David's Notes
David's Notes
Distributed Podcast #14: InVision CEO Clark Valberg on Distributed Design
0:00
-2:53

Distributed Podcast #14: InVision CEO Clark Valberg on Distributed Design

What is InVision?: If you are a digital product designer you need a place to design. To create the actual screens that make your product beautiful. That is InVision. InVision is the place where that design comes to life in a collaborative sense. [2:05]


Design is no longer a job-to-be-done. It is an organizational discipline in a world where the screen has become one of the most important places in the world. [2:38]


[InVision was an internal tool at Clark’s agency] That tool evolved over time. Someone said, “Hey what if we took designs out of Photoshop, connected them together, and turned them into a high fidelity simulation?” [5:45]


At what point did you switch to being a fully remote company? I never had the vision to be a remote company. I didn’t think it was the future. I didn’t think it was for everyone. It was a necessity. Every person we tried to hire was also talking to Google, Yahoo, Facebook, etc. They were destroying us for talent. So we asked ourselves: What if we just hired people we worked with in the past as contractors when we had an agency? And what if we just did this at scale? What if we figured out how to make collaboration work where everyone was remote? The next week we shut down the office. [8:04]


The percentage of intellectual focus/deep work that happens in your business is a significant driver— or limiter— of your success. The more creative your work the more focus you need. I think real creative work is done alone. [15:20]


One thing that is unique about Invision is that everyone is on east coast office hours. I do believe you need a certain amount of hours of overlap. There should be about a 3-hour overlap between most of the teams. [22:47]


People assume I am a remote zealot. I am not. I am not religious about the topic. You have to be getting something out of being remote. I just want to hire the best people wherever they are. [24:44]


Full podcast here: Distributed #14: InVision CEO Clark Valberg on Distributed Design


Learn from founders who came before you. Every week I read a biography of a founder and tell you what I learned on Founders podcast.