By Bartłomiej Bednarski
Design Hierarchy for Startups: Where to Focus When Everything Seems Important
Startup Design Priorities
Product Design Hierarchy
Startup Design Strategy
When you're building a startup, everything feels urgent and important. Your investor deck needs updating, the homepage could convert better, and users are asking for new features. Where do you even start? After helping over 80 startups like Injective ($250M funding) and Brand24 improve their conversion rates and scale through design, we've developed a clear framework for prioritizing design decisions.
In this article
You'll learn how to prioritize design decisions effectively when building a startup. You'll discover the three key levels of design:
Product Design (Strategy)—defining core problems, understanding users, setting success metrics, and prioritizing features;
Interaction Design (Structure)—creating user flows, organizing information, and designing key interactions;
Visual Design (Polish)—enhancing aesthetics, ensuring consistency, and improving usability. Through real examples, like how Brand24 achieved a 5.6% conversion boost, you'll see how a structured approach to design leads to real growth.
The Three Levels of Design That Matter
Level 1: Product Design (Strategy)
This is where the most impactful decisions happen, yet it's often overlooked in favor of visual polish. Product design is about:
Defining the core problem you're solving
Understanding your users deeply
Setting clear success metrics
Creating a coherent product strategy
Prioritizing features
Real Example: When working with Brand24, we spent a full week understanding their users before touching any design tools. This led to a 4.7% conversion improvement because we solved the right problems in the right order.
Level 2: Interaction Design (Structure)
Once you know what to build, you need to determine how users will interact with it:
User flows and journeys
Information architecture
Key interactions and behaviors
Error states and edge cases
Navigation patterns
Common Mistake: Many startups jump straight to visual design without mapping out these crucial interactions. This often leads to beautiful but confusing products that don't convert.
Level 3: Visual Design (Surface)
Only after the foundation is solid should you focus on how things look:
Brand identity
Visual hierarchy
Typography
Color schemes
UI components
Key Insight: Visual design should reinforce your product decisions, not drive them. We've seen startups spend months perfecting visuals while their core product wasn't solving the right problem.
How to Prioritize Based on Your Stage
Pre-Seed Stage
Focus 70% on Product Design:
User research
Problem validation
Core feature definition
Basic usability
Focus 20% on Interaction Design:
Essential user flows
Basic navigation
Error prevention
Focus 10% on Visual Design:
Clean, professional look
Basic brand elements
Consistent components
Seed Stage
Focus 50% on Product Design:
Feature prioritization
User feedback loops
Market positioning
Success metrics
Focus 30% on Interaction Design:
Optimized user flows
Reduced friction
Better error handling
Focus 20% on Visual Design:
Brand refinement
Visual hierarchy
Polished components
Series A and Beyond
Focus 40% on Product Design:
Scaling strategies
New user segments
Feature expansion
Analytics integration
Focus 35% on Interaction Design:
Advanced interactions
Personalization
Cross-platform consistency
Focus 25% on Visual Design:
Brand evolution
Design system
Visual differentiation
Practical Framework for Decision Making
When faced with multiple design priorities, ask these questions in order:
Will this solve a critical user problem?
Does this align with our current business goals?
Can we measure the impact?
Do we have the resources to execute well?
Is this the right time?
Priority Matrix Template
Use this simple matrix to evaluate design decisions:
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Starting with visual design
Why it's tempting: It's tangible and feels like progress
Why it's wrong: You risk building the wrong thing beautifully
Skipping user research
Why it's tempting: It takes time and seems obvious
Why it's wrong: Assumptions are often wrong and expensive
Feature overload
Why it's tempting: More features feel like more value
Why it's wrong: Complexity kills conversion rates
Copying competitors
Why it's tempting: It seems safe and proven
Why it's wrong: You miss opportunities to differentiate
Action Steps
Audit Your Current Focus
Map your time spent across the three levels
Identify misaligned priorities
Create a rebalancing plan
Create Your Priority Framework
List all design tasks
Apply the priority matrix
Set clear timelines
Establish Feedback Loops
Define success metrics
Set up tracking
Create review cycles
Conclusion
Great design isn't about making things pretty—it's about solving the right problems in the right order. Focus on understanding your users and their problems first, then structure your solution thoughtfully, and finally make it visually appealing.
Need help implementing this framework? We've helped over 80 startups get this right. Contact us for a free consultation on how we can help accelerate your journey from concept to launch.
Looking for more insights? Follow us on LinkedIn for regular updates on product design and development.
