As an instructor at General Assembly, one of the main things I wanted my cohort to take away from the 10-week UX design immersive was this: how to ask the right questions. Pixels are great and all – and, to be sure, they define the output of the work we do as product designers. But good questions are the foundation of good design.

Imagine with me for a second. You're a non-technical founder with an awesome B2B SaaS concept. You know you need to hire a developer to build your software product and you've heard no one wants to invest in your startup until you have something built, so you go straight to the developer or dev shop your friend recommended.

How would you define an MVP? Yeah, I think most of us in the tech startup world know it stands for "minimum viable product." But what's the point of it? Well, I've often seen this term used to mean "a hunk o' software thrown together quickly to get something out the door so we can start making money off this bad boy!"

B2B SaaS founders come in a variety of forms. Oftentimes, they're not the tech geniuses who geek out on the pros and cons of the latest Javascript libraries and frameworks. In many cases, they're not UX designers or product managers who decided to branch out to create a new product. They're folks (this might describe you) from non-technical backgrounds who have seen an opportunity to serve their industry.

A startup is an organization in search of a sustainable business model. I heard that definition at an event in Colorado Springs a few years ago, and it sticks with me to this day as the clearest way to identify a startup. "Startup" is not a description of the age, size, popularity, or revenue of a company.