#17: Instagram Head of Design, Ian Spalter, on launching Stories and what's next for their product
Jun 4, 2017
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Ian Spalter, Head of Design at Instagram, talks about his experiences working with agencies vs. startups, building a design team as a company matures, and how Instagram manages to iterate quickly. They discuss factors influencing work quality, embracing design and customer empathy, collaboration tools, the evolution of Instagram, and the future of design.
Company structure is crucial in producing quality design output.
Choosing between working in an agency or software company depends on career goals and personal interests.
Combining brand and product thinking creates a unified user experience.
Deep dives
Designing Company Structure for Quality Output
Ian Spalter, the head of design at Instagram, emphasizes the importance of company structure in producing quality design output. He believes that the way a company is structured is just as important, if not more so, than processes or individual talent. He highlights the need to determine where design sits within the organization and how it is incentivized and rewarded. Spalter believes that factors like organizational principles, resource allocation, and planning greatly impact the quality of design work. He suggests that designing the company itself, along with the allocation of resources and the planning process, has a significant influence on the quality of design deliverables.
Transitioning from Agency to Startup design
Ian Spalter shares his experience transitioning from working at an agency to being the head of design at Instagram. He explains that working at an agency provided him with a variety of design and business problems to tackle, along with the opportunity to work with creative people and learn about connections between brand and product. Spalter discusses the differences between design teams in the agency world and at Instagram, highlighting the need to adapt to different company cultures and ways of measuring the quality of work. He also mentions the shift in focus from client satisfaction in the agency world to impactful design work in a technical organization.
Choosing between Agency and Client-Side Design
Spalter advises designers to evaluate their career goals and interests when deciding between working in an agency or on the client-side. He suggests that agencies are more focused on storytelling and communication, making them a good fit for designers interested in those areas. On the other hand, software companies offer the opportunity to dive deep into a particular problem space and have a tangible impact on a large user base. Spalter emphasizes the importance of considering personal interests and the variety of experiences available in each setting when making this decision.
The Role of Brand in Design
Spalter discusses how agencies and software companies approach brand differently. He explains that agencies often thrive on brand development as they help companies express ideas and connect with culture. In contrast, software companies may take more time to define and understand the concept of brand. However, Spalter highlights the importance of combining brand and product thinking at Instagram. He believes that thinking about brand and product together, even at a team structure level, helps create a unified experience for users.
Designing for Behavioral Change
Spalter reflects on his experience working on the Nike FuelBand and highlights the focus on behavioral change and making the product desirable. He discusses the importance of setting goals and making them visible to motivate users. Spalter emphasizes the need to consider the everyday athlete and how a product fits into their daily life. He also mentions the value of considering the behavioral impact and material business impact of design work, as well as the need to adapt design skills and measures of success when transitioning between agency and client-side or startup design.
Ian Spalter is the Head of Design at Instagram. In this episode, he talks about his experiences working with agencies vs. startups, how to build a design team as a company matures, and how a company the size of Instagram manages to iterate so quickly.
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