Do you ever wonder what it’s like to be part of fast-growing, design-led companies like Slack, Medium, or even InVision? Every team has challenges with scaling—and it turns out those challenges share many common traits when you peek behind the curtain.

In this episode, Spark Capital’s Megan Quinn talks about the common hurdles she sees across companies as they scale. She also discusses her own experiences going from the engineering-driven culture at Google to the design-driven culture at Square, and more.

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At the end of the day, design is not how something looks or feels. Design is the abstraction of the technology to the end experience for the consumer.

Megan Quinn

At the end of the day, design is not how something looks or feels. Design is the abstraction of the technology to the end experience for the consumer.

Listen as Eli and Aarron chat with Megan about scaling with purpose and overcoming widespread hurdles—like how to incorporate the “why” into your product roadmap along with the “what” and “when.”

If you enjoy this episode, head over to iTunes to leave a review so other members of the design community can hear Megan’s perspective too.

Megan’s bio

As a General Partner at Spark Capital, Megan focuses on growth investments. Her specialty is in working with world-changing entrepreneurs to design, build, and scale transformative consumer products and companies. Megan has also been a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Prior to joining Spark and KPCB, Megan served as Square’s director of products, where she led strategy and development across merchant and consumer audiences. Before her tenure at Square, Megan spent seven years at Google in various leadership positions across marketing, business development, and product management. She oversaw the development and launch of some of the company’s most successful products—including Google Maps—and her team’s work continues to serve as the foundation for Google’s location-based consumer and advertising products today.