About Intuition & Process: The Courage to Design - Bob Baxley
Bob Baxley on a question he asked at a design dinner ten years ago, the answer he got, and why it still bothers him.
He has led design at Apple, Pinterest, Yahoo and ThoughtSpot. This talk is not a career retrospective. It is an argument that design sits at the far end of the spectrum of unstructured problems, and that the instinct to wrap it in process is an attempt to tame something that should stay wild.
Courage, he argues, is not a thing you decide to have. It is made of three things you can practise. Each one comes with a story from inside those companies, including what changed when his team started designing in public, and the three lines his team drew that are still being used two years after he left.
For design leaders, heads of design and anyone who has struggled to explain what design is to the rest of their company.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Bob Baxley is an author and executive consultant. He has built and led design teams at Apple, Pinterest, Yahoo and ThoughtSpot, shaping products used by hundreds of millions of people.
ABOUT HATCH CONFERENCE
Hatch is the premier conference for experienced designers and UXers in Europe. 600+ designers gathered at Silent Green in Berlin from 16 to 18 September 2026. The 2027 edition takes place 15 to 17 September at Tempelhof Airport. Attendance is by invitation.
Apply for an invite: https://hatchconference.com/invite?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=hatch2027
#DesignLeadership #ProductDesign #DesignCareers
He has led design at Apple, Pinterest, Yahoo and ThoughtSpot. This talk is not a career retrospective. It is an argument that design sits at the far end of the spectrum of unstructured problems, and that the instinct to wrap it in process is an attempt to tame something that should stay wild.
Courage, he argues, is not a thing you decide to have. It is made of three things you can practise. Each one comes with a story from inside those companies, including what changed when his team started designing in public, and the three lines his team drew that are still being used two years after he left.
For design leaders, heads of design and anyone who has struggled to explain what design is to the rest of their company.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Bob Baxley is an author and executive consultant. He has built and led design teams at Apple, Pinterest, Yahoo and ThoughtSpot, shaping products used by hundreds of millions of people.
ABOUT HATCH CONFERENCE
Hatch is the premier conference for experienced designers and UXers in Europe. 600+ designers gathered at Silent Green in Berlin from 16 to 18 September 2026. The 2027 edition takes place 15 to 17 September at Tempelhof Airport. Attendance is by invitation.
Apply for an invite: https://hatchconference.com/invite?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=hatch2027
#DesignLeadership #ProductDesign #DesignCareers