What's In The Book
First Designer In isn’t yet another design book, it’s a hyper-practical guide to all the non-design work the role entails. This vital guide will prepare designers for the harsh (but fabulous!) reality of being the first design hire tasked with creating the design function within a company. The book is broken down into three sections, plus an addendum. Here’s exactly what’s in each:
Section 1
Making Space For Design
Setting Design up for healthy success.
Minimum Viable Design Team
Two types of design teams
Six design skills of a generalist
Design business metrics
Design's place in the company
Drafting a master plan
Section 2
The First Five Weeks
An action packed plan to get on-boarded.
Audit of the current state
Identify the real stakeholders
Set fundamental expectations
Take benchmark measurements
Set up proto-personas
Deliver. Deliver. Deliver.
Section 3
Looking Forward
These topics fill entire books. We’ll focus bootstrapping them into existence.
Seed a design system
Getting a components library built
Seed research operations
Measure design org maturity
Prepare yourself to hire a team
Bonus
Swipe Files & Resources
Downloadable files, free forever for folks who’ve purchased the book.
The Action Plan Summary
Readiness Checklist
Design Levels Matrix
Research Projects vs. User Studies
Reading list of all books and articles
A Note For Founders
Technically, the book is written for designers, but there are plenty of rich insights for you in there as well.
For founders, First Designer In provides a practical view into how I build the design function. It covers the kinds of foundational work I often handle in a fractional role, clarifies what a future full-time design hire should reasonably own, and offers a useful frame for hiring and onboarding conversations. The introduction flags the chapters most relevant to founders, allowing you to bypass the designer-specific details and focus on structure, expectations, and readiness.