Key Takeaways from “Leading through uncertainty: A design-led company — Brian Chesky (Config 2023)”
TL;DR
Company Structure: Brian restructured the company to include design department.
Design-Driven Strategy: Designers will sit alongside engineers in driving products.
Business Growth: Airbnb thrived under Brians leadership despite pandemic.
Leadership Style: Brian made designers equal partners with product managers.
Designers’ role in the company: Designers should solve problems confidently and collaborate with engineers.
Airbnb’s roadmap: Airbnb CEO keeps a flexible three-year roadmap.
Collaboration between marketing, design, products & engineering: Collaboration between departments is essential for product development success at Airbnb.
Elevating Product through Marketing Campaign: Marketing is crucial for product success.
Organizing Design Function: Design function is organized into different groups.
Creating Airbnb Blueprint: “Airb Blueprint” helped prioritize improvements systematically.
Importance of Deep Understanding in Design: “Great design comes from deep understanding of problems.”
Role of Designers in Business World: “Designers can run companies as they possess skills like creativity and imagination.”
Topics in details
Company Structure
Brian realized that the company was organized in a conventional way despite his design training. He noticed that companies are usually run by engineers, marketers, finance people, and operators but not designers or head of HR. Therefore, he decided to rebuild the company from scratch and went from business unit organization to functional organization with a design department, marketing department and engineering department.
P.S.: A functional organization is like a company that is divided into different teams, each with its own special skill. For example, there might be a team of experts in making cars, a team of experts in selling cars, and a team of experts in fixing cars. This way, each team can focus on what they do best, and the company can make and sell cars more efficiently.
Design-Driven Strategy
Brian believes that design is much more than just a department; it’s a way of thinking about the world. He thinks there’s going to be a whole new generation of designers who will sit alongside engineers instead of working for them and help drive products rather than being told what to do by product managers. According to him metrics are not strategy; strategy is putting your arms around the entire company.
Business Growth
Despite losing 80% of their business within eight weeks due to COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 when they were preparing for IPOs Airbnb managed not only survive but also thrive under Brian’s leadership as CEO with nearly $4 billion free cash flow last year which is more free cash flow per dollar earned than Apple or Google achieved during this period.
Leadership Style
Brian reviewed all work every week before people thought it was meddling because he wanted everything on one roadmap so everyone could focus on shipping things they were proud of while doing fewer projects with fewer parts which helped save money without trying too hard. He elevated design by making designers equal partners with product managers while combining product management with product marketing function like Apple did.
Designers’ role in the company
Brian discussed how designers are constantly justifying their job and should focus on solving problems rather than compromising. He emphasized that designers should be more self-confident and not cede too much ground to other functions like product management. He also suggested that designers should simplify everything they do, obsess over every detail, and work collaboratively with engineers from the beginning.
Airbnb’s roadmap
The host praised Airbnb for its forward-thinking approach, which prompted Brian to discuss how he keeps a three-year roadmap as CEO of the company. He explained that it is updated weekly but becomes fuzzier two years out from now.
Collaboration between marketing, design, products & engineering
According to Brian, marketers and engineers have a strained relationship in most companies where marketers are like waiters while engineers are chefs who yell at them when they enter the kitchen; however, at Airbnb collaboration between these departments is essential for product development success. They start with marketing vision before moving on to concept development using data research combined with historical references such as passports for hosts’ profiles when launching new products like “Airbnb Rooms”.
Elevating Product through Marketing Campaign
Brian discussed how a lot of products fail because they are not well marketed. He emphasized the importance of telling people about new features and understanding how people use them. The team tries to study user behavior after shipping a feature and uses hypothesis-driven treatments and controls.
Organizing Design Function
Brian explained that their design function is organized into different groups, including a workshop group, studio, haptics team, animation team, typography team, color team etc. They also put UX writing under marketing because marketers have more writing background.
Creating Airbnb Blueprint
Brian shared the story of creating an end-to-end journey storyboard for guests and hosts at Airbnb called “Airbnb Blueprint.” The process involved mapping out every single screen users see (150 screens), every user policy (70 policies), operational touchpoints etc., which helped them prioritize improvements systematically.
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Importance of Deep Understanding in Design
According to Brian, great design comes from deep understanding of problems. He encouraged designers to be systematic about talking to customers by looking at data and using the product themselves while becoming the user. Being a designer means holding thousands of ideas in your head simultaneously.
Role of Designers in Business World
Brian believes that designers can run companies as they possess skills like creativity and imagination that businesses need today more than ever before. He encouraged designers to speak up about what they believe in while running their departments or companies without asking permission from others who may not understand their vision fully yet.
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