June 25, 2018 // 29 minutes
Vas Natarajan: Operationalizing design for business success
Listen to PodcastFeaturing
Vas Natarajan
Partner, Accel Partners
About The Episode
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to scaling design, but there are similarities between fast-growing companies primed for lasting success.
In this episode, Accel Partners’ Vas Natarajan talks about effective ways design leaders can operationalize hiring and scaling. He also discusses the hallmarks of a healthy team at any growth stage, what designers and developers can to do collaborate better, and why storytelling is key to growing a company.
Storytelling capability—especially at the founding stages—can really make the difference between something that gets up and off the ground and something that doesn’t.
Vas Natarajan
Listen as Eli and Aarron chat with Vas about design’s role in making companies successful, the importance of balancing data with customer insights, and more. If you enjoy this episode, head over to iTunes to leave a review so other members of the design community can learn from Vas too.
Vas’s bio
Vas, a Georgia native and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, joined Accel Partners in 2010 to focus on companies in the data, developers tools, and enterprise software spaces.
Today, he’s on the board or actively involved in companies like InVision, Segment, Tune Analytics, Spoke, and more. In addition to his current work, Vas is active with Accel’s India practice, and helps to co-lead the firm’s Big Data and Tech Council initiatives.
Meet Your Hosts
Aarron Walter
VP of Design Education
Aarron Walter is Director of Product on the COVID Response team at Resolve to Save Lives. Previously, he was VP of Design Education at InVision, and founded the UX practice at Mailchimp where he helped grow the product from a few thousand users to more than 10 million. He’s the author of a number of books, the latest of which is a second edition of Designing for Emotion. Aarron’s design guidance has helped the White House, the US Department of State, and dozens of major corporations, startups, and venture capital firms.
Eli Woolery
Director of Design Education
Eli is the Director of Design Education at InVision. His design career spans both physical and digital products, and he has worked with companies ranging from startups (his own and others) to Fortune 500 companies.
In addition to his background in product and industrial design, he has been a professional photographer and filmmaker. He teaches the senior capstone class Implementation to undergraduate Product Designers at Stanford University. You can find Eli on Twitter and Medium.
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