Karri Saarinen

On taking swift action

“You and your whole team should always try to take swift action and make progress each day. Instead of thinking or talking about doing something, you decide to do it or not to do it. Then you do it today instead of tomorrow and this week instead of next week. Startups rarely die because they made too much progress or because of a single bad decision, but they do die when they move too slow or give up.” (from Linear Blog)

On the role of design in company success

“Design is never going to be the only reason why a company is successful. The product still needs to be better. But if you have good design and a good brand, it can improve user acquisition, user retention, or even people's perception of a better product.” (from Lenny’s Newsletter)

On design as an attention driver

“People are visual, and when you see something that looks cool or interesting, I think it attracts people to pay more attention. And that’s always one of your challenges as a startup—people are not paying attention. And design can help with that. Even today, we still have people that come to our product just because they like the design. They don’t necessarily have any other justification for it in their heads. They’re just like I like it, and that’s why I use it.” (from Slush)

On craft and product quality

“Craft is the mindset that creates quality. But it’s not enough. You need to have the right skills and ideas. You need individuals who take their profession and craft seriously, then build teams that work this way together, and have a company that creates for it. Not only incentivizing with deadlines and metrics, but also caring if the experience is good enough…Great products create fans and champions. In my mind, product quality is the ultimate moat.” (from LinkedIn)