Alexandru Dodon’s Post

Remember InVision? The "hypergrowth" startup that recently shut down. I was a major fan, so I had to dig in when I saw the news. So, what went wrong? From $2B to $30M ghost, this week I spent some time digging through employee, customer, and analyst insights to uncover five things, in my opinion, that brought InVision down: 1. Hype machine on autopilot: InVision chased growth at all costs, prioritizing vanity metrics and neglecting real customer success. Gross retention bled? Meh, NRR. Topline revenue didn't tell the whole story - customer churn grew, painting a far grimmer picture. 2. Customer success? It seemed more like customer neglect: This wasn't the CS team's fault. Leadership prioritized chasing shiny objects over building the Customer Success Flywheel: delivering what customers expect and pay for. 3. Figma's slow burn vs. InVision's feature frenzy: While Figma meticulously crafted an insanely good product, InVision choked on feature bloat. Obsessed with outperforming everyone, they bit off more than they could chew, leaving customers, EPD, and CS drowning in bugs and broken promises. 4. Marketing hype, customer reality: Expensive videos, lavish events, and a booming "brand"? Marketing can't build trust, only customers can. InVision focused on the wrong things, launching half-baked features that offered no real value. Remember: brand is what customers say about you, not what you say about yourself. 5. False precision, real frustration: InVision measured "health" with meaningless metrics like logins and Success Plans. These are vanity trophies in the CS world! Proper health is measured by gross retention. Customers weren't logging in to achieve success, they were logging in to migrate to Figma. The TL;DR? InVision crashed because they forgot the golden rule of business: put customers at the heart of everything you do. It's a cautionary lesson for all founders. Don't get lost in the hype - stay laser-focused on delivering real value, building trust, and measuring what matters.

🚀 Made Usable is Back and Better Than Ever! 🚀 For over a glittering decade, I've had the privilege of creating digital experiences with Made Usable. From dynamic startups to industry giants, I've partnered with some of the most visionary CEOs, innovative CTOs, and trailblazing entrepreneurs out there. 🎉 Introducing: Made Usable's Subscription Service! 🎉 Blink twice, because you read that right! Dive into a seamless UX / Product Design journey - one request at a time. How It Works: 1. Grab your subscription. 2. Ping me with your design request. 3. Watch the magic happen in real-time on your exclusive Trello board. 4. Once satisfied, mark it done and pitch your next idea. Rinse and repeat! Who's This For? If your app's crying out for a fresh coat of UX/UI, if you're pondering over a UX audit, or if you've got a brilliant idea simmering and need that visual oomph - Made Usable's got your back! Join the design revolution. Let's create something made usable, together! 🌟 http://madeusable.com

👎 Most startups realise after their first year that their product design is mediocre. 💣 This revelation often comes as a hard truth, but it's a crucial turning point for growth and improvement. 👕 In the early stages, the focus is usually on getting a minimum viable product (MVP) to market quickly, which can lead to compromises in design quality and user experience. ⛰ However, as the user base grows and feedback starts pouring in, it becomes evident that a merely functional product isn't enough to sustain success. 🌳 At this juncture, startups need to shift their mindset from just building features to crafting holistic, human-centered experiences from the beginning. 🏄♂️ Users today expect more than just usability; they seek intuitive, engaging, and delightful experiences (even in MVPs). 💔 A mediocre product design can lead to the failure of a startup, resulting in user frustration, high churn rates, and missed opportunities for deeper engagement. 🦄 Interestingly, there are companies like Canva that didn't opt for the MVP approach. Instead, they spent a year crafting an exceptional user experience because they knew their product's success would heavily depend on it. 💡 They understood that without an engaging and intuitive design, users might miss out on a full engagement with the product. 🎯 This strategic decision paid off, as Canva is now renowned for its user-friendly interface and seamless design experience. 👬 Since a few years ago, I still see a lot of UX roles combined with UI (UX/UI) for startup positions. 🐖 Companies often think they will save money with this approach, but in the long term, they will lose it. 🎩 Investing in a dedicated user experience design strategy is more than crucial. 👑 UX design strategy is closely aligned with business goals rather than just interface aesthetics. 🧠 It helps to uncover and address the deep human pain points and desires that lie beneath a potentially great product. 😎 By focusing on a coherent UX strategy, startups can ensure they create products that truly resonate with users and drive long-term success. I LIFE YOU Grow your business by increasing your customers' well-being. Lead the path. #exceednotmeetcustomersexpectations #productpsychology #humanisingexperiences #meaningfulexperiences #customerservice #ilifeyou

In our latest blog, we delve deep into the art of scaling digital products. We explore how maintaining a seamless user experience, akin to preserving a café's charm across multiple locations, is crucial for growing businesses. For startups and established businesses alike, our blog provides actionable insights and proven strategies to navigate the complexities of scaling while keeping the user experience at the forefront. Read our full blog for a deeper understanding of scaling digital products without compromising on user experience. https://lnkd.in/dVJ67iuR #uxdesign #uidesign #designagency #designblogs #blog #productscaling #userexperience #digitalstrategy #businessgrowth #innovation

14 things that destroy early-stage startups: 1. Marketing after the launch 2. Focusing on UI over UX 3. Confusing landing page 4. Ignoring user feedback 5. Confusing store listing 6. No advisors/mentors 7. Pixel-perfect design 8. Long release cycle 9. Custom backend 10. Never learning 11. One platform 12. Going broad 13. No analytics 14. Arrogance Avoid at all costs. Anything you'd add to the list?

🚀 Kicking Off a Start-Up with Minimal UX Resources? Here's How! Ever wondered how a small startup can launch effectively with limited UX resources? It's all about maximizing what you've got. Here’s a quick rundown: Leverage Existing Tools 🛠️: Tools like Figma, Adobe XD, or Sketch offer templates and components. Save time and costs by using them to craft an early design without starting from scratch. User Feedback Loop 🔄: No budget for full-fledged user testing? No worries! Get feedback from friends, family, or even via coffee shop tests. Your users are everywhere; you just need to approach them. Prioritize Must-Haves 🔝: Know the core features your users can't do without. Start by designing and perfecting those. Additional features can follow as you scale. Collaborative Design 🤝: Engage team members (not just designers) in brainstorming sessions. Engineers, marketers, even interns might offer a fresh perspective that could lead to a breakthrough in design thinking. Competitive Analysis 🧐: Look at your competitors. What’s working for them? What's not? This isn't about copying, but about understanding the market standards and user expectations. Lean on Communities 🌐: Join forums like Dribbble, Behance, or even LinkedIn groups. Engage, ask questions, and share your designs. Feedback from the community is invaluable. Remember, starting with minimal resources isn't a disadvantage; it's an opportunity to innovate and think out of the box. Your passion and determination will shine through! 💡 If you've successfully launched with limited UX resources, share your journey below! Let's inspire and learn from one another. 🚀 #startup #uxdesign #innovation #businesstips

I was recently asked a great question on LinkedIn: What makes EQUAL different from other design agencies? Here’s my answer. We don’t just create design for the sake of design. We don’t make a few mockups or just make the design more modern and clean. We don’t just develop features. Clients don’t need just apps or features. These are all tools. They can lead to a goal, or they might not, wasting time, effort, and money. Our task is to help product owners move from point A to ↔ point B. We help product owners achieve their goals. That’s the first thing. Now, the second thing: We are not like everyone else by default. Because no other team has the same mix of people, experience, background, resources, cultural traits, quirks, and skills. We are unique. This is our strength. We won’t be the right fit for everyone. But those who choose to work with us do so because we do things like no one else. This allows us to create value for our clients. That’s how I would answer the question, “What makes EQUAL different from other design agencies?” How would you answer it? ______ I'm Serhii Huba. Loved this post? Click follow for more → 🔔 Focusing on simplifying interfaces for #saas #startups, liberating them from #UX and #interfacedesign challenges to boost profitability and user satisfaction. Launching a SaaS product? Let's unlock your growth potential. #UXUI #ProductDesign #SaaSDevelopment #UserExperience #EQUALsolutions

Slack rings 🔔 Conversation between designer - founder while building MVP! Founder - ‘Dev, Where are designs?’ Dev - ‘Sir, We have evaluated the competitor & done with competitor analysis. We are also done with our main user flow, feature listing and primary research about product……’ Founder - ‘Dev, I need final designs, i need to push product on market asap. developers are waiting for you - we will do research part later’ ...... Silence 🤐 .... This happens with every designer in real world! Its designer’s responsibility to onboard our founder to make some crucial decisions for product and push them to follow proper path of UX for understanding the problem and users. Alright, let's break it down. One of the biggest gaps in building MVP (Minimum Viable Product) products today lies in balancing speed with thorough UX design evaluation. Many startups are all about that "move fast and break things" mentality, which often translates to prioritizing high-fidelity designs and rapid iteration over comprehensive UX research and evaluation. Founders are often more focused on getting their product to market quickly, which can lead to overlooking crucial steps in the UX design process, such as user testing, feedback collection, and iterative refinement. Sure, high-fidelity designs might look slick, but if they haven't been validated with real users, they could end up missing the mark entirely. let me know your thoughts! ✨️ #founders #mvp #designer #uiux #productdesigner #userinterface #userinteraction #figma #ux #startup #community

starting with limited resources is not a disadvantage

I taught myself Figma to visualize my ideas and save on design costs. With that - I was able to design, build (with my team), and launch the Veucast app. I also designed an entire business management platform for content creators, talent managers, and brands anywhere in the world. Play with the demo here: https://shop.getcreatr.co/ I have disabled some of the features (the ones in grey) that are further in the product roadmap for confidentiality. However, these are all a list of features that we plan on building to bring value to our users. The media kit is truly a content creator's dream. For those of you who don't know, i have been a content creator since 2016 (8+ years). I basically built what I wish I had. The key feature in our MVP is an smart media kit that seamlessly integrates to your social media platforms and presents a comprehensive visualization of your data, saving you 30 hours per month on manual labor. Additionally, it offers invaluable brand pricing recommendations and other features highlighted int he demo. If you are a creator or talent manager and believe this will add value to your creator business, we are accepting pre-orders (fully refundable if you change your mind before April 10). Why would i share a demo with a list of future features? I believe that ideas are cheap, and execution is everything. We can have the same idea, but execute it differently; so I don't care about anyone stealing my idea. I also know that sharing my journey has been helpful to others, so I want to be as transparent as possible. I kept my pricing very low compared to my competitors, because they are targeting niche clients (top 1%), but I'm priced to scale and target the broad underserved market. It may be less appealing for competitors, but i believe that's where the most impact is. My goal is to get to $1,000 by February 10th (https://shop.getcreatr.co/). I will also share the outcome here on LinkedIn, good or bad. Please share this post with any content creator or talent manager you know. #startup #techfounders #saas #techfounder #seattle #losangeles #sales #uxui #uxdesigner #uiuxdesign #productdesign #productdesigner