Principal Product Designer

Summary

Join our venture studio as a hands-on product designer to play a pivotal role in shaping product design vision, creating user-centric experiences, and evolving brand identities. You will lead design for one of our startups, working closely with startup CEOs during the initial phase. As the startup matures, your role will transition to a supporting one, assisting with team building and funding. You'll also contribute to refining our internal processes and work on 1–2 startups per year. This unique opportunity offers equity in the startups you help build, providing substantial upside while diversifying risk. We are a distributed team working remotely, with in-person collaborations every few months.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in dynamic, intensive environments focused on product design and delivering quality user experiences, with a meaningful portion of this experience focused on B2B SaaS and/or AI-infused products
• Proven ability to design and improve products using genuine user feedback and data insights. Strong experience engaging with real users to achieve measurable product success
• Portfolio Required : Be prepared to showcase examples of visual design craft, complex systems thinking, and user-centric approaches to launching and iterating products that users love
• Demonstrated 0–1 experience in building new products, even within larger organizations
• Passion for startups and entrepreneurial environments

Responsibilities

• Conduct and analyze user interviews, surveys, and usability studies to gather actionable insights
• Identify pain points and opportunities for improvement in both current and future experiences
• Clearly articulate user needs to inform team-wide product and design decisions
• Develop user personas and journey maps to guide and refine the design process
• Define and communicate the product design vision and architecture
• Create intuitive, user-centric, and technically implementable flows and interfaces, addressing all aspects of the user experience—from overarching user journeys to micro-interactions
• Design and develop wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes for web and mobile platforms
• Establish the company’s initial brand identity, including logo design and foundational visual elements
• Design visually cohesive and compelling user interfaces, ensuring consistency across platforms, products, and channels
• Build and maintain style guides, design systems, and UI libraries
• Ensure brand consistency across all touchpoints, including product interfaces, splash pages, slide decks, and social media graphics
• Help our startup CEO determine the ideal profile for their first in-house design hire, and participate (with outside recruiters and our team) in the sourcing and recruiting process
• Stay current with the latest design trends, tools, and technologies to refine your craft and expand your toolkit

Preferred Qualifications

• First Principles Approach : Solve complex design problems using a first principles mindset, creating effective designs even in contexts without established patterns
• Agility & Poise : Deliver high-caliber work swiftly in an agile startup environment, staying composed while “hacking through the jungle” to find product-market fit
• Insatiable Curiosity & Continuous Learning : Constantly improve design skills, actively pursue learning, and engage in exploratory projects
• Team-Centric Mindset : Collaborate effectively within multifunctional teams, focusing on collective triumph and goals over individual achievements

Benefits

• Competitive cash compensation in addition to equity in our portfolio of startups
• Health, vision, and dental insurance
• Generous paid time off/sick leave
• A 401(k) plan