Building Design for Data-Driven Companies & Understanding AI Ethics | Raphael Hyde | Glasp Talk #34
This is the thirty-fourth session of Glasp Talk!
Glasp Talk delves deep into intimate interviews with luminaries from various fields, unraveling their genuine emotions, experiences, and the stories behind them.
Today's guest is Raphael Hyde, a product design leader with 14 years of experience shaping innovative products across tech giants and startups. Raphael currently serves as a Staff Product Designer at Snowflake, following his roles as Head of Design at MotherDuck and Design Lead at Google, where he contributed to products like BigQuery. As a limited partner at PlanB Ventures, he brings a multifaceted perspective on product design and innovation.
In this interview, Raphael delves into the challenges and rewards of designing data-driven products at scale, shares insights on fostering empowered design teams, and reflects on the importance of aligning design with broader business strategy. He also discusses his approach to ethical design in today’s tech landscape, the transformative impact of AI on the design process, and what aspiring designers should focus on to thrive in a rapidly evolving field. Join us as Raphael shares invaluable advice on building products that resonate, designing for a global audience, and creating a legacy in the tech world.
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Transcripts
Glasp: Welcome back to another episode of Glasp Talk. Today, we are excited to have Raphael Hyde with us. So, Raphael is a product design leader with 14 years of experience bringing innovative products to market. He's currently serving as a staff product designer at Snowflake and was previously the head of design at Mother Duck, where he was the first hire. Before that, Raphael spent nearly five years at Google as a design lead and Web3 community lead, working on major products like BigQuery. And he's also a limited partner at PlanB Ventures, investing in early-stage tech startups. What makes Raphael's journey unique is his diverse background, from founding companies to being a design fellow at Carnegie Mellon University, an ideal caller. So today, we'd like to explore his insights on product design in data-driven companies and his approach to building products that serve hundreds of thousands of users globally. Thank you for joining APL today.
Raphael: Thanks for having me. Thank you.
Glasp: So, first of all, I saw your LinkedIn and you started working at Snowflake as a staff product designer. And I'm really curious, why did you join and what happened?
Raphael: Yeah, that's a great question. So, on the tail end of my Mother Duck experience, I was, I think, deciding where to go next in my career after 15 years or so. I started to, I guess, prioritize more of the larger thesis of each company. And so, I was talking to many companies, founders, and I guess, just people I respected in the industry. And I wanted to be on a team where there was a really strong founder fit or leadership fit. And I think a lot of times, you're not able to prioritize that depending on where you are in your career. And so, for me, that meant I want to be part of an organization where I'm empowered as a very passionate designer-builder. Whether that's I have autonomy or access to the right sort of resources, if I need to build out a design team or partner with other major stakeholders in the business, whether they're in product or engineering or marketing or sales, growth, etc. And each organization is going to have a different maturity level. Maybe those teams don't exist. And so, I felt that at this point in my career, I wanted to be a part of a team that had a lot of potential for scale and growth, organizationally, but then in the design function. And I think a lot of tech companies oftentimes look at the design department as a second-class citizen. And they're not given the proper funding or support or negotiation control during prioritization or roadmapping. After talking to a bunch of different companies, Snowflake really actually stood out to me because their design leadership came from very mature past companies and teams. So, their actions spoke for themselves. And then as I spoke to the other leaders in the business, it seemed like design was actually very empowered as it carries out its responsibilities. And then, of course, I think Snowflake being the largest IPO in history and where we're positioned with the kind of AI race, and then I think the ergonomics and the semantics of working with data, I think they're actually positioned very well to capture a much larger global market for data practitioners, citizen data scientists, and I think just companies that are learning how important data analytics are going to be for them to evolve to that next level. So, I think it's going to unlock potential for every kind of company, regardless of what sector you're in. So, I think as an industry and then from a maturity standpoint and a leadership standpoint, it seemed like a no-brainer. And now after being on the inside, I feel more than happy with my choice.
Glasp: Wow. Amazing. And I remember at Snowflake, the leadership changed about half a year ago or so, from the previous co-founder to a new CEO, like a CEO. And do you think that leadership change changed the internal culture? I know you just joined, but change the culture of how they respond to AI or responsibilities in the space?
Raphael: Yeah, that's a good question. So, I don't have a before-and-after perspective, but I have been asking that question. And I knew Sridhar from when he was founding Neva, the Web3 company, the Atlas browser that he was building before it got acquired by Snowflake. So, I actually met him and he asked if I could join his company, ironically. And he discovered me through this Web3 podcast that I was producing at Google, and it had some notoriety. So, it was interesting, my path of like, I knew him before when he was building this company, and then he was brought into Snowflake. So, it kind of feels like we both took a little bit of a full circle together. So, I couldn't say if the culture has changed just from a leadership shift, but I do think anytime you have a company that's founder-led and it goes through the enormous growing pain of IPOing, and then of course, becoming the state-of-the-art analytics platform in the world, and then all of a sudden that guy leaves, and then the new leader is at the helm. So, these are big shoes to fill. And I would be remiss if I didn't admit that there is probably an enormous culture shift that a lot of people are still figuring out how to navigate. And I think it'll probably take me a couple of months to figure out exactly what is working and what's not working, and maybe where opportunities lie. But I think he's well-equipped. He's got a strong data background. And I know having run the ads business at Google for, gosh, almost a decade, I would say he's got the experience to do the job. And I guess it's just a matter of him maybe giving people like myself the right amount of runway and support so that we can empower him. Because I think end of the day, it's the people that he brings in that are going to really help and execute the results of his plan. So, fingers crossed. I'm going to be optimistic.
Glasp: Yes. And so, and also another question is I'm curious, I'm always about is like, you know, you are now a staff product designer, right? So, a designer has several seniorities, like junior, middle, senior, and staff. And I don't know, some company has a principal product designer. So, I'm curious, what's your current responsibility? Do you design the real product? Or, I mean, as seniority goes up, the more people focus on branding and messaging, I don't know. I'm curious how the responsibility changes over time.
Raphael: Yeah. That's a great question. I think a lot of people are always wondering, as you evolve up, what are your responsibilities and what are you not doing? So, I guess I'll have to answer this with a bit of a caveat because I have somewhat of an idea of what I'll be doing at Snowflake. But I think I can answer that question more largely in the industry because oftentimes, staff designers are kind of defined the same within most of your Fortune 500s. And then I think that definition slightly changes depending on the maturity and the scope of your work at your company. And so, I'd say a company like Snowflake, that north of $50 billion market cap, companies of the same sort of pedigree, staff designers are usually responsible for pushing the vision of the company. So, that's like, what is the mapping of the industry? What are the chess pieces and how our competitors are positioning themselves with the opportunities of emerging technologies, emerging markets, maybe emerging customers, and points of friction? So, how can I work with my leaders in PM and engineering and figure out what sort of path we should take, whether it's like new product development, shoring up features within our existing products or suites or services, and figuring out how those can build a moat around our market or new lines of revenue so that we can continue to scale? And so, obviously, if you're a smaller company, let's say you are like a startup, series A, series B, maybe your valuation is between like 200 million and 600 million, or if you're an AI company, a bajillion dollars, your responsibility is probably striking on product market fit. And so, you're executing a lot of tactical responsibilities daily. It can be doing actual in-the-pixel feature work. You're designing the product or particular features, and then you're probably trying to review it with your stakeholders and ensure that it's resonating with your customer's needs, and then providing the same sort of validation and you know, whether it's through releases, like measuring engagement through releases or maintaining quality as those features reach production. And so I think it's kind of a long answer, but like the health, the size of each company will determine the responsibilities for staff, but usually at large scale mature companies, it's like trying to influence the direction of the business and then probably enforcing a high level of quality and craft amongst the design department. And then whatever sort of like strategic or tactical daily to-do's that they need help with.
Glasp: So I think you started your career as a designer. So, what made you think, that I want to become a designer? So what made you interested in design?
Raphael: Totally. So I have a this is a good story. When I was really little, my, well, I'll start it this way. So my dad was a builder. He would build homes. And as a small child, I was kind of, you know, in his shadow learning how to do construction, whether it was electrical or plumbing, framing, foundation work, finishing work. And that inspired me to work with my hands. So I actually started my career in industrial design. I felt that industrial design was the strongest conduit between me being able to have fun and creating things. And I didn't actually know that this field existed. I was introduced through meeting David Kelly, the founder of IDEO at a design excellence banquet. Blew me away. I was like, oh my God, you can like make products and as a job, like that's a real thing. So changed my major. You know, this was, when I was a freshman in college and immediately went into industrial design. And that was like sketching and doing, you know, human-centered research. And it really captured my attention. And so that is when I went out to Silicon Valley and wanted to like build startups and, you know, had a crazy experience doing that. But during that, I realized there was this huge spike in, you know, the internet and how like data-driven design and software was kind of eating the world from, you know, Mark Andreessen's words. So I kind of had this premonition that if you want to be the best designer, you need to understand the physical and digital and pair them together. And that is when you can cross both paradigms, understanding how humans interact with physical space and digital space. And so then I jumped into software and the goal was long down the road. I'm going to pair them back together and I'm going to be able to do it all. That was my wishful thinking as a young designer. And so I've stayed on the digital design path for, gosh, I think most of those 15 years. And I think that's where I'll stay, but that's essentially kind of where that journey started. And then I started bouncing around to all sorts of companies, and consultancies, and here we are.
Glasp: And from your background, I saw, you know, your career started in 2006. And it seems like you have seen the iPhone when the iPhone came out, right? It's like a physical, like a beautiful product, I think, at the time. And so does that change your, how to say, the motivation to as a designer at the time?
Raphael: 100%, because the iPhone, wouldn't say the iPhone, but I think like devices like the iPhone, they became the first contact point for us to consume kind of like notifications. We'll use that as an example. And it starts to train our minds to think a different way. You know, there's all this subconscious interaction that we're doing on our devices. And the iPhone introduced that into every element of our life. And so that meant new business models were going to be born around how can you leverage social media. How can you leverage analytics, tracking user data, and how that can be built into the business models of digital products today and the whole, you know, SaaS offerings, etc? And so I think seeing the world before that, I mean, this is kind of more of like a humanitarian perspective, but there was much less, you know, mental health problems. You know, people were able to kind of separate in the sense of church and state, there is like my life without the phone and then my life with the phone, but now it has completely swallowed the world and how people interact with everything. So it certainly influences my perspective and approach to design a lot.
Glasp: Yes, yeah, that's a really great invention. And yeah, that was really what you said, yes. And then you said you met Kevin Kelly, the founder of IDEO. Have you met or seen him?
Raphael: Yeah, David Kelly. So he was at a design excellence dinner that I actually went to when I was an undergrad and I got to meet him briefly there, like very briefly. And he was introducing one of, well, not introducing, but talking about his, like the 10 archetypes of design and how you can use them to illustrate narratives and understand human-centered design methodologies. And so that's, yeah, that's when I met him.
Glasp: But later you joined, you know, IDEO collaborate. It's also part of IDEO, right? And yeah, that's interesting, yeah. Like the coincidence. Oh, is that a coincidence, or did you apply? What did you do?
Raphael: So that was when I learned about since I learned about IDEO and product design at the same time, I looked into it and I was like, oh, I didn't know how special IDEO was. And so I kind of made a personal goal for myself. I'm like, I'm going to work there one day. And then I just like worked really hard. And then eventually I had the chance to, you know, be in the co-lab for a little while. So that was certainly kind of like a life milestone because I never thought that that was even possible. And then, you know, being in the office alongside all these amazing thinkers and designers and innovators, it really was like a life-changing moment for me.
Glasp: And what exactly did you do at IDEO as a design fellow, like exploring new ideas or researching or developing something? What did you do?
Raphael: Yeah, so the IDEO co-lab has a fascinating business model. And I think now it's evolved into like a different kind of organization. But when I was a fellow there, we had an IP membership model with corporations. So the goal was let's do a bunch of future thinking design and research three to five years out. And if we discover something novel, we'll share that IP with paying corporate members. And those more corporate members could be like, you know, Fortune 500 banks or like Ford Motor Company or big insurance companies. And they're incentivized by trying to stay ahead of the curve. And so if you're a financial institution in 2017, you wanted to know, is crypto something I should be investing in? Or if you were like an automotive company, should I be investing in IOT technology? Is there something within these emerging markets, emerging technologies rather, that is gonna be important to defending our business? And so myself, along with a bunch of other fellows, our responsibility was to sit down and experiment and explore some of these emerging technologies, build prototypes, conduct research, and kind of like really put a lot of thought into this kind of generational hypotheses. So I'll explain one. If one of the projects that we were working on, could you leverage a network of electric vehicles to be used as a place to store energy to offset carbon emissions on the grid? And if you could, you could reduce the use of coal power plants. This means that when coal power plants produce power, that electricity, if it's not used, it just... loses it because there's not a large enough storage capacity for it. So it was like, could we build an arbitrage electrical marketplace? So if you own an EV, you can charge your car when you're at work, when the cost of power is low. And then when you go home at night and power consumption peaks, you could sell it back to the grid at a profit. And if you could do this at scale, you could tremendously reduce the amount of power that coal power plants would need to produce. And that problem is very complex. You have to figure out what are the incentives of EV owners. What are the incentives of the car manufacturers? What are the incentives of the charging networks? And of course, what are the limitations? And then what kind of technology do we need to build so we can predict how much available capacity is in these cars on any given day so we can determine the market price for that power? So it's like you're a market maker, you're a capacity management system, and then you're also kind of a liaison for all the different municipalities and stakeholders that are involved. That's one example, but there are many others, but is kind of a crazy idea. But if you were to do it right, you'd save the environment, you're providing a line of revenue for EV owners, and of course, you'd providing major assistance to the municipality and an incentive for the automotive makers to build their cars to do this better.
Glasp: Interesting. Did that project become like, did that project realize? So EV partnerships?
Raphael: Yeah. So since we were like a research lab, we would do the research and figure out if it was possible, which we felt that it was. And then we would just give that research off to the members. And so Ford Motor Company, for example, got access to our discoveries. And so did Duke Energy, Exelon Energy, and then the city of San Francisco. So it was like a shared effort. And then we didn't really have a vested interest in executing the solution because you would need enormous investment and resources from one of these companies. So what they did with those discoveries, I'm not too sure, but everyone seemed very interested that we were doing that work.
Glasp: I see. Yeah. And regarding those ideas and also experience, since you have both enterprise designer experience and consumer design experience. And I'm curious, when you think about enterprise software or consumer software, or not only software, but product, physical product, is an approach to the solution different, or your, as a designer, mindsets are different? And I'm really curious about those use cases. Of course, there are many use cases, but both to used differently.
Raphael: Yeah. That's a great question. Yeah. Because I find that usually if you're designing an enterprise solution, it could be almost like a utility or a commodity for your customer. So for example, let's say you're designing enterprise data warehousing software and so a lot of these companies, they're kind of looking at as like, this is a commodity that I need to have to support my business operating, which is so much different than maybe like a consumer product. Like I want to design the best way for you to find a place to stay like Airbnb. And so those consumer experiences oftentimes are, they kind of have to hit a certain level of quality and delight and ease because your users, they might not be experts. You know, your consumer could be a middle school student while if you're building enterprise solutions, it might, it might need to be so robust and so efficient that it could cost millions of dollars. And so, the incentives for your customers. And then, of course, being able to stand out amongst your competitors are vastly different. And I think that's, those will contribute to your design requirements so differently because if the customer requirement for an enterprise tool is like, it has to cost this much and it has to be this fast. Maybe it doesn't have to be that easy to use. I think in a perfect world, we would like enterprise tools to be easier to use, but your customer is probably an expert and they probably use it maybe every day. And I would call that like a toothbrush action, do it every day. So it's like, you, really, really get good at it. But are you using every single consumer app that you use every day? Maybe you are. And it's like, then it's more of a building and gamification and addictive UX patterns into those products. Or like, at least people don't say that, but that's how essentially most growth-driven design is formatted. So there are, yeah, completely different sets of incentives and design approaches that you would take for those, for consumer versus enterprise.
Glasp: I see. Interesting. And as you mentioned, based on which company or which product you work for is your policy. As a designer, you are constantly getting inspiration from many experiences, right? I assume. And that's what I believe great designers do. But for which product do you work, is your process of getting inspiration different? And also I'm curious, which is harder for you?
Raphael: Oh, which is harder, consumer versus enterprise? And how to get inspiration for each case, in your case.
Glasp: Yes
Raphael: Yeah, totally. That's a great question. So I'll answer the inspiration one first. I find that the pendulum swings so much in the design industry because the zeitgeist is going to define trends, styles, color palettes, different behaviors, and ways you will engage your users. And so for example, being born in a generation where I didn't have a phone until I was like probably 16, I wasn't building up those habits from a very young age. And so the things that might inspire your users are going to be correlated to like when they started to use certain devices, or like they're going to have a standard of quality that they may expect. And so if you're building, so if I'm looking for inspiration for like a consumer product, like what are the sorts of styles that are going to resonate with a user that could be very young? Maybe it needs to be a louder brand or a very passionate design language. Maybe it needs to have a lot of color, imagery, and video, like the types of things that are going to be more palatable to a younger generation, because those are the kinds of experiences that are being fed to them all day long. And I have to be able to compete basically to get their attention or to allow them to see the value added to their life, depending on what the experience is.
If we're talking about an enterprise tool, I'll give you an example. Maybe you're building a really comprehensive analytics tool and your users are data scientists, right? They've gone to school for eight years and they know how to do very high levels of math. And they're trying to find a needle in a haystack to answer a critical business question. And so these people are so well versed in the types of tools. And I would say like the ergonomics of a data analytics workspace. And so you got to be able to empower that person, like give them superpowers, which is a whole different type of strategy. And so to be inspired, to find inspiration, to highly leverage that kind of user, the inspiration is different because it's more about being very productive in that environment versus being entertained. And so if I'm trying to design for a young user, then I might go look for inspiration in pop culture. I might go try to figure out what are the kinds of very sticky and palatable artifacts that they're seeing in the music industry, in gaming, versus like if it's a more enterprise-related tool, it's like, what are the kinds of experiences that really leverage flexibility in a tool, ease, maybe stuff that has to deal with like reducing the number of distractions. And so the inspiration is going to come from very different kinds of places.
But personally, I usually look across all different kinds of domains because I think you can cross-reference points of inspiration. So like right now I'm thinking that a lot of data practitioner tools are starting to introduce a lot of LLMs and AI. And so there's this conversational, excuse me, a medium that we're trying to introduce. And those conversational mediums are arising in all sorts of things, like maybe it could be in gaming, maybe it could be in how we administer certain healthcare services to people or support services. So, it's a pretty wide spectrum. So, I hope that answers your question.
Glasp: Yes, it answers a lot, yeah, to my question. And also, you're talking to AI, you know, an interesting topic. You know, nowadays, people use AI for not only writing something but also coding, also, you know, like designing. And so, some people say, yeah, first of all, has AI changed how you work, how designers work? And secondly, you know, some people say, about AI safety, you know, some people say, oh, super optimistic, oh, let's go more, let's go forward, you know, or, you know, but some people say, oh, we should stop, you know. So, yeah, could you answer this question, like how it changed, yeah, safety?
Raphael: So, I'll try to be brief about the first one. So, how AI has changed how I work? I'm very curious. And so, I kind of experiment with, you know, all the AI tools I can get my hands on. So, whether it's like, you know, different ML notebooks, or, you know, what Claude is doing, what Chat GPT is doing, what Gemini is doing, and trying to see how, like, that can be incorporated into my work. So, whether it's, like, summarizing text, or helping me even just, like, think through basic problems. But it's more of a more efficient Google search for me. I haven't, I haven't found that very many LLMs have been a part of my daily design process.
And I think the challenge there is, is usually, if well, it depends on the kind of product you're working on. But I'm usually working on very, very specific micro-interactions within a very particular data workspace. And these types of problems are so laser-focused that AI tools usually don't have the same sort of intuit to understand how a human might make mistakes as they navigate a digital workspace. It might help me brainstorm different problems or ways that a user might navigate that. But it really kind of comes down to, can I design an experience? And can I, like, almost synthesize the different ways a user might use it? If the question was, give me 100 different ways that I could sort menus, it's going to go look through the internet and find me a bunch of old news, and ways I could do that. And maybe it'll help me, it'll help stimulate some, some thinking around that. But oftentimes it's really like when the pen hits the paper, or the mouse hits the pixels, and you're kind of like painting a canvas of ideas. And so I think the, I guess the designer to AI heuristics of being able to help supplement some of the creativity behind my process, that is a much harder gap or chasm to cross.
So it hasn't, hasn't become as big a part of that, but it will, I think certainly make a huge impact on how PMs define requirements, provide evidence and supplemental research for their findings, or at least the priorities that need to be set. And of course, like a lot of engineering work, being able to produce more efficient code or consolidate functions. And then I think, I think also helping designers really leverage their design process through code. So I think that's certainly an area.
Raphael: And your second question was, I forgot your second one.
Glasp: Safety. Yeah. Because, you know, AI impact, if AI impacted, you know, how about your job security, you know, for some people and, you know, and some people are concerned about AI.
Raphael: Yeah. So about a year ago, and I think like COVID certainly influenced this because I think the story that, I think the way we'll be telling this story in a couple of years was like during COVID, we hit this kind of economic boom and a bunch of Fortune 500 tech companies, like the moon to the sky and their stocks went up. And then all of a sudden we saw this pullback in the economy and there was a tremendous amount of layoffs. And if you look at the trajectory of hiring across all the different roles, design largely did not change. And so Carta publishes data around like how startups are hiring and spending across different verticals and, you know, other, there are some management consultancies like Boston for sure to produce different hiring data on this, but at least what I saw was I think a lot of companies started thinking they could replace designers with AI. And so there was a huge pullback on hiring for design, you know, companies like Google and Amazon, I felt were trying to hire lower level designers to do more of the player-coach more on, maybe even on the management side work, but not, not fairly compensating them for it. And so I think what that means was there was a lot of assumption that AI could be able to consolidate the needed skills to do the job.
And after about a year, I felt like then that reversed. And I talked to a lot of design leaders in the industry and it's, it seems to be a pattern that emerging technologies come in. There's an attempt at consolidation across the cost of resourcing within your business. And then you start to see it affecting your bottom line and not being able to execute properly. And so whether it's like those that are managing budgets or headcount, I think they started to pivot back to like, we really need the proper design leaders. So I say all that to answer your question because I think AI certainly is going to be a major threat to a lot of knowledge workers, especially people that are like processing information and then come and converting it to useful artifacts. Whether it's like I'm a PM and I define requirements based on market research to drive change in my organization, or I'm a designer that's interpreting customer needs and then manifesting a design solution, a digital solution that we can eventually build into the product. And I think there are many steps throughout all those different roles that will eventually be consolidated and probably replaced in some capacity.
But being able to work as a team, I think that piece, is going to be much harder to replace. So if I were to be honest, I don't feel very bullish about the future of young designers in their careers, because their skill set is going to dramatically shift. And I think those who have very strong domain expertise, along with those like tactical design skills will be successful. But it's really hard to develop that skill set without having a lot of years of experience. So we're in this very painful chicken-egg situation, and I'm certainly, I'm kind of nervous about it.
Glasp: Yeah, thanks. Yeah, many people are talking about AI, and people usually talk about positive things, the positive side of AI. So yeah, we need to keep looking into it and how to adapt to it. So yeah, you mentioned product leaders, I mean, just curious, what is a trait of great designers? So do you have any like, yeah, things in mind? So good designers' traits or characteristics or potential or skill set experience?
Raphael: Yeah, so, and I'll speak to this through the lens of like, digital product designers. I find that effective digital product designers can prototype, and that are willing to take critical feedback and iterate quickly on the product. And so, and it's a little different skill set. It's kind of like removing any sort of personal sensitivities, because if the goal is to make the business successful, which is like what pays for you to have a job, then you should always prioritize making the thing better, versus like, maybe I get offended because the feedback hurt my feelings. And that's tough, because like, you want to build, you want to build an organization that celebrates trust, and empowers people to do the best work they can with the necessary resources. But you don't want to overspend, you don't want to waste time.
And so, I find that really, it just comes down to designers that have figured out a way to quickly communicate their ideas visually, and then being able to iterate on that quickly. I mean, it's so simple, but I find this to be such a hard thing. So, I'll give you another good example. I started my career where we drew everything. Everything was design sketching, and then you would be able to sit in a room with your teammates, and design through ideas, and then being able to have a very articulate conversation around like, what's good and bad. And you could quickly reach a consensus. And I think that's really what all these companies are trying to do. They're trying to take a ton of knowledge with people who are navigating an ambiguous landscape, being able to take those ideas, manifest them in a way where we can build alignment, and then we can move one step forward. You're not going to get it perfect the first time.
So if you can at least perform that operation effectively, then you're always moving forward. And I think designers are often the participants that are the connective conduit that helps people take their ideas and then manifest them into the world. And so if you can develop any sort of skills, whether it's like drawing, workshopping, prototyping, so you can manifest those ideas and quickly find alignment amongst the people you're working with, you are inevitably creating value within the business. And then you sprinkle on domain expertise and being able to suss out what's good and what's bad and what's possible to build versus what's impossible, and that's important too. But hopefully, your team is comprised of other domain experts, and they can weigh in on that. And so I think if every designer was able to do those things a little bit better, they would absolutely be adding a tremendous amount of value to their business.
Glasp: Yeah. How do you find those great traits when you are hiring designers? Do you have any tips or designer hiring flow to find those great designers first?
Raphael: Yeah, absolutely. So I think one way is let's co-design together. A common exercise in interviews is the whiteboarding exercise. I'm going to give you a design prompt and I'm going to say, design the best alarm clock in the world, and you're going to go crazy and you're going to start communicating your ideas, asking about any limiting questions. What are some of the constraints that I have to operate within? Who's my customer? And if you can at least walk me through the order of operations of how you think and how you communicate your ideas, are you going to do it manually with pen and paper or through Figma or other design tools? That helps me kind of see your process. And are you a team player? How do you take criticism? How do you take maybe crazy constraints? Like we don't know and figure it out. And I think that's really how you kind of see people perform under pressure.
And then hopefully they're also kind of introducing really novel things around like, I designed this because it might allow us to build the business in this way. And that's going to allow us to carve out a new line of revenue. And then we can do experimentation and blah, blah, blah. So that's one thing.
And I think another is like, how do they storytell? Like if your job is to build alignment and evangelize an idea within a team or a company, you have to be a really good storyteller. How can you capture your audience and like inspire them to kind of go in a specific direction? And if you can, I mean, that's a very valuable skill. And I think a lot of people, I think designers oftentimes can be introverted.
And I think that's fine, but oftentimes good storytellers need to be extroverted. Are you comfortable speaking to a large group of people and having conviction, but also an open mind to change? And I think then you can do that through other kinds of like storytelling, testing mechanisms.
Glasp: Interesting. Yeah. I'm particularly curious about the first designer, first hire design at the company because you were the first hire at Mother Duck, right? And since we are looking, we are a team of like developers and we don't have designers, we are looking for designers. And then how can we find the first designer? And also what are the designers looking for in the company? I mean, if they are the first hire, what is the best case? And how can we improve this process?
Raphael: Yeah, I think that's the million-dollar question. How do you find the needle in the haystack? You're perfect for them. They're perfect for you. It's like dating.
So I guess it's hard, but I think it probably just comes down to, do you guys have a very compelling story that's going to gravitate to somebody with a certain set of creative skills? And so if your objective is to build a particular product in a particular industry, then, I mean, I don't know exactly what you guys are doing, but like, let's speak in hypotheticals here.
Some designers might be attracted to the idea that they get to put their stamp on something. They get to own how this product is going to evolve maybe visually or through its user experience patterns. And so if you find what's important to you, kind of evangelize that through your job description or your network and how you're kind of advertising for this new hire.
And I think there are designers with all different kinds of strengths. But I think one of the things that I keep in mind is, excuse me, I want to hire or work with people who also see a future in what we're doing. And so is there a broader sense of purpose or mission that they might gravitate to? And if that is not palatable, then like, are you building the right kind of company that people are going to want to invest their time in and their future and grow with you? Because you're going to spend a ton of time and money to maybe bring them on and foster them up. And so I guess thinking of in the zeitgeist, there are probably notable elements that people are flocking towards. A lot of people want to work in AI because there's a lot of money in it. There's a lot of promise because that industry is going to grow tremendously. And so are there important attributes in the work that you're doing that are aligning with the zeitgeist and that is going to give a future and opportunity to somebody who maybe has a different set of values, but you've got to figure out kind of where that crossover is. And I think without knowing the specifics of the scenario you're working under, it's kind of hard to prescribe something, but I'd say that's generally an approach that I would take.
Glasp: How about this situation? Let's say one candidate is very passionate and resonates with our mission, but a lacks skill. But one has a really great skill, but they don't resonate with our product, but they are okay. Which one should the startups or the company looking for the first hire, the first designer should take?
Raphael: Yeah. You're describing me like 15 years ago. I had no skill and a lot of passion. So I think, I mean, it probably depends on the company and what you can afford. Because I am a firm believer that if you can find somebody who's highly motivated and passionate, you can teach them those skills.
But do you have the time? Is there someone on your team that's going to mentor that kind of person? So I think as a first designer in a startup, they often need to be pretty seasoned. You don't have to hold their hand. They're going to know how to navigate ambiguity, build and maintain design resources, and inform you of the gaps that are needed for design engineering and product to be successful together.
And so I think oftentimes startups are kind of trying to find the unicorn that's willing to work for no money. And so unless you can find somebody who's very, very motivated and not very financially motivated, then maybe you can lock in that unicorn. But I often find that the first hire at a startup needs to be somebody who they're going to have to, you're going to probably have to compensate them at the market rate or provide some sort of equity package that will hopefully grow into something meaningful because they're going to have to come in with the right set of skills to not cost you in other ways of like lacking domain expertise or industry knowledge, or even maybe like connections in the industry that can help you guys leverage your network for sales or distribution if it's a startup. I feel like those people have to be kind of a jack of all trades and already be maybe personally invested in the problem that you're solving so that they see a future that also starts to give them warm fuzzies when they do the work.
Glasp: Yeah, thanks. And so going back to like storytelling question, like, storytelling part. So how do you find out if a candidate is a great storyteller or not? So in the design interview process or hiring process at Snowflake, does Snowflake provide a story with candidates so that they can tell a Snowflake story, or do designers have to have their own story and tell it to you? How do you give a story?
Raphael: Yeah, exactly. So exactly. Usually, the formal interview process, and this is kind of the same across most companies, is you'll have a panel presentation. And you're going to present to a team of peers at the company. And usually, it's the team you're going to be on. Maybe it has some designers on it, some product managers, and engineering, and whoever else they want to attend.
And you get to present a case study or two on your own work. And that is a quick forum for them to see how well they articulate why they were the best person for this job, and the work mattered to the business. And if they can convince you of that 30 minutes to an hour, then they probably did a good job telling a story. Because usually, that's kind of what it's manifested from.
I was dropped into this business problem. I was able to figure out that with design, we can enable certain outcomes for our customers that build such strong consensus that they're willing to pay for this product. And that resulted in revenue, engagement, usage, growth, you know, expansion of the business.
And I think that's kind of the story that every company wants from their designers because that is how they're going to be working in the business. Usually, every designer, their skill set is going to vary. Some are not going to be the storytelling type, but maybe they're amazing at doing like really fine tactical work. And that's good, too. And you know, that's very important, depending on what your problem is trying to solve. And so, I find that that presentation is kind of the best way to suss that out.
Glasp: Oh, yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And since, sorry, it's a little bit over, but you know, since time is running out, you know, we want to ask you. So, since our audience are like aspiring founders, product managers, designers, and writers, newsletters, writers, researchers, so I want to ask you the advice and to, let's say, aspiring designers, you know, people who want to go for designers as a career, and what kind of advice would you give them?
Raphael: Totally. So, ironically, this is the same advice I'd probably give to just most people because I think it separates the good from the great. Do hard things. Do lots of hard things and build up a thick skin. Because if you're starting in your design career, or you're in the middle of it, or you're at the end of it, it's not going to be easy.
And you got to be able to overcome all sorts of challenges, whether it's people problems, learning a new technology, navigating an ever-changing industry. And that's only going to become easier if you can do hard things. And so, I don't want to tell people what those hard things should be, but like, find ways to challenge yourself and put yourself out of your comfort zone. Public speak. I don't know, go learn stand-up. Go learn a new sport. Go learn a new programming language. And struggle. And struggle every day. And when you're done struggling, struggle some more. And you're going to become so damn good at your job because you're not going to be afraid of being confronted with ambiguity or adversity. And you're not going to sweat the little things, because you're going to know that maybe I woke up at five o'clock every day and I busted my ass in the gym.
And that was the hardest part of my day. So, I can actually go to work and I can work on the computer. And it was a lot easier than doing a hundred pull-ups. Or maybe it's like, I need to go running in the woods when it's freezing out and I'm soaking wet. Thank God I get to go to work because it's warm in there. Or like, I'm learning this super complicated programming language and it's very frustrating.
I have no clue, but at least I get to go do some creative work now. So, it's more like life advice, but I find that in every discipline, the thing that most people struggle with is things are hard and you just need to confront that in the face and just take it on. And maybe one other thing actually that I would add to that is to figure out what your driving purpose is.
Why are you doing this? Are you motivated by money? Are you motivated by wanting to build cool technology? Do you want to be a part of a certain company that has a larger purpose in life? Whatever that thing is, figure that out and really put a lot of pressure on that and meet some of the best people in the world who are doing that thing and convince them to mentor you.
And I think once you find somebody who can really kind of kick you in the butt and tell you what you're doing wrong, what you're doing right, that's going to help tremendously. I think doing hard things and finding the best people to push you, if you're willing to give back to them because you don't want to waste their time, I think if you just keep doing that, you will undoubtedly become very good at your job, especially if you're coming up in the design industry today.
Glasp: That's a great advice. Getting out of my comfort zone and also being surrounded by great people, the best people. Because you are an average of five people, you're surrounded by something like that and that's amazing. And this is the last question. Since Glasp is a platform where people can share what they are reading, learning, and their legacy, and then also this project, since you mentioned purpose and driving force, internal driving force, and since I had a subdural hematoma when I was 20 and so left side of my body was paralyzed and I was almost dead, but I wanted to leave something for other people while I'm alive so that I could feel a sense of contribution to humanity, society, others. So since then, I've been thinking about how I can leave something for other people while I'm learning or studying. So that's how we got the idea of Glasp and that's why we are working on Glasp. It's a huge mission to democratize access to other people's learning before they pass away or even after they pass away. So others can access it and it could be a good way to circulate knowledge. So then I'd like to ask you, what legacy or impact do you want to leave behind for future generations?
Raphael: Yeah, by the way, I love that. I love the mission and your story. That's incredible. So thank god you're able to overcome that. What an incredible reason to do something of purpose. So thanks for sharing that.
So ironically, my motivation stems from when I was younger, my older brother, got very sick and then he became a quadrilateral amputee. And so that experience, basically taught me that life is not fair. And if he can overcome the most outrageous trauma and challenges, and then now be able to live a whole life and do all these things, I have no reason to have any excuses.
So that's kind of what's built up this thick-skin mentality that I've been evangelizing. And so I think the way I want to be remembered is that have a very strong set of, like a strong code of ethics to do the right thing and ensure that that is at the bedrock of all the work that you do. And so I'm very morally driven. I think it's very important to build an ethical business.
I think using manipulation and sabotage through technology, just, bothers me that a lot of companies are data mining and trying to kind of get inside our minds, whether through social media or other kinds of manipulative micro-interactions. And they're leveraging that to make billions of dollars.
And I think that just, it's just on so many levels, I just think it's wrong. And so I think having a strong set of ethics to drive the work that you do is important. Because I think that also, they'll be a good example for up-and-coming designers and creators in the industry, that you can also do good work that is for good. I know it is not possible for everybody.
And a lot of people are going to, are not going to be able to get that job. And so there are stepping stones. So I guess it's more so that I would love to be remembered that I was able to make a meaningful impact in the technology industry through high quality. Thank you. This was fun. I rarely get to talk about these topics, so it's nice to ask myself, like, oh, this is why I'm here. So thank you.
Glasp: Thank you.
