Every time I launch a new idea, one of the first things people mention is how well-designed the product is. And honestly, I’ve come to expect it. I’ve spent over 11 years working across branding, graphic design, strategy, and storytelling, so design naturally finds its way into almost everything I build. But there’s something interesting about this that goes beyond my personal experience. It says a lot about how people perceive products and businesses, often before they even get the chance to use them. Now, with AI making it easier than ever to build products, generate interfaces, and launch businesses, I keep hearing the same argument: “As long as the product works, people will buy it.” And yes, people want products that work. Nobody wants a beautiful product that is completely useless. But here’s the thing: people don’t experience your product based on functionality alone. They also experience how it looks, how it feels, how easy it is to use, and what it tells them about your business. Before someone even tries your product, they have probably formed an opinion about it. Design has a lot to do with that.

I think one of the biggest mistakes startups make is treating design as something they can figure out later. First, they build the product. Then, when they have some traction or funding, they decide it’s time to get a designer to make things look nice. But design is much more than making things look nice. Think about it this way: two startups can build almost the same product, solve the same problem, and offer similar pricing. Yet, one looks like a business you can confidently recommend to your friends, while the other feels like something you’re not entirely sure you should trust. Why? It might be the website, the way the product works, the clarity of the messaging, or simply how everything comes together. These things might seem small, but they influence how people experience a business. Good design helps people understand what you do, why they should care, and what makes you worth their attention. That’s why I see design as infrastructure. Just like you need technology to run your product and operations to run your business, you need design to communicate your value and make that value easier for people to understand.

Now, let’s talk about perception, because this is where things get interesting for startups. Imagine you’ve built a product that could compete in a global market, but everything about how you present it makes it look like you’re only thinking about your immediate environment. Or imagine you’re building for a very specific local community, but your branding feels like you copied the identity of a Silicon Valley startup without thinking about the people you’re trying to reach. There’s a disconnect somewhere. Your product might be good, but the way you present it isn’t helping people see its potential. Design helps bridge that gap. It communicates who you are, who you’re building for, and where you intend to go. And this matters when you’re trying to get partnerships, too. A potential partner might not know everything about your business yet, but they can see how clearly you communicate, how thoughtfully you present your product, and how consistent your brand feels. The same thing applies when you’re pitching investors. Good design won’t magically make someone fund a bad business, but it can help you tell your story better, make your ideas easier to understand, and present your business in a way that reflects the ambition behind it. Sometimes, getting someone to take that first meeting is already a win.

There’s also the question of how your design choices align with what you’re trying to achieve. For example, if you’re building a fintech product, people are trusting you with their money. If your product feels confusing, inconsistent, or careless, you’re creating doubts before you’ve even had the chance to prove yourself. If you’re building enterprise software for organisations handling sensitive information, your product needs to communicate reliability, clarity, and control. You probably don’t want the experience to feel like someone threw a bunch of random elements together and hoped for the best. And if you’re building a product for a local market, you need to understand the people in that market rather than assume that whatever works for a global audience will automatically work for them. This doesn’t mean fintech must always use blue, enterprise software must avoid yellow, or every serious business needs to look corporate. That would be missing the point. The point is to make choices that support what you’re trying to communicate. Design is not about choosing the right colours or following whatever trend is popular. It’s about understanding your audience and deliberately shaping how they experience your business.

And this is exactly why I think the conversation around design becomes even more important in the age of AI. Today, you can generate a logo, build a landing page, create a product interface, and put together a decent-looking brand in a matter of hours. That’s great. It means founders can do more with less, experiment faster, and get their ideas into the world without spending a fortune. But being able to generate something that looks good is not the same as knowing what should be designed in the first place. AI can give you ten different logo options, but which one actually makes sense for your business? It can generate a beautiful website, but does the website explain your product clearly? It can create an interface, but does that interface help people complete the task they came to do? And does the entire experience feel like one business, or does everything look like it was assembled from different templates? These are the questions that matter. When everyone has access to the same tools, simply looking polished becomes less of an advantage. The real advantage is knowing how to use design to solve problems, tell better stories, build trust, and stand out for the right reasons. AI can help you produce the work, but the thinking behind the work still matters.

Ultimately, I’m not saying every startup needs to spend thousands of dollars on branding or hire a full design team before launching. That would be unrealistic, especially for founders working with limited resources. What I’m saying is that you shouldn’t wait until your business is successful before you start thinking seriously about design. Think about it from the beginning. Think about how you want people to perceive your business, how you want them to experience your product, what you want them to understand, and why they should trust you. You might not have the budget for a complete brand identity, but you can still be intentional about your messaging, your website, your product experience, and how you show up in the market. After over 11 years of working in design, branding, strategy, and storytelling, this is something I keep coming back to: building a good product is one thing; getting people to understand its value, trust it, and want to be part of what you’re building is another. Design helps connect those two things. So, the next time someone says, “As long as the product works, people will buy it,” I think the better question to ask is: if your product is that good, why wouldn’t you use every tool available to help people see it? Design isn’t just how you make your business look. It’s part of how you make your business work.