How to help your designer work twice as fast

You hired a designer who is waiting on you.

Most founders treat design like a vending machine: insert money, press button, wait for the product to drop. When it takes too long, they blame the machine.

But design isn't a vending machine. It’s a relay race. And right now, you are holding the baton, standing still, wondering why the designer hasn't finished the lap.

Speed in design doesn't come from the designer moving their mouse faster. It comes from clarity.

Ambiguity is the ultimate speed killer. Every time a designer has to pause and wonder "What did they mean by that?" or "Do they want this mobile-first?", the project stops.

If you want your designer to work twice as fast, you need to clear the path. You need to remove the friction that you created.

Here is exactly how to do it.

1. The "Data Dump" Brief

You might think a short brief is efficient. You write three sentences because you "don't want to micromanage."

This is wrong. A short brief forces the designer to guess. Guessing leads to revisions. Revisions kill speed.

To go fast, you need to slow down at the start. You need to provide a "Data Dump." This isn't about telling them how to design (that’s micromanagement); it’s about telling them what problems exist (that’s leadership).

Before they draw a single pixel, give them these seven specific inputs:

1. The Pain: What specific problem does this solve? Not the features—the user's pain.
2. The Audience: Who are we talking to? "Everyone" means "No one." Be specific.
3. The Data: Do we have user research? Analytics? Heatmaps? If yes, share it. If no, say "We are guessing."
4. The Constraints: Mobile or desktop first? What are the tech limitations?
5. The Roadmap: What features are coming in 3 months? (Don't let them design a corner you can't paint out of).
6. The Enemy: Who are your competitors? What do they do well? Where do they suck?
7. The Brand: Fonts, colors, tone. If these don't exist, say so.

The Rule: A designer with too much information can filter it. A designer with too little information is paralyzed.

2. Kill Email. Use Real-Time Chat.

If you are emailing your designer, you are choosing to be slow.

Email is where momentum goes to die. It is formal, slow, and creates "inbox anxiety." By the time you reply to a question about a button color, the designer has been blocked for four hours.

You must set up a high-velocity channel.

• Slack: Create a shared channel.
• WhatsApp / Telegram: Create a group.

You need a place where you can send a quick screenshot and say "Move this left," and get a "Done" reply in 30 seconds.

The "First 72 Hours" Protocol:For the first three days, turn your notifications on. Be hyper-responsive. The designer is calibrating their brain to yours. If you answer questions instantly during this window, you save weeks of back-and-forth later.

3. Stop Giving "Vibe" Feedback

"Make it pop.""It feels a bit heavy.""Can we make it more premium?"

This feedback is useless. It forces the designer to read your mind. They will try three different versions, hoping one of them matches the vague feeling in your head. That is three rounds of wasted time.

To speed them up, give Problem-Based Feedback.

Don't tell them the solution ("Make it blue"). Tell them the problem ("The button blends into the background and I don't think users will see it").

When you define the problem clearly, a good designer can solve it instantly. When you talk about "vibes," you act like a difficult artist rather than a product owner.

4. Batch Your Feedback

There is one thing worse than no feedback: Drip-feed feedback.

This is when you send a message at 10:00 AM. Then another at 10:15 AM. Then another at 10:45 AM.

Every time you ping the designer, you break their flow state. It takes 20 minutes to get back into deep work. If you interrupt them every 30 minutes, they get zero deep work done in a day.

Do this instead:

1. Open the design.
2. Review the whole thing.
3. Write down all your notes.
4. Send one consolidated message or record one Loom video.

This lets the designer sit down, process the list, and execute in one sprint.

5. Provide the "North Star" Drive

Designers lose hours hunting for assets.

"Where is the high-res logo?""Do we have a font license?""Where are those screenshots of the competitor?"

Don't make them ask. Create a Google Drive or Notion page on Day 1.

Put inside:

• Vector logos (SVG/EPS).
• Brand guidelines (PDF).
• Access credentials (test accounts).
• Competitor screenshots.

Send the link. Say: "Here is everything."

The Result

When you stop being a bottleneck, you will be shocked at how fast a "slow" designer can move.

You will stop getting designs that miss the mark. You will stop having "Concept V17_final_final.fig" files. You will launch faster because you stopped treating design like a transaction and started treating it like a system.

Speed is a choice. Make the choice to be clear.

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