Design Mentor in EIA Founder of Snowfire
Ditte Hammarström
Design Mentor in EIA
Founder of Snowfire Design Community

Ditte, please share the elevator pitch about yourself
I am a life eater and freedom seeker that is passionate about psychology in UX design. With my ‘can do’ attitude together with my team I have helped many startups to launch successfully building SaaS apps from the ground up. I started my first company when I was 22 years old and have a background as Creative Director in Agencies both in Sweden and the UK where I worked strategically with several brands. I got selected as one of the 800 Swedish Female Ambassadors for Entrepreneurship implemented by the Swedish government.

Why do early-stage startups need design mentors at all?
People buy with their eyes. You can have the most mind-blowing product or software and it will not sell if it is not attractive enough. Design is one of the most powerful means of communication in today’s world. It affects many of the decisions we make in our lives and the connection is very clear – a well-designed experience leads to more revenue faster. Design = more quality branding = is more money. Make your user feel safe.

What is the question you should never ask from a design mentor?
I downloaded a website theme for my fantastic brilliant idea – it was free so I don’t care that it is bland and used 1000 of times by others and I placed some stock photos there and altered the text a bit. I do not understand why my product doesn’t sell?

Name some most helpful and accessible design tools that are out there?
Skip Photoshop. Both Figma and Sketch will speed up your creativity and let you have more fun when designing and Abstract will keep your files in order, easy to find for you and the team 🙂

FIGMA – design toolkit built for Mac and PC
SCETCHAPP – design toolkit built for Mac
GOABSTRACT – version control and file management for your Sketch files

Please point out one legendary designer the world should know about
There are so many great designers that make my day. If I have to mention one, my very personal favourite is the British designer Mike Kus and hey, it is not because I wear his designed T-shirt every day. Except being brilliant in finding the right “tone” for the projects and marvel with colours and shape. He is as an early adopter that sense when the time is right for a new way of design thinking. A rare find.

Wise words by EIA program team: 🤓

Design mentors step into the game on day 5 in the program when you have formed your team, developed the idea further, talked to your potential customers and validated your solution. Design mentors are helping you with developing a good looking digital prototype for the Startup Expo. Together with the marketing mentors they will help you design the a stand-out website for your product. Also, when the investor meetings are getting closer, design mentors will make sure that your slides are on point. Design mentors are available in a clinic style format where the teams can sign up to meet with them for advice when needed.

Check out all our awesome mentors:

🇮🇹 EIA Italy
🇵🇹 EIA Portugal
🇨🇳 Asia-Pacific Innovation Academy
🇶🇦 Arab Innovation Academy