Kate Aronowitz, Lead Operations Partner, GV; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Design
Kristen Bellstrom, Executive Editor, FORTUNE; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Design
Jason Mayden, Designer; Co-founder and CEO, Trillicon Valley; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Design
Brian O’Keefe, Senior Executive Editor, FORTUNE; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Design


Brainstorm Design 2022 - Setting the Stage Embracing Radical Transformation

Conferences

Kate Aronowitz, GV;  
Kristen Bellstrom, FORTUNE;  
Jason Mayden, Trillicon Valley; 
Brian O’Keefe, FORTUNE; 

Brainstorm Design 2022 - Welcome


Kate Aronowitz, GV; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Design
Kristen Bellstrom, FORTUNE; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Design
Jason Mayden, Trillicon Valley; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Design
Brian O’Keefe, FORTUNE; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Design

Kate Aronowitz, Lead Operations Partner, GV; 
Kristen Bellstrom, Executive Editor, FORTUNE; 
Jason Mayden, Co-founder and CEO, Trillicon Valley; 
Brian O’Keefe, Senior Executive Editor, FORTUNE; 


Brainstorm Design 2022 - Setting the Stage Embracing Radical Transformation


All right. It's great to see everybody. Hello and welcome to brainstorm design new york 2022 welcome to Brooklyn. The county of Kings. All right teddy give it up for Brooklyn. All right. It's great to see everybody here in person in my home borough and uh in one of new york's most designed forward hotels, I hope you'll have a chance to explore the building and the rooftop terrace that looks out over the Brooklyn bridge, if you haven't already. The hotel features several Brooklyn based artists and designers with work ranging from furniture to sculpture. Also, if you haven't been out there yet, the river park out here, none of that was there when I moved to Brooklyn. It's a great example of urban design. And if you go out there and look at the Brooklyn bridge and look at Manhattan, you might just be able to see the fortune offices or at least are building over there because it's right over there. Yeah, so you're really in our home turf and we're happy to have you here as we emerged slowly from the pandemic. We're we're getting there uh, fits and starts, but I think we all can appreciate how much gathering and meeting in person, really supports our emotional well being and we really want to thank you for joining us in making this happen. The turmoil over the past couple of years has tested our resilience. I think we can all agree on that as individuals, employees, citizens, the global pandemic social and political unrest. The increasingly apparent effects of climate change have all exposed vulnerabilities in our economy and society. It's also presented opportunities to apply design thinking to transform the nature of the products and services that we consume and that we make how and where we work our social structures, even our government. So over the next two days, we're going to hear from leading practitioners across the design spectrum, from private and social sector, as well as academia, we will explore how design thinking can catalyze radical business transformation and spurred the development of more inclusive organizations and cultures. Among the themes, we'll explore our work, reimagined talent, redefined digital ships, creating equity and building resilience. This afternoon, we'll talk to walmart's Chief design officer Valerie Casey about how the world's largest private sector employer is re fashioning operations to reach ambitious environmental goals. And speaking of walmart, I have to point out Fortune just today, has released the 68th edition of the Fortune 500 walmart once again is number one on the list. So congrats to walmart, Go check out number two through 500 to see the rest of us online, We need all the page views we can get uh later today we're going to explore the crucial role of design and building resilience with john Maeda, Chief technology Officer Ever bridge. We'll discuss how designed for social impact can expand health equity in a conversation with Krista Donaldson ceo of equalize health and Antoinette carroll. The founder of Creative Action Lab will share how we can design with greater humility but before we kick off a little bit of housekeeping, I want to just remind you about our reporting and social media rules, what is set up here on stage or in the breakout sessions is on the record, but what set over the table when you're just hanging out or over a meal or it breaks is private unless it's agreed upon by all the parties involved. So now we want to offer a tremendous thank you to our presenting partners, Salesforce and IBM for working to bring us all together here today, we really appreciate your contributions in advancing the idea of design and the design process is essential to business and to helping us bring brainstorm design to life. This has been a road to get here, little covid bumps in the road, but we're all here chuckling from those, you know, I'd also like to take a moment to acknowledge some of my fortune colleagues who will help lead the conversations here at brainstorm design. Fortune Media Ceo, Allen, Murray, Fortune leadership editor, Ruth Omo and Fortune, senior writer Phil Wahba. We look forward to your energy and insights over the next two days and of course these discussions would not be possible without the tireless work of our entire programming team and of the co chairs of the conference, Jason maiden designer Ceo and co founder Silicon Valley kate Aronowitz Lead operations partner google ventures and kristen Bell strum Fortune Executive editor. So a huge thank you to all of our co chairs and with that I'd like to welcome Jason kate and Kristen to the stage to get us started. Hey guys, how are we all feeling? Very cool. I'm sensing a lot of good energy in the room. Um, okay, we have this great program ahead of us that we've all been working on for months, months and months and I know we're all excited about a lot of different aspects of it, but I just thought we could share for the group before we dive into some of the conversations, some of our expectations, some of what's, you know, grabbing our attention what we're excited about and, and kate, I'm going to start with you. What are you? I'm curious what you're most excited about of all the things that we've that we've talked about, What are you looking forward to seeing over the next couple of days. Um, I was thinking as I was going to sleep last night, I had that giddy feeling that felt like when I was 13, going away to summer camp ready to like see all my friends I hadn't seen in a year, so I'm just happy to be together and being together To me, it means just meaningful conversations, all the conversations we've missed out on the past two years. Um we're gonna tackle really meaty topics up here. Um, but there's also gonna be really great conversations out there as well that I think are gonna be just as meaningful if not more than what's happening up here. So whatever is keeping you up at night, I hope you leave and Wednesday morning, You feel like energized, inspired and supported by a room of 200 people to tackle whatever is going on. So thank you for coming and it's just really exciting to be here awesome. Yeah, I feel that excitement to Jason. We've had so many conversations really kind of deep conversations actually over the last several months about kind of like this moment for design, but also how it connects to like kind of this moment for all of us as people and as a society, I'm just, I'd love to hear what you're thinking as we actually kick this off. Like why is this, why does this feel like a monumental moment and you know what is really kind of resonating for you? Yeah, I think for me this moment is special simply because design is not viewed in this instance as a service to a functional organization. It's actually in service of humanity. So the power and potential of our collective brilliance in this room unleashed across multiple sectors, we actually can move society forward. Typically designers looked at for its aesthetic prowess or its narrative, but now we're sitting in this room with intention and intelligence and then the capacity and agency to do something about it because each of you are leaders and designers in your own right. But we've never had a convergence of people that are being charged at this moment to think about problems that they may not experience themselves. So I just fundamentally believe that design can save the world, it can change the world, it can create new worlds and it's just how we see our social contracts with reality. And the great thing about creative people is we use imagination so we can make the world whatever we want to be, call it, make believe, pretend to be a kid, um have fun, meet new people and just enjoy each other's company because at the end of the day, we're properly present right now and this is the only moment we have. So if you can't take something from this, you can't feel some sense of purpose. Then I'm like, man, we failed beautifully sad. Uh so kristen you and I are not designers. No, unfortunately, we just like to hang out with designers. Um but we and we like to write about designers and and the role of design and business and just from that perspective, I'm curious, you know how you assess sort of this moment for? I mean this is something that we've written about and talked about a lot like where is designed in the business world. Uh you know, what is the evolution and and where are we coming out especially of this extraordinary, You know, 24 months or so where everybody has reconsidered how everything works. Well, I feel like this is a real moment for design and designers to shine. Um, we've seen companies including big companies rethinking things that, you know, if you talk to them 5, 10 years ago, they said we could never do, could never all be remote, We could never do x. We could never do why we could never do see. Um but now I feel like there's a door has opened that says, you know what, actually everything is up for grabs and we can really reinvent so much of how we work, um, how we engage with our communities, what our business is going to look like in the future. And I feel like there's a real openness in the business community to turn to, you know, designers and design thinkers to try to figure out the way forward. Great, okay, so we don't want to just listen to ourselves talk and share our own thoughts because we've been talking a lot uh, planning this thing, but we want to get you involved right away and hear what you're thinking. Um, and we have a little opening gamut to do that. So, um, for everyone here in the room and the online intend these attendees, we want to know what you think. So we are going to break the ice a little bit with a design pulse, a couple of questions we've prepared for you. We would love to get your responses and we're going to talk about it. We're gonna we're gonna view it in real time, your responses will remain remain anonymous. So I want everybody to participate if you feel like it. Um Now let's talk about how we're going to do it because there's uh there's a little bit of technology involved here. So yeah technology. Um So first you're gonna go to slide 0.com get your smart phones out of your laptop or your tablet or whatever slide oh dot com S. L. I. D. O dot com and you enter the event code design 22 that's all one word where you can scan the QR code on the screen and it'll take you right to the slide oh page show of hands is everybody kind of finding slide oh do you need a minute. A lot of people look intent like they're figuring it out. Okay, this is good. I feel like we have we're ready for the questions. Okay. So once I asked the first question, You'll have 30 seconds to choose an answer ready. Okay. Here's the first question which of these business challenges will have the greatest impact or influence on your work this year. Pick one a talent hiring and retaining great designers, the collaboration finding ways to work effectively and productively in hybrid and other environments. C global economic shifts, supply supply chain disruptions, geopolitical tensions, consumer trends etcetera. Okay, what would you say? Um I would say hiring and retaining and I think it's specifically actually retaining um hiring in many ways it's gotten easier because we've got access to more workforce. Um but I'm seeing people hop around a lot. It's it's hard for people to kind of grab and and retain people and and keep them attached to an organ. I think you're influencing the answers in real time because I don't think I know a secret, I will say after the last couple of days collaboration, we've been closing a magazine issue and uh you know, we figure it out, we've all figured it out, but sometimes you just want to go over and talk to somebody and not set up the zoom conversation. Okay, so I think we've reached the final tally, it just moved a little bit but kate was right on talent, I mean talent has been such a big conversation for at least a year now for for all kinds of companies not just design, but I mean what do you have a take on that? Jason? The talent environment out there especially as it relates to design. Yeah, I think for the first time the incentive structures that are typically used to attract corporate talent for creatives into structures are no longer attractive because people are making a trade off and they're using more discernment of where they want to spend their time and so when you give of yourself as a creative, it is a very taxing experience. It's hard to separate how you feel from what you work on. And so when people are faced with the decision of seeing society collapsing, seeing their family being affected by a pandemic, having to make real decisions around how to actually, you know, have a life that's enjoyable and being more present, um companies have to account for that because people are now looking at you know, not only their personal well being, but also how are they going to contribute to something bigger than just the P. And L. Right. And so I think companies are gonna have to find a very unique way to incentivize creative talent to stay into remain engaged because they want to deploy their skill set in different ways across the world. Yeah. And that challenge I think is woven into some of our conversations these next couple of days and it's not easy. I mean even if you wanna keep your employees happy, it's hard to figure out, you know, especially large company, large organization, a lot of different perspectives, you know, it's tough. All right, let's go to the second question. Here we go, what best describes the ethos of your whole organization or company? A design lead Design has a seat firmly planted at the table and is helping drive strategy at your company be designed in process designed as a consideration, but it's not living up to its potential as a strategic differentiator, See design curious interested in the potential of design but unsure of how to implement it. Alright. Go see where we go. Oh look at that. Mhm. Mhm. Nobody wants to admit to being designed, curious. They're here, they're here. They have both feet planted and design. Mhm wow. Okay so design led narrowly edges out design and process. I mean that is a tight race. Um What do you think? I mean that's I mean we're a design conference so we'd like to have a lot of design led people but um I think it's interesting that there's a lot of design and production process folks here too, which I think speaks also to our bigger themes about you know this greater appreciation of design. You work with so many different types of companies. What are you seeing in relation to that? Yeah. Well it's funny my initial reaction to that. I would never say design lead. I'm too paranoid like the design is always in process like like once you think you're ahead you're not um I I get to work with a lot of design curious companies but I have to say the curiosity is real, it's not about how can my you know app look better, it's how can I meaningfully connect with my customers, how can I bring something differentiated product to market and they want real design talented house. This isn't like you know the first engineer hired their friend to do design. This is they're coming to us with really interesting jobs, interesting problems and they want design at the table in a way that I haven't seen before in a way that really gives meaning to it. Um so that's exciting. But back to the first slide, there aren't enough people to take those roles. That's the challenge. We get startups, really excited about design, they're like I'm ready and they're like no one for you. So um it all kind of comes back on each other Jason, what do you how do you advise people or just consult with them on their, you know if they're in organizations on its journey from design curious to design and process to you know, hopefully design lead. You know what what's the advice? I would say the first piece of advice I would give a company that's trending in that direction is that design is not at the end of the process is at the beginning and so our job is to ask the biggest question, but most people think our job is to provide just a singular solution. And the reason why question asking is important is because before you initiate design, do you even know how to treat your employees well? Because the first thing you're designing is the culture of your company. The first product comes from that right? And so it organizationally holds up a mirror to itself and says, are we poised to not only bring design in but then deployed across our own workforce and then into the market. So that would be the first question I would say is how are you treating each other internally? Because that is a design challenge because you can hire us as a function, we can make beautiful things, but if employees are still miserable, it's like did we really solve the problem that we actually intended to solve so? And then secondarily, um just remaining curious and as kate mentioned, you know, understanding that designers ever changing, you can't just say, I'm gonna get a designer and it fixes everything you have to be open to evolving with us because we're learning with new capabilities, new data and new insights. So it's a very fluid career path for a lot of us and I think organizations have a hard time with creatives who can move across multiple verticals at one time. So you work with a lot of young companies startups, right? And you, you said like they're, they're eager yes, design, you persuaded us. We love it now if you can find designers, but what's the friction when they actually get folks in and they start asking those questions is that a common like, you know, first stumbling point for them to get used to the process. I mean we're lucky in that um, if we have a meaningful conversation with the founder, it's early and we really do a lot of back work to make sure that they're truly ready to have design at the table. So, um, again, I think it's to your point, if you can get them in early, I think that they understand they're there to ask big questions. Like our first question to all of our startup founders, we don't ask a design question. We ask a narrow question in a narrow answer back, we just say what keeps you up at night, and then we start exploring really big questions from there. And if designs the answer, we like to help them find it. Um, and if it's not, you know, we we move on, but mostly they are all designed problems at the end of the day, we find our way. Alright, well, thanks gang, thanks to everybody in the audience for playing along with our two questions. I think this has been a really stimulating way to kick things off. I'm excited. And uh, I think without further ado we are going to dive right into our program. Let's go, all right, all right, take it away, chris