Leading through uncertainty: A design-led company - Brian Chesky (Config 2023)

Summary

Durante la clausura del primer día de Config 2023, Sarah Culver y Sho Kuamoto introducen un diálogo profundo sobre la incertidumbre en el diseño y la innovación. Brian Chesky, CEO de Airbnb, comparte su trayectoria única como diseñador y líder empresarial, enfatizando cómo la integración del diseño en el núcleo de Airbnb ha sido fundamental para navegar por los desafíos y transformar la empresa. Chesky destaca la importancia de la visión, el diseño y la simplicidad en la toma de decisiones, y cómo estos principios pueden revitalizar los negocios y adaptarse a los cambios del mercado. Su narrativa inspira a diseñadores y líderes a repensar el rol del diseño en la estrategia empresarial y en la construcción de un futuro incierto.

Takeaways

• 🎤 Sarah Culver y Sho Kuamoto agradecen a los asistentes de Config 2023, prometen ajustes y aseguran que las charlas estarán disponibles en línea.
• 🌐 Discuten la incertidumbre global, destacando el impacto de la pandemia, la economía y la inteligencia artificial en el futuro del diseño.
• 🚀 Brian Chesky, CEO de Airbnb, comparte su visión sobre liderar con un enfoque en diseño, y cómo esto ha sido fundamental para el éxito y la innovación de Airbnb.
• 🤔 Chesky reflexiona sobre la realización de que Airbnb se estaba alejando de sus raíces de diseño y cómo decidió reestructurar la empresa para centrarse más en el diseño y menos en las métricas convencionales.
• 💡 Introduce el concepto de 'diseñar la empresa', enfocándose en simplificar y reducir proyectos para mejorar la eficiencia y el flujo de efectivo, destacando el diseño como una solución integral, no solo estética.
• 🔄 Describe el proceso de reconstrucción de Airbnb durante la pandemia, incluyendo la centralización de la toma de decisiones y la reducción de proyectos para concentrarse en lo esencial.
• 🎨 Chesky argumenta que los diseñadores deberían tener un papel más central en la toma de decisiones de productos y empresas, desafiando la idea de que solo deberían ser ejecutores de ideas.
• 🔍 Comparte cómo la integración de diseño, marketing y desarrollo de producto en Airbnb crea productos cohesivos y bien comunicados, destacando la importancia de contar con un mapa de ruta claro.
• 👥 Enfatiza la importancia de la colaboración entre diseñadores, ingenieros y mercadólogos para crear productos que las personas amen y deseen.
• 🚀 Motiva a los diseñadores a asumir roles de liderazgo y a considerar la posibilidad de fundar empresas, subrayando el impacto que el pensamiento de diseño puede tener en el mundo empresarial.

Q & A

¿Quiénes son los anfitriones de la clausura del primer día de Config 2023?

Sarah Culver, gerente de diseño en Figma, y Shokuamoto, vicepresidente de producto.

¿Qué cambios prometen hacer para el segundo día del evento?

Prometen hacer ajustes en las asignaciones de salas y en la disposición de los espacios para mejorar la experiencia.

¿Cómo se planea compensar a quienes no pudieron asistir a todas las charlas deseadas?

Planean grabar todas las charlas y enviarlas por correo electrónico a los asistentes lo más rápido posible.

¿Cuál es el tema de las sesiones de clausura presentadas por Sarah y Shokuamoto?

El tema es 'Navegando la incertidumbre'.

¿Qué visión tiene Shokuamoto sobre el diseño en tiempos de incertidumbre?

Considera que el diseño es fundamentalmente sobre qué queremos construir y cómo queremos que sea el futuro, lo cual es crucial en tiempos inciertos.

¿Quién es el primer orador mencionado en la clausura y cuál es su relación con el diseño?

El primer orador es Brian Chesky, descrito como alguien que ha puesto el diseño en el centro de todo en Airbnb, liderando la empresa con una perspectiva de diseño.

¿Qué realización tuvo Brian Chesky sobre la forma en que estaba dirigiendo Airbnb?

Se dio cuenta de que estaba llevando a cabo las cosas de manera muy convencional, a pesar de su formación en diseño.

¿Cómo cambió Airbnb su enfoque bajo la dirección de Brian Chesky durante la pandemia?

Reconstruyeron la empresa desde cero, cambiando a una organización funcional y enfocándose en proyectos clave con el diseño como elemento central.

¿Qué estrategia de diseño emplea Airbnb para asegurar el éxito de sus productos?

Se enfocan en hacer menos proyectos pero de mayor impacto, evitan las pruebas A/B excesivas y se aseguran de que cada proyecto sea algo de lo que estén orgullosos antes de lanzarlo.

¿Cuál es el consejo de Brian Chesky para los diseñadores que aspiran a tener un impacto mayor?

Alienta a los diseñadores a tener confianza, a no pedir permiso para cómo quieren hacer las cosas, y a reconocer que los diseñadores pueden dirigir empresas y crear productos que la gente ame.

Outlines

00:00

🎤 Bienvenida a Config 2023

Sarah Culver y Sho Kuamoto dan la bienvenida a los asistentes a la conferencia Config 2023, agradeciendo su presencia y disculpándose por las limitaciones de capacidad en algunas charlas. Anuncian ajustes en la asignación de salas para el día siguiente y prometen enviar grabaciones de las charlas. Introducen el tema de la sesión de clausura, 'Navegando la incertidumbre', discutiendo cómo el diseño puede ofrecer soluciones en tiempos inciertos y presentan al primer orador, Brian Chesky de Airbnb, destacando su enfoque en poner el diseño al centro de todo.

05:03

🔄 Transformación en Airbnb

Brian Chesky comparte una reflexión sobre cómo, después de un sueño revelador y una caminata con sus cofundadores, se dio cuenta de que Airbnb estaba perdiendo su magia y cómo el enfoque convencional estaba afectando la innovación. Describe cómo la llegada de la pandemia y el consejo de figuras como Hiroki Asai y Jony Ive lo inspiraron a rediseñar la empresa, enfocándose en una organización funcional y en la simplificación de proyectos. Este cambio de dirección, impulsado por la necesidad de sobrevivir a la crisis de COVID-19, resultó en una notable recuperación y crecimiento financiero para Airbnb.

10:04

🎨 Redefiniendo el Rol del Diseño en Airbnb

Chesky explica cómo Airbnb cambió su enfoque hacia el diseño, eliminando las pruebas A/B convencionales a menos que hubiera una hipótesis clara detrás de ellas. Describe cómo se elevó el papel del diseño en la toma de decisiones del producto, fusionando la gestión de producto con el marketing y priorizando la simplicidad y la esencia en sus proyectos. Este nuevo enfoque resultó en productos y servicios que los usuarios aman, alineándose con la visión original de Airbnb.

15:04

🔍 La Justificación del Diseño

Brian discute el desafío constante de los diseñadores para justificar su existencia en las empresas, sugiriendo que deberían tener más confianza en su valor y contribución. Comparte principios clave para el diseño efectivo y cómo los diseñadores pueden influir más en las estrategias de producto y organización, argumentando que el diseño no debería ser visto solo como una función de servicio, sino como un socio igualitario en el desarrollo de productos.

20:05

🚀 Integración de Diseño y Marketing

Chesky habla sobre cómo Airbnb integra diseño, producto y marketing desde las etapas iniciales de desarrollo de productos, destacando la importancia de la colaboración entre estas áreas. Comparte ejemplos específicos de cómo esta integración ha llevado a la creación de productos exitosos y campañas de marketing efectivas, subrayando la importancia de contar una historia coherente sobre el producto.

25:07

🔗 Completa Visión del Producto en Airbnb

Brian detalla cómo Airbnb adoptó un enfoque sistemático para mejorar su servicio, creando un 'blueprint' completo de la experiencia del usuario. Este enfoque implicó un análisis exhaustivo de cada aspecto del servicio, desde la interfaz de usuario hasta las políticas de servicio al cliente, lo que permitió a Airbnb priorizar y resolver problemas clave, asegurando que la base de su servicio sea sólida antes de introducir nuevas características.

🌟 Inspiración para Futuros Emprendedores

En la conclusión, Chesky anima a los diseñadores y creativos a asumir roles de liderazgo y a considerar la posibilidad de fundar empresas. Reflexiona sobre la importancia del diseño no solo en la estética, sino en la estructura fundamental de los negocios y la innovación. Finaliza con un llamado a los diseñadores para que sean audaces, imaginen el mundo en el que quieren vivir y contribuyan con sus visiones únicas al futuro de la industria.

Keywords

💡Diseño

El diseño se refiere a la creación, planificación y realización de proyectos con un propósito estético y funcional. En el contexto del video, el diseño juega un papel central en la forma de dirigir y conceptualizar la empresa, especialmente en Airbnb, donde la perspectiva del diseño es fundamental tanto para el desarrollo del producto como para la estructura organizacional de la empresa. Brian Chesky, cofundador y CEO de Airbnb, destaca cómo el enfoque en diseño ha permitido a la empresa navegar por tiempos inciertos y adaptarse a nuevos desafíos.

💡Incertidumbre

La incertidumbre se refiere a la falta de certeza sobre el futuro, lo que puede generar dudas o inseguridades sobre qué decisiones tomar. En el video, se discute cómo el mundo actual está lleno de incertidumbre debido a factores como pandemias, cambios económicos y el rápido desarrollo de la tecnología. El diseño es presentado como una solución para enfrentar la incertidumbre, enfocándose en la visión y la creatividad para construir un futuro deseado.

💡Visión

La visión se refiere a la capacidad de imaginar el futuro deseado y establecer un camino para alcanzarlo. En el video, se enfatiza la importancia de tener una visión clara, especialmente en tiempos de incertidumbre. La visión de Brian Chesky para Airbnb se basa en la creencia de que el diseño puede y debe jugar un papel crucial en la dirección de la empresa y en la creación de productos que las personas amen.

💡Pruebas A/B

Las pruebas A/B son un método de comparación entre dos versiones de un elemento para determinar cuál funciona mejor. Chesky critica el uso excesivo de pruebas A/B en el desarrollo de productos, argumentando que pueden ser una forma de abdicar la responsabilidad del diseño al dejar que los usuarios elijan sin una hipótesis clara detrás de las decisiones de diseño. En cambio, propone un enfoque más intencionado y basado en la visión para el diseño de productos.

💡Cultura de diseño

La cultura de diseño se refiere a los valores, prácticas y procesos que promueven el diseño como un elemento central en la toma de decisiones y en la creación de productos o servicios. En el video, se destaca cómo Airbnb ha cultivado una cultura de diseño fuerte, colocando el diseño en el centro de su estrategia y operaciones, lo que les ha permitido innovar y adaptarse a cambios significativos en el mercado.

💡Creatividad

La creatividad es la capacidad de generar ideas nuevas y originales. En el discurso, se resalta la creatividad como una herramienta esencial para enfrentar la incertidumbre y como un componente clave del diseño. La creatividad permite a los diseñadores y a la empresa como un todo imaginar nuevas soluciones y caminos hacia el futuro.

💡Simplificación

La simplificación implica reducir la complejidad para hacer algo más comprensible, accesible o manejable. Brian Chesky menciona cómo simplificaron la empresa y sus procesos para hacerla más eficiente y efectiva. Esto incluyó reducir la cantidad de proyectos y centrarse en aquellos con mayor impacto, lo que demuestra cómo la simplificación puede ser una estrategia poderosa en el diseño y la gestión empresarial.

💡Empatía

La empatía es la capacidad de entender y compartir los sentimientos de otra persona. Aunque no se menciona explícitamente en el video, la empatía subyace en la discusión sobre el diseño centrado en el usuario, donde comprender las necesidades y experiencias de los usuarios es crucial para crear productos que resuenen con ellos. La empatía es fundamental para el proceso de diseño en Airbnb, permitiendo a la empresa crear experiencias más significativas y personalizadas para sus usuarios.

💡Innovación

La innovación se refiere a la creación o mejora de productos, servicios, tecnologías o ideas que generan valor. En el video, la innovación surge como un tema central, donde se discute cómo Airbnb ha utilizado el diseño como un motor para la innovación, permitiendo a la empresa ofrecer soluciones únicas y adelantarse a las necesidades del mercado.

💡Liderazgo en diseño

El liderazgo en diseño se refiere a la práctica de guiar y dirigir el uso del diseño en una organización para alcanzar objetivos estratégicos. El video destaca el papel de Brian Chesky como un líder de diseño, demostrando cómo su enfoque en el diseño ha influenciado positivamente la dirección de Airbnb, desde la cultura empresarial hasta la estrategia de producto, subrayando la importancia del liderazgo en diseño para el éxito empresarial.

Highlights

Sarah Culver and Shoko Moto introduce the closing keynote, acknowledging the audience's effort to attend Config 2023.

Discussion on navigating uncertainty in the context of pandemic, economic challenges, and the rapid development of AI.

The role of design in shaping future amidst uncertainty and its importance in creating vision.

Introduction of Brian Chesky, highlighting Airbnb as a design-led company.

Brian's journey from a conventional business approach to embracing design principles in leadership.

The realization of losing Airbnb's unique culture and moving towards a divisional company structure.

The crisis of COVID-19 leading to an 80% drop in Airbnb's business and the consequent existential reflection.

The transformative approach towards company restructuring, focusing on design and simplification.

Hiring of Hiroki Asai and collaboration with Jony Ive to bring a design-centric approach to Airbnb.

The shift from a business unit to a functional organization within Airbnb.

The significant reduction of projects and emphasis on quality over quantity.

The change from traditional product management to a design and product marketing integrated approach.

The success and financial improvement of Airbnb following the design-led restructuring.

Brian Chesky's advocacy for designers to assume leadership roles and the potential for designers to shape the future.

The importance of storytelling, user research, and historical insights in the design process at Airbnb.

The creation of a comprehensive company overview through the 'Airbnb Blueprint' to address customer service and user experience.

Brian Chesky's encouragement for designers to be bold, visionary, and to consider founding or leading companies.

Transcripts

foreign

[Music]

welcome back to the closing keynote of

day one of config 2023 I'm Sarah Culver

I'm a design manager at figma and I'm

shokuamoto vice president of product

um first of all I just wanted to thank

everybody for being here with us today I

know a lot of you guys have traveled and

taken time of your out of your day to

come here and I also know that not

everybody could get into the talks that

they wanted to get into due to capacity

so I just wanted to acknowledge that and

thank you guys we're going to make some

changes oh now I think they took the

clicker because uh I they gave me the

thing okay anyway they're gonna Advance

it okay this is like a actually this is

a comedy routine you didn't realize this

but it's going to be comedy

um so anyway so we're sorry about that

and uh we're gonna make some tweaks

tomorrow to some of the room assignments

and layouts and things like that so

hopefully that would be better for

tomorrow

and also all the talks are recorded and

we're going to try to email them out to

you as fast as possible so that we can

you can see them when you uh get back so

thank you for sticking with us

but we're not done yet for today we're

back to introduce our closing keynote

sessions uh the theme for this afternoon

is navigating uncertainty what does that

mean to you show

um okay so uncertainty to me well

the world as we know is

um you know going through a lot right

now we've had pandemic closures we've

have an economy that's affected a lot of

people's jobs we have ai which is

exciting but every month every week

There's new news and you know it's hard

to even know what is the world going to

look like 20 years from now or even five

years from now

and the way that I think about it is

that design is fundamentally about what

do we want to build what do we want to

make what do we want the future to be

like and it's hard to think about that

when things are so uncertain

so you know times aren't certain and I

think uncertain times call for more

vision and that's hard but it's

important so design is kind of a

solution to uncertainty ultimately I

like that a lot

um our first Speaker of branchesky has

really taken the approach of putting

design at the center of everything and

his leadership of Airbnb to me Airbnb is

the epitome of a design-led company you

know you can see it in both the product

and in the culture and it's been really

impressive to me to see how Airbnb has

navigated the ups and downs of the past

few years

yep so please join us in welcoming Brian

in conversation with Dylan

[Applause]

[Music]

[Music]

welcome to config Brian well thank you

for having me thank you all and for

being here uh I think that Brian

probably needs no introduction but just

in case uh Brian is the CEO and

co-founder of Airbnb and I looked at the

entire Fortune 500 all the CEOs and I

believe correctly if I'm wrong that you

are the only designer CEO in the fortune

500. if there's another one I'd love to

meet them

so

you know maybe we can start off with uh

we were talking last week about this you

were telling me that at some point in

the company Journey

you sat down and realized

uh that you were doing things in a very

conventional way yeah despite your

design training and uh maybe you can

tell us more about that what that

realization was like

yeah so let me take you back to um

2019 the end of 2019.

I had this suspicious feeling that like

I mean well actually you can go back

further I went to the Rhode Island

School design with um my one of my

co-founders Joe gebbia and

um it was kind of crazy the idea that a

founding team would have two designers

and one engineer it was so crazy that I

remember when we pitched one of our

First Investors he said we love

everything but you and your idea and one

of the things they managed strangers

will never sleep save those strangers

and designers don't start companies

and at RISD in the year 2000 when I was

there I studied industrial design

and there was this whole mantra

how do you get design in the boardroom

and Joe and I maybe we didn't know any

better we thought what if design just

ran the boardroom

and that was the whole premise behind

Airbnb and so we had these magical ideas

of what everybody could become and for a

moment for a while I felt like it was

really special and magical

and then 10 years later it's now 2019

and I wake up one day and I have this

like I have this horrible dream and the

dream is it's as if I've been gone for

10 years I come back to the company and

it's unrecognizable and I go on a hike

in Bolinas California with my two

co-founders Joe and Nate and I tell them

about this dream and they said what

happened and I said that dream that we

had that company that would be magical

that was like an amazing product people

loved that we were starting to lose it

it was starting to wear down wear out

and let me explain what was happening

see I basically was a designer and I

kind of noticed

there's two types of people and

companies never become CEOs Engineers

become CEOs at Silicon Valley marketers

become CFOs Finance people come CEOs

operators become CEOs but the two people

that never run companies are designers

and head of HR

I started thinking why is this

and I think it's because design in some

ways is fragile because companies are

organized around the scientific method

and the creative process is something

that requires nerve and over the years I

started losing my nerve and I brought in

a lot of people from a lot of different

companies and they brought their way of

working towards us so what do we do we

had divisional we basically

divisionalized so we had like 10

different divisions they had like 10

different subdivisions we were very much

run by product managers

we had a plethora of a b experiments and

the thing I started noticing is the more

um people we added the more project we

pursued the less our app changed and the

more the cost went up and I didn't know

what to do it's now late 2019 and I tell

Joe and I'm like this is like I don't

know what to do and they're like well

what are you going to do and I said well

I don't know because we're about to go

public

and so blowing up the company before

you're like ready to go public is kind

of a bad time

so I go back uh home for the holidays

and it's now early 2020.

we're preparing to go public

and I actually it's right before 2020 I

meet two people that changed my life

the first person I meet is a guy named

Hiroki assai

Hiroki assai was the creative director

at Apple and he reported Steve Jobs and

he worked at Apple from like 1998 to

2016. wow and the second person I

already knew but I got reacquainted was

Johnny Ive and Johnny I've ran designed

apple and at that moment I kind of

forgot about the magic of this design

Renaissance that Steve Jobs had and they

described this company to me and the way

of running a company with a design at

the center where like it was a totally

different way of running a company than

everything I was taught everything I was

taught about how you run a company was

opposite of what Steve Jobs and Johnny

Ive and Hiroki did at Apple

so I hired Hiroki Johnny had this firm

we brought him on we became our number

one client and now I have this idea

there's maybe a better rate around

company

but there's still a problem we're going

to go public

so what do we do

all of a sudden

I remember our business drops 80 in

China it's January 2020.

and there was this thing that no one in

the United States was talking about

called covid and I remember thinking wow

if this thing spread Beyond China be

really bad

eight weeks we lost 80 percent of our

business

and when you're our size you lose 80

percent of your business in eight weeks

it's like an 18 wheeler going 80 miles

an hour and then slamming on the brakes

nothing good happens we go from one of

the hottest IPOs in the world to within

eight weeks people running articles like

is this the end of Airbnb will Airbnb

exist eight weeks before we're prepared

to go public

at this point I've never luckily had a

near-death experience but the way it's

been described to me is your life

flashes before your eyes

and that's kind of what happened with

our business our business flash for our

eyes

and at that moment I remember thinking

to myself I don't know what's going to

happen if we can save the company but

how do I want to be remembered if this

Airbnb is like a burning house and I can

only take half the things out of the

house what do I take with me it suddenly

was really clarifying and another thing

happened

I realized that for 10 years I was

apologizing about how I wanted to run

the company because how I really wanted

to run the company was as a designer but

I just didn't have the nerve but the

moment like it was a crucible moment we

did that so what do we do we rebuilt the

company from the ground up we went from

business unit organization to a

functional organization so we had a

design Department a marketing department

engineering department the way every

startup is run

we took all the projects in the company

first of all I asked every leader show

me your roadmap they couldn't even

figure out their road maps because

everyone had a sub road map on sub teams

and those teams had road maps and those

teams had road maps and so I said

there's a simpler rule if it's not in

the road map it can't ship and it must

be on one road map so with this giant

exercise we put every single thing on

one road map then I said we can only do

10 of the things on the road map that

was a wet Reckoning so I said we're only

going to do a few really big things we

took the very best people we put them

all in a few projects and then I said

we're not going to do a B test unless a

B test a b testing is abdicating your

responsibility to the users and so we're

going to do a little bit of

experimentation but if we do a b testing

you're going to only do it if you have a

hypothesis

if B is better than a you have to know

why B was better than a otherwise we're

stuck with that for like the next 10

years and so we are going to focus

number one on shipping things that

you're proud of if you don't put your

name on it you don't ship it the

designers are equal to the product

managers actually we got rid of the

classic product management function

Apple didn't have it either

well let's be careful

hold on we have we we have product

marketers we combined product management

with product marketing and we said that

you can't develop products unless you

know how to talk about the products we

made the team much smaller we elevated

design by the way I started thinking

myself who's the product manager when

you designed a building

the architect

so

we thought of designers very much as

Architects and we started doing these

release Cycles where we'll ship 80

percent of the products twice a year

during these releases and then to be

clear we do do optimizations we do ship

code every single hour of every single

day but that's a budget that's about 20

percent

and this is how we start around the

company

and I started reviewing all the work I

reviewed the work every week every two

weeks every four weeks before people

thought that was meddling and I said you

know what screw it like we're going to

review everything I'm going to be the

chief editor and I didn't push decision

making down I decided to pull decision

making into Orchestra conductor and what

we created was a shared consciousness of

like the top 30 40 people in the company

and it was like one neural network one

brain

so all this is what we're doing while

people say we're going to go out of

business something remarkable happens

not only do we not go out of business

but in the last three years we went from

a company that was Break Even to last

year we did nearly four billion dollars

in free cash flow I think that deserves

a round of applause yeah and

it was like it was totally crazy because

like that is actually more free cash

flow for every dollar earned than Apple

or Google

and the crazy thing is we did that by

not trying to make money

but there's something amazing a designer

can do more than move pixels on a screen

a designer can design a company to have

fewer parts so we were able to State my

competitors are some of them are former

CFOs and yet as a designer we were able

to imagine a way to save more money

because you could design a company with

fewer Parts fewer projects we and so I

think that

you know design is much more than a

department it's a way of thinking about

the world and I think there's a whole

new generation of designers that aren't

just going to work for engineers they're

going to sit alongside Engineers they're

not just going to be told what to do by

product managers they are going to be

helping Drive the product and some of

them are going to choose to drive

companies because ultimately what

everyone wants is to have a product

people love you take a company of The

Head and the Heart and a lot of

companies cut themselves off at the head

and they really focus on one side of the

head but most people are like they don't

think like that they want a product that

is deeply loving and so that's kind of

our story of what we did

I love it thank you

it was it was interesting to hear the

audience reactions you talked because

you're like no way be tested people like

should I applaud limited I don't know we

do a control treatment but like it's not

like we don't well I thought you don't

like responsibility I have a hypothesis

think by first principles and metrics

are not a strategy a strategy is not

growing that's not a strategy yep that's

not a strategy we all want to grow but a

strategy we talk about putting your arms

around the entire company we try to have

one small design team that sees the

entire product and this is critical

because if you have an idea it's like

pulling on a string of a shirt if you

are contained to one surface then you've

got to get the entire company on board

and so that's why I think this

integrated approach is so important so

if you're somebody in the audience yeah

you're an IC designer a design manager

maybe a design leader somewhere and

you're not the founder of the company

uh you're not in a company maybe that

even has a Founder anymore that's no

one's maybe it's a CFO running the

company yeah you know and there's a lot

of great CFOs out there running

companies yeah

how do you push for a design driven

strategy

well

it's a really good question I I think

that um

I've been thinking a lot about this

this something interesting I noticed

lawyers never have to justify their job

like well I'm a CFO doesn't have to

justify like why you need a CFO

and there's very few functions where

people feel like they have to constantly

justify their job and designers seem to

constantly do it designers seem to

constantly justify their job

I think that designers are probably a

little too self-conscious I think the

designers should have a nerve and they

should ask themselves like what are we

trying to solve and be a little less

compromising I don't mean to be

completely difficult inside the company

but I think that design as a function

has probably seated too much ground you

know again in many companies like

Architects don't seem to have this

problem because there's like a thousand

years of History around that field

but we designers a lot of us came late

to the party web designers came after

software designers and a lot of the

great designers stayed in print in other

areas and so these entire functions like

product management got built before a

lot of the design Department came in

make no mistake product managers are

critical but they shouldn't be doing the

job of designer and so I think that it's

really important to really like focus on

a number of principles number one I

would try to make sure if you are going

to do an A B test or experiment it

should be hypothesis driven that if it

works you should be able to say why not

just what I think that Designer should

not be just focused on Services they

should be focused on user flows I think

they should only ship something that

you're proud of don't test something

until after you're happy because

ultimately the artist and you should

first and foremost make something for

yourself and when you love it and you're

proud of it now you're ready to put it

out to somebody else I think that

designers should be trying to simplify

every single thing they do and I used to

think simplifying was removing things in

which Johnny herokid Apple taught me is

that's not what simplifying is about

simplifying is distilling something to

its Essence and to distill something to

its essence you have to deeply

understand it it's physics it's first

principles and then I think there has to

be a sense of craft obsessing over every

single detail and then I think if you're

in an organization you have to use their

language and explain why it benefits

them if people love our products they're

going to want to buy more of them what

is the goal we're trying to do well the

goal goals we need to grow this thing

well why do we need to grow this thing

growth is not a goal growth is just a

direction like like that can't be just

the goal and so these are some of the

things I would do and I would try to

like do it in maybe in as collaborative

a way as possible but like I often tell

our engineers

the best thing for you is to pair you

with design because otherwise it's like

running and one of your legs is shorter

than the other you're not going to go

very fast and so the best thing for

engineers and the best thing for PMS is

to pair them with great design from the

beginning because a lot of companies

design has become a service organization

design should not be a service

organization unless that is explicitly

the intention of the CEO and that means

it's not your job to catch things to

stop them before it goes out it means

it's your job to work from the very

beginning that design challenges

technology and Technology inspires art

it's not more important than technology

it's a perfect harmony from the very

beginning and I think just figuring in a

way to tell the story and helping people

understand that you benefit from me

one of the things that

[Applause]

something that I find truly impressive

about Airbnb is how far ahead you think

and I know that right now you're while

we're probably sitting here

some part of your brain is on okay what

is Airbnb doing in six months 12 months

18 months two years yeah

and I think it's really interesting how

the marketing messages that you have

informed the roadmap and inform the

design

can you break down more for us

the way that you see marketing design

products and Engineering all working

together in harmony exactly so the first

thing is we try to have a road map and I

Am The Keeper of the roadmap is CEO and

I think generally usually the CEO should

be The Keeper of the roadmap our roadmap

is typically about three years out but

it's very fuzzy it's like those video

games where it gets fuzzier the further

over the horizon but I have a pretty

good idea of what we're shipping between

now and next November so we'll have a

release in November we'll release next

April next November and I have a pretty

clear picture and then about two years

out it gets pretty fuzzy now to be clear

it changes and I update the roadmap

every single week now the long-term

roadmap the near term is hopefully not

changing that's churn but the long term

is constantly changing

and okay let's start with this that you

can measure the Health Organization by

the relation between marketers and

engineers

and in most companies marketers are like

waiters and Engineers like chefs if the

waiter goes in the kitchen the chef

yells at them and that is not a great

relationship so the first thing is that

we actually like to start a lot of

product development not just with design

but with marketing because our marketers

we want to actually have a vision and

figure out how they can tell a story

then product marketing again product

marketing is product management plus

outbound marketing it's a smaller

function it's a extremely influential

function they will work with the

designers and us to establish like what

is this project what are the goals what

are we trying to solve then um you know

we often will like try to present

something against the most native form

so if it's going to be a keynote we'll

start with a keynote then we um you know

we go through like a long like depends

on the the roadmap a really long concept

development so like let's say we

launched this product Airbnb rooms

we noticed the original Airbnb was

really slowing in growth and we wanted

to figure out how to revive it and so it

often starts at insight and the Insight

was people are nervous staying in the

homes of other people they don't want to

stay in the same home

as we started realizing wait a second

our listing the person is like

non-existent because we've been

optimizing entire home so we're having

this conversation and we're

brainstorming and that's when we had an

Insight we said what if we elevated the

profile on Airbnb and so then what we

tried to do is we have historical

references we always try to combine data

and research they're equally important

in research not just means the user but

historical references and what is a

historical reference of a profile with

travel it's a passport so we said what

if we make the equivalent of a host

passport for every single host

so then we started doing research on the

kind of attributes you would want to

know to stay with somebody then we

started looking at design language for

how you can create an animation I love

design language systems but the problem

with design language systems is you

should design whatever you want and you

put it in the design language system if

you can only pull from the system you're

never going to be able to take a giant

leap if it is breaks the system and so

there was there were this new animations

we had that opened and closed the

passport but then we started noticing

that people had bad photos so then we

built an operation to take headshots of

40 000 people

if you were a designer in a corner of an

app it'd be hard to convince the

marketing department to spend money to

take photos but when you're integrated

you can start to do this and so these

were the things we were able to start

doing and then we started thinking about

how can you tell the story so we start

thinking about what a marketing campaign

could be to elevate this product because

a lot of products fail because they're

not well marketed if you ship a feature

and no one knows did it really matter

and so a lot of times people give up in

features too soon they ship something

the data says it doesn't work they kill

the feature well did you tell people

about it do they know about it and so

this is kind of a little bit of the life

cycle of how we do it and then once we

ship we unders we try to study how

people are using it we do look at data

we do sometimes do treatments and

controls but again they're always

hypothesis driven

and

I think we can all agree that designers

should be talking with users and

customers yeah

of course then the line starts to blur

when you're really trying to find design

versus product management yes versus

research and how do you much should

design go into product or research in

the situations

let me let me I think that I think that

um we so way we organize it we try to go

really deep with experts so not only do

we have a design function but we have a

workshop group of a few dozen people

that are trying to cover the entire app

we have a studio that is going through a

lot of the like specific implementations

we have like people who focus on haptics

people focus on animation I want to have

people focus on typography and color you

know we put user ux writing under

marketing because marketers historically

are more writers they have more of a

writing background so we really try to

align everything to the functional

expertise and let me tell you a quick

story about how we improve the product

so we recently created this thing we

call the airme blueprint and I was

inspired by something Walt Disney did in

the 1930s he was making this movie

called Snow White it was the first

feature-length animated film and it was

so long he couldn't keep track of the

film so he created this thing called the

storyboard and that's when we realized

what if we do the same thing Airbnb what

if we created a storyboard so we

storyboarded the end-to-end journey for

guess and hose

then why ask the team every single

screen a user sees put it on one wall it

turns out there's 150 screens then I

said every user policy every time you

call customer service what policy

referencing it turns out there were

nearly 70 user policies some of these

are all 700 pages each we map those out

then I asked them to map out every

single operational touch point we map

those out this was really arduous we

call this wrapping your arms around the

company and then we went through like 20

million customer service calls we went

through hundreds of thousand social

media posts tons of workshops and even

our first hand experience again we

believe people make radic products make

products for themselves and based on

that we created a prioritized map and

systematically tried to fix our product

and I was like really focused on I used

to tell a team we can't do new things

unless we have permission and we don't

have permission working on new things

until people love our course service and

if they're complaining on social media

and they're calling customer service

they don't love our core service so we

have to get our house in order first and

so so that's kind of what we did but I

really try to focus on some pretty deep

functional expertise and I I guess like

I would also just be useful like

wherever there's a hole you can fill it

so it's almost like uh talking with

customers isn't enough you really have

to get that bird's eye view of your

entire experience I think so otherwise

how can you do research and I think you

should be systematic about how to talk

to customers like you should talk to

customers you look at the data you

should understand them you should be

using the product yourself becoming the

user in all this is like your intuition

I think being a designer is like holding

5 000 ideas in your head some of them

contradictory and we tend to call this

intuition and we get really nervous

because it seems somehow not systematic

but I actually think a lot of great

design comes from deep understanding of

a problem and so you're trying to absorb

as much information as possible

before we end

I'm sure that there's a bunch of people

in this audience who are inspired by

your story

and are thinking maybe I should go start

something

what advice do you have for them

well I'll just go back to wristy

why does design need to be in boardroom

when it can occasionally run the

boardroom why aren't there at least a

few more designers running Fortune 500

companies

I don't have an answer for that

but I do know a couple things

I think of myself maybe as a designer

but I'm not a designer the way most of

you are but a designed our business

model I designed our expense base I

helped designer organizational chart our

business how we work our story I think

that design is not just how something

learns it's how it's fundamentally works

and I think it is one of the most

important skills that we're going to

need in the 21st century you ever see

like there's two bad options and you're

not trying to pick between two-bit

options sometimes the right path is the

third path and that third path requires

creativity I think that a lot of

business needs more heart and more

imagination and that is what everyone

this room can provide and so I would

just encourage designers to have a Nerf

I would encourage them to know that you

can design the world that you want to

live in and I just want to encourage as

many people as possible whether it is

just

not asking permission for how you want

to run your company for how you want to

do your job speaking up about what you

believe in if you're running a design

Department try to make sure that the

entire company is bracing your phosphate

or at least have a conversation and also

just know that designers can run

companies they can build things they can

ship things and ultimately you know when

I join y combinator Paul Graham said

make something people want well who

knows what people want as well as

designers not many other people I think

that is a core value that we have to the

world and I I just think more designers

should rise up and start companies

foreign

I can't wait to see all the change that

this room will bring and Brian I can't

thank you enough thank you please join

me in giving him a great Round of

Applause

[Applause]

[Music]