We’re in the middle of a series on core issues for startups. This time we’ll cover interaction design. We’ve invited the lead designers responsible for Facebook, Mint and Posterous to give us their point of view on designing great products, hiring great designers (and figuring out if they are any good), the value of A/B testing and what drives great designers crazy. Plus they’ll answer... [read more]

We’re in the middle of a series on core issues for startups. This time we’ll cover interaction design. We’ve invited the lead designers responsible for Facebook, Mint and Posterous to give us their point of view on designing great products, hiring great designers (and figuring out if they are any good), the value of A/B testing and what drives great designers crazy. Plus they’ll answer your burning questions.

Kate Aronowitz is Director of Design and User Experience at Facebook, where she leads a team of designers, researchers, engineers and content strategists. Prior to Facebook, Kate was the first Director of Design at LinkedIn, where she helped build and establish their design and user research group. Previously, she managed design teams at eBay. Kate holds a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from The Savannah College of Art and Design.

Jason Putorti was lead designer at Mint.com from early 2007 through launch and acquisition in November 2009. After Mint.com, he was Designer-in-Residence at Bessemer Venture Partners. He’s now co-founder of Votizen and on the side runs elegant.ly, a resource for startups to pitch great designers.

Garry Tan is designer-in-residence at Y Combinator. Previously, he cofounded Posterous and helped build it to a world-class website used by millions. He also cofounded the engineering team for Palantir Technology’s quant analysis platform. He was named among BusinessWeek’s Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs of 2010, Inc Magazine’s 2010 list of 30 under 30, Advertising Age Magazine’s 2010 Creativity 50, and Business Insider’s 2011 30 Under 30 Who Are Shaking Up Industries.