Design as a Medium: The Art of
Building for Billions

Bob Baxley

Designer, Executive & Advisor
(Apple, Pinterest, Yahoo, ThoughtSpot)

DESIGN LEADER

Core Definition

Design is Clear Thinking Made Visible

"Design is trying to imagine the future you want to live in and then take the steps to make it real. It's living with a certain type of intentionality."

Design is a holistic mindset, not just visual expression
Most people confuse design with the output (a designer, a team)
Design thinking = imagining a future state and navigating toward it
Intentional worldmaking, different from science or engineering

The Obligation

Your Moral Duty: Hundreds of Millions of Interactions

Scale of impact: Modern humans have hundreds of interactions with software daily, most not great
The responsibility: Product makers must return emotional energy to people's lives
The visibility problem: You never see the actual human impact of your work
The antidote: Go watch software being used in the wild, not your own product

Bob's reality check

Billions of people interact with software you've made. You'll never see them. You have an obligation to remember that.

How to develop taste

Watch self-checkout at Target. Watch checkout on eBay, Amazon, Williams-Sonoma. Watch elderly people try chip cards. Watch people's home screens. This is how you build intuition.

Culture Migration

The Apple Car Wash: How to Change Companies Successfully

The mistake: Leaving Apple on Friday, starting at Pinterest on Monday. Zero recalibration time.
The lesson: Every strong culture (Apple, Google, Facebook) deeply indoctrinates you
The paradox: Companies hire you FOR your old culture's values, but NOT its behaviors
The fix: Hold the values, but translate the behaviors to fit your new culture's norms

At Pinterest

Bounced off the culture. Came in "fighting hard" (Apple style). Pinterest's culture was different, posters everywhere said "say the hard thing." Cultural mismatch, not failure.

At ThoughtSpot

Founder Ajeet Singh deeply valued design from day one (exposure to IDEO early in career). Shared values, aligned culture. Success came from cultural fit, not just talent.

Founder DNA

Design Must Be in the Root DNA

Never seen a company graft design on after founding, doesn't work
Design-led companies have it from day one in their foundational values
Apple, Airbnb do it. Google, Amazon don't, that's fine, different competition
When interviewing: ask the founder for the story of WHY they believe in design
A credible origin story is your signal that design can thrive here

The hiring questionWhy would you work somewhere that doesn't value the thing you do? Get air cover from the top. Ask for the design story.

Contrarian

What Bob Sees Differently About Software

✗Design is cosmetic polish on a productINSTEAD →✓ Design is a medium, like film, music, books. Software creates emotional experiences. The medium is what we're crafting.

✗You grow as fast as your company growsINSTEAD →✓ People get outgrown by their roles. Most people fall off the branch. Growth is hard; staying balanced is harder.

✗You must watch YOUR users to understand UXINSTEAD →✓ Watch OTHER software being used. You have bias when watching your own. See patterns across products; transfer intuition.

✗Build metrics to understand user behaviorINSTEAD →✓ Metrics are like raw telescope data. Go outside and look at the night sky. Watch humans actually use software in the wild.

Based on Bob Baxley's episode on Lenny's Podcast. All ideas on this page are from the episode.Watch on YouTube

GO DEEPER IN THE EPISODE

03:52 Apple's lasting culture 06:15 Navigating unique company cultures 13:19 Finding a company that truly values your role 15:46 What is design?17:17 How to help founders understand the value of design 23:08 How to align product managers and designers 26:31 Design reporting to engineering 30:54 Integrating engineers early in the design process 33:43 The maker mindset 35:14 Challenging the assumption that design is time-intensive 38:04 Design tenets vs. design principles 45:25 The moral obligation of great design 51:48 Understanding software as a medium 01:01:20 Reducing ambiguity for product teams 01:07:04 Giving designers space for creativity 01:08:48 The "primal mark" concept 01:12:05 AI prototyping tools: benefits and risks 01:17:00 AI as a life coach 01:21:22 Life lessons from the Apollo program 01:28:24 Lightning round and final thoughts

Every sketch here began as a transcript.

Send us yours and we’ll draw it. $1 a transcript.

Sketch mine →

0:00