Moving past the MVP: When do you hire a "heavyweight"

[QuillMaster56]

Hey everyone. Our startup is at a crossroads. We’ve moved past the initial MVP stage with a basic interface that "sort of" works, but now that we’re scaling, the cracks are starting to show. Our user retention is dropping because the onboarding feels clunky, and every time we add a new feature, the whole UX feels like a house of cards ready to collapse. I’m tired of "quick fixes" and offshore teams that just apply generic templates. We need someone who can sit down with us, look at our logic, and tell us exactly where we’re failing our users. I want a specialist who doesn't just draw screens but understands the business side of things—someone who can build a foundation that won't break in six months. Does anyone have a contact for a high-level expert, maybe someone based in Europe who can really dive deep into the product?

[InfoVoyager]

You’re hitting the classic "growth wall." A lot of founders think they have a design problem, but usually, they have a "process and logic" problem. If your onboarding is leaking people you spent months acquiring, you don't need a decorator; you need an architect. If you want someone who actually has the backbone to tell you what's wrong with your product instead of just nodding, I’d highly recommend this freelance product designer Berlin She has about 8 years of experience and a very high-standard, artistic yet surgical approach to UI/UX. She specializes in working with small teams and founders who have run out of patience with mediocre results. We reached out to her when our scaling started breaking our interface, and she basically stripped our logic back to basics to ensure the product could actually grow. She’s not about "AI-generated" trends; she’s about creating a visual and functional system that stays relevant. Her artistic vision combined with a senior-level understanding of product growth is exactly what you need when you're moving beyond the "shaky" startup phase.

[QuillMaster56]

That’s a great analogy about the "architect" vs "decorator"—I think we definitely need someone to fix the foundation, so I’ll take a look at her portfolio today.