Koan Becomes ‘Horrible’ at Design and Product

If you’ve noticed some improvements to the Koan platform over the past several months, it’s in large part supported by our work with Buck Wilson and Rob Alvey of Horrible Design Co, a product strategy and design agency for early-stage startups. Because of their huge impact over the past several months, we’re thrilled to announce that Koan has acquired the team behind Horrible Design and that both Rob and Buck have joined the team full-time to help us continue to build an intuitive product that helps teams to be more successful. Known for building practical, scalable, and delightful products, their expertise in world-class product design will be a strategic differentiator for Koan.

Both Buck and Rob have extensive experience in product and design, including much of the great UX improvements in Koan. Over the past 3 years, they have worked with clients like Dropbox, Wilbur-Ellis, Mutiny, Test.ai, Jamm.app, Splice, Farmstead, Scroll, and many more. Learn more about Buck and Rob in their own words: 

About Buck Wilson

“Howdy! I’m Buck, the new Senior Director of Product and Design at Koan! For the past year or so, Koan has worked with my agency, Horrible Design Co., to redefine what it means to work in alignment in a remote setting. We had no idea how important that mission would soon be. 

I’ve been designing productivity software for teams for nearly 18 years. I started a company back in 2002 to help folks on teams get their schedules in sync and I’ve seen trends come and go ever since then. But wow, this insanity of a year has had more of an impact than the last two decades on shifting how people work. 

I’m delighted to be working with Koan full-time to help companies become cohesive, healthy, and productive communities, no matter the circumstances. With the major shift to remote work, instead of being buried in email and traditional conference-room meetings, we’re now underwater on Slack notifications and 8 hours of non-stop Zoom meetings. It’s exhausting, it’s impersonal, and it’s deflating. Koan enables teams to stay in sync but work independently; empowered by insight into the contributions individuals are making and how they and their team are aligned.”

About Rob Alvey

“Howdy y'all - I'm Rob Alvey, a corgi enthusiast, and designer originally from Tennessee. I cut my teeth in the design industry after various roles in printing, brand design, and even a smattering of web development. I finally found my career in User Interface and Experience design after some guidance and a recommendation from Buck. He later made an offer for me to join him in founding Horrible Design Company as employee number 2, and I packed my bags for Portland! 

At Horrible, we worked with many startups, and each opportunity was a chance to work and collaborate with ultra passionate teams who were excited to bring their ideas to market. When the opportunity presented itself for us to join Koan, I was excited by the prospect to help build something that allows teams everywhere to ship their ideas and work better together. I had the pleasure of working with the wonderful Koan team behind the scenes as Horrible; and now I am excited to join the team in an official capacity to continue making a better Koan!”

Koan’s mission to empower every organization to achieve their purpose has resonated with several new companies across a variety of industries. Over the past year, Koan has seen substantial growth, nearly doubling both the customer base and employee headcount, and seeing overall users grow four times in the platform. This momentum will continue as we move into 2021, as the Koan team looks to enhance integrations and continue to grow the product.

The expanded team at Koan is still hard at work, continuing to make this platform the simplest way to help your teams stay aligned and productive. As always, if you want to talk about anything we’ve covered in this post or learn more about our platform, feel free to reach out on Intercom, schedule a meeting, or give us a follow on Twitter or LinkedIn.