How to Run an Effective Design Partnership

Getting Started
What exactly is a design partnership, and how is it different from an LOI or pilot?
How do you know when you’re ready to ask for one?
Finding the Right Partners
How or where do you even find potential partners?
Who in the company should you ask?
How many people should I talk to?
How do you know if they’re a good fit design partner?
Should you aim for a few deep partnerships or many shallow ones?
Pitching the Partnership
How do you pitch a design partnership to a customer?
Who should lead these meetings?
Crafting & Structuring the Partnership
How much should they pay?
How long should the design partnership period last?
What commitments are a part of the partnership?
What benefits can be offered to the design partner as part of the design partnership?
How do you set expectations on feedback, cadence, and roadmap influence?
Running It Effectively
How should we properly run the design partnership program? What’s the best way to structure feedback loops without overwhelming yourself (or them)?
How do you prioritize what to build? How much of their requests should you actually build?
How do you balance conflicting feedback between different partners?
How do you keep design partners engaged once they’ve paid?
Avoiding Pitfalls
What mistakes do founders make when running design partnerships?
How do you handle it if a design partner churns or loses interest?
How do you avoid being pulled too far into “consulting mode”?
Beyond the Partnership + Bonus!
When do you know it’s time to graduate beyond design partners?
How do you turn design partners into long-term paying customers?
Should you give discounts, equity, or other incentives to early design partners?
Is this still relevant today? Does AI change expectations?
Resources
Questions? Suggestions?

I collected stories and frameworks from other founders who’ve run effective design partnerships.

Here’s what I learned.

I’ve made every early-stage founder mistake in the book:

Built products in isolation, convinced I knew what customers wanted (I didn’t)
Ran endless user interviews that ended in polite “sure I’d try it!” (they didn’t)
Collected unpaid LOIs thinking it was validation (it wasn’t)

All of those signals looked like progress but weren’t.

The first step of building a B2B startup isn’t product. It’s payment.

The only thing that works consistenly (in b2b) is getting customers to pay upfront, even before the product exists. Then you build with them, through a structured design partnership.

Why?

Payment is the strongest proof of demand
Committed customers with skin in the game give the most useful feedback
Without real-time feedback, you’re just guessing and guessing is expensive

That’s why I’m building my next company this way.

Here’s what I gathered about how to run an effective design partnership.

Getting Started

What exactly is a design partnership, and how is it different from an LOI or pilot?

LOI - a non-binding agreement to maybe work together
Pilot - testing a more mature product in a real-world setting
Design partnership - early, collaborative relationship to shape the product before it’s fully built.

The strongest signal of demand is when a customer pays upfront (pre-sell) even before the product exists because it validates the pain point. A paid design partnership then gives you structured & regular feedback to ensure you’re solving the right problem.

How do you know when you’re ready to ask for one?

Ultimately it’s the confidence that this is what you want to build & you’re ready to take the next step. Here are a couple other reasons.

You’re confident this is the problem you want to solve, or in the ballpark.
Your user research participants tell you: “If you decide to build this, I want it” (that’s what happened with our current project!)
You can roughly visualize what this product could look like
You can see a pattern of needs from multiple user research participants

Finding the Right Partners

How or where do you even find potential partners?

The strategy for finding partners is not unlike a typical sales outbound strategy like:

Reach out to your network who are ICPs. However, you don’t want A LOT of these people because you get the best validation from people you don’t know (and aren’t just trying to be nice)
Reach out to your network for warm introductions to ICPs
Cold message your ICPs
Request introductions to your interviewee’s connections you want to target (also some signal of validation that they are willing to invest some social capital to share a potentially great solution)

Counterintuitive stories:

Be wary of selling to people you did user research with, or how credible you come off

One company had 0 conversions from 100 user research calls
People remembered them "back when they were asking stupid questions about the industry" and won't buy sensitive software from someone they view as a learner

“No message” LinkedIn Connection Request:

Send a connection request to an ICP but don’t include a message
Only message after they’ve accepted your request

Message formats that get responses:

The "Feedback" Approach:

Lead with: "Looking for feedback and advice"
Then transition to design partnership after rapport building / first call
"Glazing them" with compliments about their expertise works

Template Structure:

"I'm [role] at [company]"
"We do [one-line description]"
"[Credentials/social proof]"
"We've helped [similar company] achieve [specific result]"
"Interested in learning more? Can send some slides"

Tools to automate outbounds:

Phantombuster - LinkedIn DMs
Dripify - automated LinkedIn outreach
Apollo + Instantly - high-volume email campaigns

Who in the company should you ask?

It depends on the company and ICP but here were some interesting stories I gathered:

Target CFOs, Directors, VPs - the most senior people. They'll forward your email to the actual decision maker. This creates instant credibility: "my boss forwarded this to me"
Alternatively, you can start with ground-floor people, then ask for lateral or higher-ups once you’ve gotten on a call with them
PLG-led companies that can start with just 1 person can be the champions of the product to the rest of the team, provided they have some semblance of leadership (not just an IC)
Smaller startups are often more likely to say yes but if your product strategy is focused on mid-market / enterprise then it isn’t worth it to get an easy yes vs. the right yes

How many people should I talk to?

One company got 50 people and 7 design partnerships. Another 4 from 40. And another, 5 from 200 (because they were picky about who to work with).

Generally plan for 150-200 conversations before building. You don’t want to rush into the first people that say yes. What’s more important to optimize for is finding the RIGHT person and company.

How do you know if they’re a good fit design partner?

I’d think about it in a couple dimensions:

Are they the correct ICP or, if unclear yet what the ICP is, as close as possible?
Are all my design partners asking for a similar set of features and things? (usually this correlates with being in the same industry and vertical)
Do they have a real problem that will make a business impact vs. “wouldn’t it be cool”?
Are they actually willing to give feedback on a regular basis?
Could they be a good reference for future customers?
Are they representative of the market?

Should you aim for a few deep partnerships or many shallow ones?

Few deep is best. I personally would aim for 3-5. Remember you’re managing these conversations and relationships on a regular basis, while building the product based on their feedback. And you want to make sure you take close 100% of their feedback in. Don’t overextend yourself with a few shallow relationships.

Pitching the Partnership

How do you pitch a design partnership to a customer?

Reach out for a first meeting (ask for advice & feedback)
First meeting: Discovery

The goal is to learn more about their pain points and if they’d be a good fit as a design partner. This reads like a user research interview.
Create a max 10-slide deck and present it repeatedly. You could also just use 1 slide. Greater than 10 is TOO LONG.
The slide deck should focus on the problem and solution (this is not a VC pitch)
Incorporate feedback after each conversation & refine with each conversation until you can predict responses to each slide
Gauge how much of a fit they may or may not be. The answer might be:

Company is good fit but they aren’t the right decision maker → Ask to speak with X decision maker for more feedback
Company good fit and they are the right decision maker → Introduce the idea of a design partnership
Company is not good fit → Ask to speak with someone in their network

When asking to get connected with someone else, make it specific. Tactic: Find specific names of their connections, add on a spreadsheet and ask if you can get connected with that specific person. It’s hard for them to think about these people themselves.

Second meeting: Demo + Design partnership details

The goal of this call isn’t to hard sell but to make sure both parties are aligned on the product via demo
Show prospective partners product to visually illustrate what to build together
The demo does not have to be an actual product (because often, you’ve not yet built it!) It can be prototypes. One company even showed a competitor’s company in the demo!
Use this call to then get a sense of what the shared desired solution & partnership is that constitutes success.

Third meetings+: Deep dives, pricing discussions, getting buy-in from other stakeholders

This is a bit more variable depending on what happens in the second meeting but if there is mutual fit on both sides, the goal is to close a deal for a design partnership

Who should lead these meetings?

I’ve heard 2 answers here:

The founders - so they take in all the feedback and hear directly about validation and demand (I personally am subscribing to this)
Hired sales people - because they’re used to knowing how to navigate “no’s” and face countless of rejections

In general, some guidelines:

Founders will face many rejections. If they’re a good fit but they say no, you can reframe: “You’ll charge them 10x later anyway! Actually they’re going to owe me money”
Give prospects disclaimer during feedback sessions to get to truth:

“Nicest thing you can do is be brutally honest with me!”
“Trust me, I can take it”

Crafting & Structuring the Partnership

How much should they pay?

Definitely have them pay upfront so they (and you) have skin in the game. But, as thanks for being an early design partner, give them a discount. You also want to disqualify people who aren’t actually serious about the partnership. But also note that a lot of these numbers are guesses and made up! The more important thing is that they pay something versus optimizing for perfect unit economics.

How do you find a good number to start with?

Competitors - Start by looking at what competitors are pricing and based a ballpark from there. You can ask during discovery if they’ve been quoted certain prices and base off that.
Company size - Company size can correlate to pain level, and budget allocation

Advanced strategies:

10-50% of contract value but never go below 10% otherwise there’s not enough skin in the game
Actually share the price you propose and the discount added
Keep the discount for them for 1-3 years given the early partnership.
Create scarcity with limited slots e.g. 15 founding customers, 1-5 get highest discount, 6-10 moderate, 11-15 modest
Offer “favored nation pricing” - guarantee highest discount for 3-4 years

How long should the design partnership period last?

Give an official “launch” deadline, between 2-5 months. Long enough to see results, short enough that there’s urgency.
Don’t just go “try this out and let us know when you can give us feedback” because they will not do that.
Schedule a kickoff meeting and be clear that the clock starts then.

What commitments are a part of the partnership?

Here are some ideas on commitments to ask from design partners (pick what works for you):

Regular feedback calls (weekly, biweekly, monthly)
Active product usage (minimum X hours/month)
Use of name & logo as reference in marketing & PR material
Case study creation
Testimonials post-launch
Customer or investor reference calls

What benefits can be offered to the design partner as part of the design partnership?

Here are some ideas on benefits to offer design partners (pick what works for you):

Developing a solution that’s fit for their needs
Fast & dedicated supported
Discounts

see How to Run an Effective Design Partnership - How much should they pay?

X hours/month or quarter of engineering consulting
Quarterly customer conference calls
Bi-annual customer advisory board participation
Equity/Opportunity to invest

see How to Run an Effective Design Partnership - Should you give discounts, equity, or other incentives to early design partners?

How do you set expectations on feedback, cadence, and roadmap influence?

Do this in the kickoff meeting (below)! And putting things in writing.

Running It Effectively

How should we properly run the design partnership program? What’s the best way to structure feedback loops without overwhelming yourself (or them)?

Kickoff Meeting

This is a longer meeting (60-90 minutes) with everyone involved
Confirm & align on the problems to solve and main features to build (3-4 max)
Commit to a launch date
Confirm who will be involved in the sessions
The main attendees should be:

The executive sponsor/champion
Technical or admin person to give access to certain touch points
Business person who understands the customer

Setup regular channels for communication (e.g. Slack for async, weekly feedback sessions, phone number for emergencies)

Weekly feedback sessions

30-minute accountability check-ins
Have a deck or doc that shares:

Feedback from the past week
What was shipped in the past week
Here’s what we asked you for that you didn’t do yet
Space to collect new feedback

Async communications

Have a Slack/Teams channel where teams can share async updates & communication throughout the week

Launch milestone

This means launching to others members of the company or to your partner’s customers, beyond just access to the design partner circle.
This date, once set should be the #1 goal of all team members! Every week, ask yourselves if you will be meeting this goal

How do you prioritize what to build? How much of their requests should you actually build?

You have to have done the work upfront to make sure your design partners have a similar set of major needs AND that you aren’t working with too many partners that have distinct needs. That part makes prioritizing easier.

On top of that, you want to make sure that expectations on the 3-4 main problems to solve are set in the kickoff meeting.

Generally, lean on saying yes to all partner requests and making them happy! Better to lean on something specific early vs. disqualifying asks. Most everything is reversible if you need to retract something later on.

But more importantly, opinionated and unique requests could be the big differentiators you have against competitors!

How do you balance conflicting feedback between different partners?

Everything should be anchored to the core problems outlined. If not, then gently remind them and decline. If it is aligned, then it shouldn’t be a problem!

How do you keep design partners engaged once they’ve paid?

This isn’t often a concern IF the partner has the burning problem, validated with payment. They’re incentivized to get their return on investment & solve their business problem. Engagement mostly dwindles when there is no skin in the game (e.g. no payment).

Avoiding Pitfalls

What mistakes do founders make when running design partnerships?

Not enough alignment on what exactly you're building and what problem you're solving
Unable to solve the problem in a short timeframe. If you promise early access for a discount, you need to deliver in months not years
"Happy ears" syndrome: hearing what you want to hear instead of what prospects actually mean
Getting trapped in endless feature requests - "I'd buy this except for XYZ" that never ends
Not being able to distinguish between genuine needs vs. polite deflection to avoid hurting feelings
Going after problems that are 4th priority for someone with no political influence
Not requiring enough commitment from design partners because it’s easier to secure. They need skin in the game
Trying to sell without having any visuals to show. You don’t need a full product, just a visual prototype or diagrams to align both parties
Not creating enough urgency and scarcity around partnership slots
Going below 10% of full contract value for design partnership pricing
Not having clear expectations for feedback sessions and partner obligations

How do you handle it if a design partner churns or loses interest?

There might be a couple reasons & different solutions for this:

The problem was not strong enough to begin with → May be best to cut off ties earlier than later.
You didn’t create enough regular feedback and channels to make sure they are supported → Set tighter feedback cycles and check-in’s
You aren’t building fast enough to close out feedback loops → Build faster or set expectations better

How do you avoid being pulled too far into “consulting mode”?

This is why it’s good to have the sweet spot of 3-5 vs. just having 1 partner. You get to see themes across different (but similar) companies instead of building too unique a solution for just one.

Beyond the Partnership + Bonus!

When do you know it’s time to graduate beyond design partners?

Once you’ve launched and your design partners are happily & actively using your product.

How do you turn design partners into long-term paying customers?

Build a great product that solve their problem! 🙂

Should you give discounts, equity, or other incentives to early design partners?

Discounts - Absolutely! As thanks for their time, feedback and early bet. This discount can be for a limited but significant amount of time.
Equity - I personally would not do this. You’re effectively working with the company as a design partner, while coordinating with key champions. You’d either have to unfairly choose one person to give equity to or give equity to everyone involved, which gets completed and messes your cap table. Instead, if I were building a VC-backed company, I’d offer them the opportunity to invest in our first round.
Other incentives - Depends on you!

Is this still relevant today? Does AI change expectations?

It maybe changes expectations for having 0 prototype but you don’t want to sell a design partnership without having some form of visual prototype anyway (design mockups, vibe coded prototype, etc.)

Some (non-definitive) thoughts:

Prototypes are good tools to get aligned. It’s easier to prototype faster, which is great but savvy business users know that there’s more to a full product than vibe coding
It can help to prototype a general product to convinced potential design partners who have higher expectations. But the point of pre-selling remains: you don’t want to get too deep running the risk of:

Emotionally getting attached to the problem because you’ve the sunk cost of a solution
Spending (read: wasting) time building a solution no one cares for vs. validating
Building for the wrong target audience

For investors, the expectations have changed. Because it’s much easier to build, people can’t just raise with a pitch deck alone.

Best way to know is to try! (If you have thoughts on this, please send me a note)

Resources

Special thanks to the following for offering their time, feedback, advice and support!

Caitlin Leksana
Divanny Lamas
Suraj Srivats
Gavin Nachbar
Kristin McDonald Surviving the Chasm
First Round Staff The Hard Way Pays Off: Inside Sierra’s Design Partner Strategy

Questions? Suggestions?

If any additional questions unanswered, OR suggestions/data to add based on your design partnership experience, send me a message at hello@mikareyes.com