Ep 33. George Hatzis on Product Design: Journey from Startups to Scale-Ups and Fractional Impact for Early-Stage Teams

Calling Operator with Laura Nicol

I'm connecting with George Hatzis, a fractional product designer for early-stage startup teams. From his early curiosity about design and product at Ignition to redesigning a personal loan application admin at Wisr and building and scaling a multi-brand design system for healthcare products at Eucalyptus, he's no stranger to the twists and turns of startups and scale-ups. In this episode, we cover practical design and MVP design systems—what they are and how to apply them in fast-moving, scrappy environments; taking the independent product design route and his “Mary Poppins-style” approach to fractional work; his journey (so far) building a migration tech product alongside Niamh and Damian at Matilda; leading design teams and making a conscious transition from an individual contributor to a manager; AI as a “companion piece” for designers; the right time for startups to bring in their first product designer; and advice for product designers pitching themselves to early-stage startups. Plus, slowing everything down for life's simple moments, watching 100 movies a year (and reviewing them on Letterboxd), and the magic of acknowledging trade-offs.

Find George Hatzis:

• LinkedIn
• Portfolio
• Letterboxd: film reviews by George Hatzis
• Checklist Design: a side project by George Hatzis

George’s Northstar People and Principles :

• James Nau (VP of Product at Airtasker)
• Olivia King (Independent Creative Director)
  • Olivia King’s portfolio
• [Op-ed] AI as a trend and how designers can work with it (written by Sebastiaan de With)

ANZ Operators—Ones to Watch:

• Kayla Medica (Fractional Product Marketer/CMO)
  • Mehdeeka by Kayla Medica (a weekly Substack newsletter covering various areas of B2B and SaaS marketing aimed at small teams)
• Nick Hough (Director of Product at Jasper)

Other Folks Mentioned in the Episode:

• Guy Pearson (CEO at Ignition)
• Dane Thomas (Co-founder & Chief Product Officer at Ignition)
• Niamh Mooney (Co-founder at Matilda)
• Damian Png (Co-founder at Matilda)

A note from your host, Laura:

My goal for Calling Operator is to open-source stories from startup operators across various functional areas and learn how they excel at building and scaling companies. As a Chief of Staff, I often find myself in (virtual) rooms with people facing similar challenges and reinventing the wheel. I want this podcast to open a line for operators across Australia and New Zealand to learn from fellow operators. Each episode shares personal stories, the execution behind big ideas, career-defining moments, successes, failures, and lessons.

Guest ideas?

Do you have an operator on speed dial who could be perfect for the show? Please share your suggestions with me via LinkedIn.

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