Bangalore: Companies like Apple are making design impossible for startups to ignore. Many startups like Path, Square, and Massive Health have design at the core of their business. But what is ‘design’ actually? Design is a method of problem solving. It’s a state of mind. It’s an approach to a problem. Design is a passion to craft a bold vision for the future. But being a designer and being a designer in a startup are two very different things. Here are the three most surprising things according to Elle Luna, lead designer at Mailbox about design and the role a designer plays in a startup.

1. User research doesn’t produce user-centered design.

Conventional quantitative user research does not help in envisioning the future. As Henry Ford famously said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Measuring and predicting what consumers need and want by surveys are incremental at best because they’re focused on present realities.

User-centered design is diametrically opposite. It is a way to run a company uncovering, understanding and getting inspired by people’s needs, wants, hopes, and aspirations. So asking a focus group to imagine the future is like asking them to do the designer’s job themselves. It’s illogical.