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

Steve Jobs totally had a different approach to running a company. LIterally nobody can do what he did, or dare I say, has the courage to do what he did.

Brian talks about becoming design driven since 2020 but I'm looking at airbnb and I'm still not quite sure how dramatically its changed? Can anyone give a video/breakdown about how how airbnb has changed? Fundamentally it seems pretty identical to pre-covid airbnb but that's just me.

"make something people want!"

Dude needs a towel and take a breathe lol

Too bad his designs are optimized around eviscerating global communities of locals and local businesses - the very things that make tourists want to go there in the first place.

Designers should rule the world. A designer can interpret people's wants, use first-level principles, and give them unexpected improvements they need.

I'm here after @tabaghe16 episode 99 podcast!

Sir brian what happen to your Airbnb we invest and our income is always processing,we never get the money we invested tsk a waste of money indeed

this
guy
zo0nked

Wow - thanks for giving us the permission to start companies, and also, giving us the permission to not ask for permission...

Why the shouting though?

The interviewer deserves praise, such an active and enthusiastic listener!

"[...] at least, have a conversation."

Take that phrase in. Start from there.

good talk.

The greatest ceo designer was Steve Jobs.
Airbnb would be beter off without any ceo, and be fully decentralized.
I miss any significant design or innovation in the talk. Just routine business operations optimization requires smart people but do not call it design if you push marketing in all the holes. That is how IBM failed.

His ideas about the role of design, product management and testing are great, but depressingly not new. It frustrates me why those ideas didn't take hold from at least about 2008 when I know they were being discussed pretty widely in the design community.

Brian Chesky trying to be Steve Jobs. How original

Laughable interviewing by a pathetically weak presenter who nodded and smiled along. Cringeworthy hearing him asking for applauses. Zero difficult questions about how you engender commercial nous into design teams - at end of the day, to use Chesky's own phrase, "architects" don't build houses. Engineers and builders do actually. Architects bring vision and left to their own devices and without input of others, typically go way over budget on houses!
Chesky has made many mistakes at Airbnb - including Airbnb Experiences. I'd have welcomed a much tougher interview.

I like how this is putting design principles at the heart of building a great product. And for me this is by no means a talk about making the other functions (product, engineering, marketing) less valuable. Even though in some product circles it's being discussed that way.

Thanks for the sharing, it's very inspiring! You know our struggles but also believe in what we are capable of. It's so empowering!

Brian brought me an exciting story about design and business. I saw his determined gaze and confident discourse, and I am grateful！🤝

Muy inspirador. Realmente el testimonio de Brian es emocionante.

Muito inspirador

Man this guy is powerfully driven with a dead soul.

AirBnB is setting stones for next century’s new operating model for D2C businesses.

good talk

What an inspirational talk!

OH WOW ANOTHER REALITY AFTER GIRLS LOVE BILLIE EILISH AND TINDER IS .....

As someone who has designed and worked in Product, everything he said just sounds like a singular thing - clarity of purpose 💯

Thus, a role of a product evolves more to a strategic thinking rather than to controlling requirements engineering process. Hello from Almaty!

Legend 😭 So so inspiring

🔥🔥

Empowered Product Team > Feature Team

IME, product designers that think and present themselves as Chesky describes aren't downplayed. The problem is that most think in terms of surfaces, aesthetics, and animations and communicate in those terms. That's all good stuff, but only in service of the over-arching flows and experiences that both the business and user needs for success.

We need more product managers with a design background. When I joined FB in 2015, there were only 4 including myself out of ~100.

As a product manager myself, I tell my team of engineers “you’re not simply just writing code, you’re a product engineer, and you should develop product sense along the way”.

Brian is such a great story teller. He’s a great speaker

Brilliant Talk

I needed this, having recently been in a meeting where the CTO said in front of everyone "you can make it look pretty". We need a swear jar for every time this is said.

Thank you for this interview/vid - it has reignited the passion to design great things!

Bests!

How you run a company is with Design Thinking that is at its center that perpetrates a company wide clulture of Unconstrained Thinking. How you run the development of Products and Services is with Design that addresses the elimination of constraints. They push each other to Simplify, Modernize and Disrupt in a Continuum. Mr. Brian Chesky, you may be famous but you are not right. We need a right narrative to turn this planet around from the precipice of a self implosion and narratives from stars like you is not helping the cause.

thank you brain opening a designer mind.

Brian sure knows how to stroke an ego - what a slimy guy.

"More designers should rise up and start a company" - Loved the talk!

Such an incredible chat with a marketplace GOAT!

I guess this doesn't apply to companies that build APIs/EDIs.

Most designers are focused on UI/UX and not work/user flows.

Be told a lot of the truth about design , the thinking, really appreciate it!

Really appreciated this talk. I will be sure to revisit this several times because there was so much gems.

Thank you!!

I enjoyed this.

What about working with sales?