact on the product. In this article, the author shares insights from their journey as the first designer at OpenMeter. They emphasize understanding your team's strengths and weaknesses, tailoring processes to suit the team, sharing work early and often, ruthless prioritization, embracing ambiguity, and adopting established patterns when designing solutions. The author also highlights the importance of investing in bespoke solutions for critical flows and experiences while using template solutions for other areas during the initial stages of a product's journey.