One of the hardest aspects of kicking your tech startup off the ground is to gauge how much design work you will need. At some point you will find yourself going to your designer for more than what you hired them for.

It’s important that you know the capabilities of your design team to better prepare them for their work load and better appreciate their hard labor.

From User Experience to Development, from Marketing to Investor Relations, your design team is the only department that will serve and should be in touch with every other station of your startup.

Here’s all the work that you should be prepared to demand of your design team.

USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN

Storyboarding
Sketching
Wireframing
Onboarding Experience
Prototyping

USER INTERFACE DESIGN

Comps
UI Elements
Requirements and Spec Sheets

REVISIONS AND VERSIONS

This is the one thing that is sure to get you.
Every feedback, every revision and version means more hands-on design work.
Organizing all the versions and having them ready to go for developers alone requires time and effort.

RETINA

You can’t escape it. If you’re not running for it, you’re already left behind.
Outputs of design elements in standard and retina displays.

RESPONSIVE DESIGN

Design UX and UI for desktop and mobile browsers.

MULTIPLE PLATFORMS

You might have strategized to introduce your product on iOS only, but soon enough you need to produce Android, Windows and Web versions.
It’s not over, the next best thing is Smart TVs and Large Touch Screens.

WEB LOOK FOR YOUR APP

Even if you’re not in Desktop Business, you will need a landing page on the good ole browser screen.
Landing Pages
Product Pitch/WalkThrough’s

INVESTOR RELATIONS

You will need to produce visually appealing materials that will be circulated in house among stakeholders, investors, board members and advisors.
One Pagers
Executive Reports
Investor Presentations
Decks
Graphs
Progress Charts
White Papers

MARKETING COLLATERAL

Materials for Press Releases
Web and Mobile Ad banners
Publications
Blog Templates
Infographics
Case Studies

SOCIAL MEDIA MATERIALS

Cover pages/ Profile pictures
Customized widgets
Gfx for Vanity pages

BONUS: RESEARCH

Competition, new technologies and design trends.
You need to allow and encourage your design people to be ahead of the game.
Ideally they should know even better than you what’s coming next. You don’t want to be building a product that works for 2013, while everyone else has already moved on to 2014.

Try this DESIGN WORKLOAD ASSESSOR we have prepared to help determine your true design needs, assess skillsets and manpower required to achieve your startup’s goals in the next few months.

Are we missing anything? How’s your workload?
Hit us with #FakeCrow. We’d love to muster minds.

Related Reads:
An Alternative Solution For Your Startup’s Design Needs

Why You Should Keep a Captain’s Logbook for Your Startup
Shortening UX to UI Time: A Different Approach To MVP Design