Design Masterclass with the best designer I’ve ever met (Raphael Schaad with Cron Calendar)

Raphael Schaad is one of the best designers I've ever had the chance to work with. He and the team at Cron created the last calendar app you'll ever need. Request early access at: cron.com
Today, we're talking about how to take a design from an idea on paper to reality. What does it look like to create something from just an idea, and how do you do it? Raphael walks us through his process, which is a master class on how you can do this for yourself.
To get more behind the scenes design content, follow Raphael: / raphaelschaad
00:00 Raphael Schaad from Cron
01:15 The Sketch
07:26 The Prototype
12:53 The Actual Product
20:55 Be one of the first to access Cron Calendar
I’m Garry Tan, venture capitalist and founder at Initialized Capital. We were earliest investors in billion dollar startups like Coinbase and Instacart, and I’m a Forbes Midas List Top 100 venture capitalist in the world. We want these videos to be about helping people build world-class teams and startups that touch a billion people. Our startups have gone on to create more than $100 billion in market value so far, and Initialized has over $1B in assets under management.
Please like this video and subscribe to my channel if you want to see more videos like this!
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/ garrytan​

[@raphaelschaad]

Super fun chatting, Garry! Excited to connect with folks here. AMA!

[@sebastianjimenezbienen7045]

This was amazing Raphael thank you for putting together. Two questions. 1. How did you decide how much code to learn. And when did you figure out what was enough for you to be able to do what you needed without having to go deep into the engineering? Was it trial and error, or is there like a nicely packaged “everything you need to know about coding” course for designers that you would recommend. 2. Seeing you talk and looking at your product I see a lot of parallels to Rahul Vohra from Superhuman. They focus a lot on designing their products like a game, where you have a clear goal, you make it fun, and leave surprises for people. Curious, do you follow a similar approach to your product? How do you think about the product design at a level higher than the prototyping and interaction phase? How do you focus and decide on what to work on first?

[@raphaelschaad]

@@sebastianjimenezbienen7045 Fantastic Qs. (1) I was engineer first (undergraduate computer science). For me the question now is more: "How much should I still code? At what point am I holding back the team?" If you're a designer that wants to get into code, instead of a class, I highly recommend a side project. E.g. implementing a sick interactive personal website you've first designed. (2) Yes they are very intentional about using mechanics from game design and that's fascinating to see. I go more off of gut-feeling, "does it feel fun/good/right"? I think that's what Apple does. In terms of deciding what to build, the philosophy is: what users "pull out of us" + innovating on the users behalf, coming up with delightful interactions and powerful workflows "nobody would have thought of."

[@sebastianjimenezbienen7045]

@@raphaelschaad Thank you! And very cool product. Crazy to see how someone with enough care and capability can take something as simple as a calendar view into a world class product. Looking forward to that beta access!

[@raphaelschaad]

@@sebastianjimenezbienen7045 Thanks!!

[@ppetrosofficial]

I'm a non-technical founder, and our UI/UX is not great. How do we begin to improve using your method?

[@nicolatrabace]

How I wish there were more such videos showing the processes and the real work of a ux designer. Amazing job, really

[@JesperBylund]

This is really great Gary. You should do more of these, get in there and show what the entrepreneurs are doing. It’s rare to see something this naked and open.

[@bryceedwards9314]

Yes I second this. the workflows are kind of awesome to watch.

[@anirudhm]

+1, I’d pay to watch more of these

[@David11Lux]

I agree, its like "Day in the life" 2.0

[@DerickMasai]

Part of the reason I click on your videos soon-as is simply due to that opening intro. That music just ties it all together so cleanly.

[@jailosalia]

Oh how you've done it again Garry. I'm a product designer and learning these little ticks in Figma and the mac hot key command is gold! The smallest changes sometimes can make the biggest difference. Its funny, I'm taking singing lessons and I see a parallel concept with pitch (ex. C3 to D3 on the piano). You move one note higher and its small change in pitch but makes a big difference in singing note transitions. Thank again for the video!

[@spacemanrocks]

Pure awesomeness! As designers we always think about offer the best visual solution in advance, or go with fancy trends or visuals, but if we go back to the tools that really help us to create we will be building better, usable and meaningful products. Thank you for this, truly inspiring!

[@djangoklos5714]

Love this video Garry! I have nothing but respect for you, and the content you have been putting out for all of us. Have a good day 🤙

[@kaischmid9118]

The swiss perfection! Amazing Designer.

[@ganeshmahendranathan2036]

Really enjoyed this. Looking forward to the next one!

[@ajithr1255]

Love all your videos on design-- looking forward for more!

[@GarryTan]

More to come!

[@mshibinz]

Been a while. Happy you are back with another bang. A loyal follower. 😅

[@khairulhaaziq2332]

Garry this is one of the best videos on design in youtube. Please do more of these, with Rafael or other designers you admire, we would also like to know more of them!

[@timurrudenko3733]

Garry, so good to hear from you again!

[@tunepapuatv5911]

This is the best channel so far, you are changing many kids the way to make their dream come true. Keep it up 👏🙏.

[@karolpelc3956]

Excellent as always. Thanks Garry!

[@anticsbc]

Want me to go outside again?

[@mariolattuga3053]

Incredible insight - thank you

[@manugudipati4251]

Garry sharing his wisdom is the internet at its best. What a time to be alive.

[@hm-lq1rr]

This is so cool, best UX approach showcased in 20mins

[@porushpuri]

so good, so helpful!

[@yeabuddy9365]

Wow so many great tips in this video, subtle changes can make the biggest differences

[@johnsmithgumbula4688]

Inspiring as always, this is awesome, ingenious ! Dankeschön,

[@prithviye]

Interesting, i like the idea of jumping straight into front end code rather than doing figma in the middle

[@DerickMasai]

I also reeeally like Raphael's style choice. That long-sleeve black on black is very minimalistic. Nice 👍

[@GarryTan]

True designer style

[@sircitrus]

Great video. These insights >>

[@andresbaut]

Spectacular video Garry! And Raphael seems to be living his dream life turning sketches into reality! As a product designer myself I would love to one day have my own company and be able to be as nit picky with the details as Raphael is with Cron. Working in the corporate world we sometimes have to follow business goals or development constraints but I truly believe product designers are natural visionary entrepreneurs who ultimately know what the users want and have the power to run their own successful companies! Invest in more product designers and your money is safe! 😉

[@themeniacs7376]

Crazy product ♥️

[@PhantomKThief]

Thank you so much for this video :)

[@aditya_kanu]

Both of you earned a follower today

[@uxbykilian3148]

As a Jnr UX Designer, this is the kind of content that I yearn for.😎Thanks Garry #GrowthSeeker

[@danieljimenez3792]

Incredible video

[@TheMrPeeeeter]

Started using cron because of this video and today it has turned into notion calendar!

[@jeffreyqiu5128]

These are literally the masterclass to building a household name. Thank you @Garry for open sourcing the secrets to the trade :) I'm surprised that you're not getting infinitely more views on your content.

[@toofy7253]

I think he may be getting high quality organic views though. I read the comments, and the users appear to be more tuned in than a typical channel. They also may be more likely to contact him for their own startup collaboration

[@jose_huitron]

This is money. We need more of these sessions. Behind the scenes. How it's done type vids across product, marketing opps, metrics, etc.

[@NielsRask-tillsammans]

Beautiful example with the time zone.

[@isongab.jaenicke3995]

Thanks for sharing such details! Great Product! Greetings fron Berlin,Germany

[@gouthamkm7510]

learnt a very small things but it make big difference best of luck to cron

[@hcf797]

Mind blowing

[@Gd-jq6mz]

Yup i do the same. Sketching is really fun.

[@C1ndf2ndi3]

nice intro, loved seeing you be on a phone call! looked totally real!

[@billaddison82]

With 100% respect for this amazing designer, whether, paper and pen, computer or tablet, these are just tools. The fundamental point is to start with whichever tool you are most fluid in. This way your initial ideas can flow completely unimpeded. For me, I personally find a computer much faster to work with when planning UI which requires plenty of geometric shapes such as lines and boxes, and typed notes or labels. However, when working on a brand, pen and paper can be more liberating to explore more organic shapes or ideas.

[@raphaelschaad]

100% agree! I showed Garry the notebook because that's where I start for some things. Other times I'll "sketch" directly in Figma, or even code. Awesome to hear about your process, too!

[@RAHULKANDORIYA]

This is the kind of comment that goes into my daily learnings

[@robbtb]

"Rocks and sticks" html + css. That resonates.

[@zedrake]

Pleaseeeee show more product designers

[@quachhengtony7651]

Ofcourse he's a pro designer, I can tell by the light theme

[@Motivation2Invest]

Great Video Garry, I feel Email needs to be reimagined. It is basically still the same as the 90's. Still lots of spam, filter setup is long etc

[@aditya.mankare]

Try Superhuman

[@FahmiEshaq]

Nice.

[@DavidSno]

Wow, this is sooo insightful. We’re building a web3 social app that needs a calendar this beautiful 😍 with this much thought. Just… wow.

[@StuKim_DesignLead]

YeeEs!!

[@j.angelis6934]

Just thinking about you yesterday Gary and wondering when we were going to see more of your exceptional content. If you read this let me know how I can get my unique and original financial transaction system in front of you! Thanks👍😃

[@GarryTan]

Wow, thank you

[@chandramoulidorai6026]

Awesome video as always, Gary and team. Noticed that the Insta and Twitter hyperlinks of Gary in the description are not working fine (Chrome, Windows, India).

[@edwinreyes9434]

Hello Garry, awesome video, could you tell me what is song's name of the video intro. Thank you.

[@khawlafazzani]

I'm a product design student and I'm wondering if if this is the best career choice for me. The BLS job outlook doesn't look promising with 6% in the next 10 year. It's true that UX and UI jobs are at their peek right now, but will it still be in the future? Should I switch careers or should I also get a software engineering degree? Please if you read this comment I would appreciate a response and thank you for the insightful content.

[@GarryTan]

If you can be excellent at design there is always a spot for you. Focus on what you enjoy that you can become best in the world at, I say.

[@natethoreson6956]

Hey gary- what's the best way to get into contact with initialize? I am part of a startup that think you'd be interested in

[@GibinMichael]

Love the video and the as an early user of cron i can say this is gold - btw i am also building something really focused on UX and hope to pitch for possible investment - and i must say i want garry to use my product before anyone to get feedback.

[@superresistant8041]

It is interesting and the guy is passionate but I don't see the point of a different calendar, I'm gonna try.

[@pauloamossecuambe7282]

Waaauu

[@3nityC]

Damn now I see your game Garry Tan you gave free knowledge to more Technopreneur around the world so one day you can invest the best! nice!

[@GBlunted]

That guy had absolutely GIANT hands, right?

[@raphaelschaad]

Do I! ^^

[@AbstractAbsorption]

Isn't this camera angle a bit weird?

[@GarryTan]

yeah sorry, new setup, kind of ran out of time to optimize it!!

[@AbstractAbsorption]

@@GarryTan Nah Garry just to be clear: the content was amazing :) Thanks for all you do!

[@ayoopopoola439]

Is that his usual workspace? Seems so simple and solitude like😅

[@dotcomtechnology5137]

Google is going to fire some designers...

[@anticsbc]

Cover up the red.

[@anticsbc]

Air metal.

[@harshadm824]

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