WHY DESIGN?

Why you are getting rejected even before the Interview - A Why Design Guide on Getting Hired

What if the CV you keep polishing for the fourth time is the reason you're not getting hired? Eight guests: from a Brompton CEO to a first-time founder, all landed their roles a different way than the job board suggests. Not one of them talks about the perfect CV. They talk about the novice's mindset that got them in the door, the adjacent title they applied for anyway, the portfolio habit that decides a candidate's fate before anyone reads a word, and the ten-year-old question that tells you whether you're even chasing the right career. This short compilation strips out all the usual advice about formatting your CV and keyword-matching a job spec, and replaces it with eight much harder, much more useful questions to ask yourself instead. Got a hiring story of your own, on either side of the table? Follow Why Design and tell us which guest's advice you needed to hear this week. This episode is sponsored by Vax and TTi Floorcare. Kodu, is running the hiring. Recruiting for Vax for more than ten years, placing over fifty people including a VP of Engineering and a Head of Design. We know how they build. Right now they’re rebuilding their UK engineering and innovation function from the ground up: advanced development, design engineering and industrial design, all at once. We haven’t seen them move at this pace in a decade of working with them. What You'll Learn 📄 Why the perfect CV can be a warning sign, not a strength 🎯 How to widen your job search beyond the exact title advertised 👀 What hiring managers actually look at first in a portfolio ✏️ Why sketching still beats software when you need to communicate fast 🌱 What it takes to be noticed as a junior in a consultancy 🙋 Why taking the role nobody else wants can pay off 🧭 How to know your own working style before you choose a path 🔁 Why career breaks and non-linear starts are not a disadvantage Memorable Quotes “We're all a bit fricking weird. Great. Come on board.” (Will Butler-Adams OBE, Brompton) “I am a stereotypical industrial designer in the fact that I will look at the portfolio first and I will read absolutely none of it at first.” (Tylan Tschopp, Westinghouse) “I would encourage people to... apply for jobs that are adjacent... because sometimes you're looking for someone who has a little bit of a superpower that's outside of the job description.” (Rich Thrush, Guitar Center) “Apply to everything, go to as many interviews as you possibly can physically fit in, just to actually see how other companies operate.” (Paul Marshall, Rapid Fluidics) “That's your flow. And if that happens to be making stuff and designing stuff, you're great to go... because frankly, you'll never work another day in your life.” (Mark Sanders) “Take confidence in the fact that you probably know more than the people who are trying to recruit you.” (Vicky Lofthouse, Enable Sustainability) Resources & Links Resources and Links Newlane : https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E1 EN:ABLE Sustainability: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E2 Guitar Center: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E3 FutureWave: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E4 Diplik: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E5 Brompton Bicycles: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E6 Rapid Fluidics: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E7 Westinghouse: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E8 Motive Design: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E9 MAS Design Products Ltd. : https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E10 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon - https://whydesign.club/ 👥 Join the Why Design community - https://teamkodu.com/whydesign/ 📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/why.design_/ 📸 Follow @_whydesign on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@_whydesign 📸 Follow @kodurecruitment on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kodurecruitment/ 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte/ About the Episode Your CV Isn't Supposed to Be Perfect | Why Design: Being Hired (Season 4) is a compilation episode of Why Design, the podcast hosted by Chris Whyte, founder of Kodu. Each episode brings together founders, engineers, and design leaders working at the frontier of physical product to talk honestly about what it takes to build hardware teams that ship. About Kodu Kodu is a specialist recruitment partner dedicated to physical product development. We connect hardware brands and design consultancies with the very best design and engineering talent, from Industrial Designers and Mechanical Engineers to senior leaders across Product, Technology, and R&D. Our clients range from well-funded start-ups and scale-ups under investor pressure to deliver, through to established businesses building serious hardware or innovation arms. They share a common challenge: they need to hire people who have actually built physical products before, and they cannot afford to get it wrong. All-time NPS: +92. Learn more: teamkodu.com

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How this Company Is Revolutionising Engineering One Messy Home at a Time - A Special Feature on VAX

What if the hardest engineering problem in the room is also the one nobody wants to admit they'd be proud of? In this episode of Why Design, Chris Whyte shares the belief that sits at the heart of Kodu's work with Vax: that some of the most demanding engineering jobs are hiding inside products nobody dreams of designing. Rather than dress this up as a neutral interview, Chris chose to disclose the commercial relationship upfront and make the case anyway. That decision led to an unusually direct pitch for a very real, very live hiring mandate. This conversation isn't about vacuum cleaners. It's about what it takes to rebuild an entire engineering function from a blank sheet, and who actually wants that job. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn 🏭 Why Vax's 1977 origin story, a milk churn, a shower pump and a water heater, still shapes how the company thinks about engineering today 🔧 Why a vacuum cleaner is a harder engineering problem than most products “with a badge on them” 📈 How a fifteen billion dollar parent company with Milwaukee, Ryobi, AEG and Hoover under its roof ended up leaning on one site in Droitwich 🌊 How Droitwich earned the group's global lead on fluid dynamics, not just the UK's 🎯 Why Chris thinks a deliberately loose brief beats a secure, well-defined one 🚪 Who should not apply, according to the person running the search Memorable Quotes "I've recruited for Vax for more than 10 years. Over 50 people, including a VP of engineering and a head of design." "Nobody grows up wanting to design a vacuum cleaner." "It's a harder engineering problem than most of the things with badges on them. It just does not look like one from the outside." "You build the team rather than join it. People going in now set how this works. It does not come around twice at the same company." "It will not suit everyone, and I would rather say so now." Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @why.design_ on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 🔗 See every live Vax role → teamkodu.com/jobs About the Episode "Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry." "Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work." About Kodu "Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups." "We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling." 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com Sponsor Copy Full disclosure: this one is sponsored by Vax and TTi Floorcare, and it's Kodu, my own company, running the hiring. So you know exactly what you're reading.

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Why the Perfect CV Is the Wrong Hire, A Why Design Guide on Hiring (SN 4 Recap)

What if the candidate who looks perfect on paper is exactly the one you shouldn't hire? Eight Season 4 guests, from a bike brand to an industrial giant to three small hardware studios, keep landing on the same answer from completely different directions. The flawless CV, the fixed job spec, and the polished portfolio are the least reliable signal in the room. What actually predicts a good hire is fit, curiosity, and how someone handles a question they weren't ready for, whether that's a new hire asking what to do, a job title that almost puts the right person off applying, or a founder telling a candidate outright that the business isn't for them. Join the Why Design community to keep this conversation going, and to hear how other hiring managers in physical product are solving the same problem. This episode is sponsored by Vax and TTi Floorcare. Kodu, is running the hiring. Recruiting for Vax for more than ten years, placing over fifty people including a VP of Engineering and a Head of Design. We know how they build. Right now they’re rebuilding their UK engineering and innovation function from the ground up: advanced development, design engineering and industrial design, all at once. We haven’t seen them move at this pace in a decade of working with them. What You'll Learn 🔍 Why the candidates who look imperfect on paper often make the better hire. 🗣️ How to spend most of an interview on the person, not the portfolio. 🧩 Why building a team around available talent beats writing a fixed job spec. 🏷️ What one wrong word in a job title does to your candidate pool. 🧭 Why independence matters more than hand holding on a small team. 🎯 How to spot the fit that actually predicts whether someone stays. ⚙️ Why a specialist hire is sometimes worth more than a confident generalist. Memorable Quotes "It's the grit in the oyster that creates the pearl." Will Butler-Adams, Brompton (S4E06). "If you knew, you wouldn't be hiring that." Will Butler-Adams, Brompton (S4E06). "That tends to be a unicorn every time." Tylan Tschopp, Westinghouse (S4E08). "What happens if you didn't have this role?" Rich Thrush, Guitar Center (S4E03). "I'm not gonna hold anyone's hand, I'm not gonna micromanage." Paul Marshall, Rapid Fluidics (S4E07). "Maybe our kind of business is not for you." Paul Metaxatos, Motive Design (S4E09). Newlane : https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E1 Guitar Center: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E3 FutureWave: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E4 Diplik: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E5 Brompton Bicycles: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E6 Rapid Fluidics: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E7 Westinghouse: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E8 Motive Design: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S4E9 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon - https://whydesign.club/ 👥 Join the Why Design community - https://teamkodu.com/whydesign/ 📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/why.design_/ 📸 Follow @_whydesign on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@_whydesign 📸 Follow @kodurecruitment on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kodurecruitment/ 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte/ About the Episode Why the Perfect CV Is the Wrong Hire, A Why Design Guide on Hiring (SN 4 Recap) is a Season 4 compilation episode of Why Design, the podcast hosted by Chris Whyte, founder of Kodu. Each episode brings together founders, engineers, and design leaders working at the frontier of physical product to talk honestly about what it takes to build hardware teams that ship. About Kodu Kodu is the specialist recruitment partner for hardware and deep tech teams. We place industrial designers, mechanical engineers, and product development leaders in companies building physical products, from medtech and consumer hardware to robotics and mobility. We work with founding teams and global R&D organisations alike, and we understand what great looks like in the room, not just on paper. NPS: +92. teamkodu.com

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The Sign You're Doing the Right Thing | A Why Design: Founders’ Mission and Purpose Journey

What does it actually sound like when someone can tell you, precisely, why their work matters? In this compilation of Why Design, fourteen hardware founders, designers, and engineers answer that question, not with a mission statement, but with the specific moment it became true for them: a phone call, a diaper emergency, a chant they refused to join, a sketch a surgeon recognised overnight, a research grant into safety on public transport, a young designer finally seeing herself represented. This is not a highlight reel of ambition. It is a collection of the moments where mission stopped being declared and started being lived, including the discomfort of staying yourself inside an institution that wants you to become it, and the daily discipline of sustaining purpose once the launch is long over. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn 📞 Why a phone call from a hospital bed told one founder her product was finally real 🔋 Why 28 million UK homes have never been designed for by the home battery industry 🤖 Why automation grew one company from 2,000 to 22,000 employees instead of shrinking it 🚻 How a diaper emergency in a piercing shop became the origin story of a company 🚆 What a research grant and a masters course have to do with safety for women and girls on public transport 🎤 Why one executive chanted his own name instead of his employer's, in front of 400 people 🧭 Why the future you set out loud is, according to one investor, the future you actually get Memorable Quotes "I want to try again." "I am Bob. I am Bob." "The future that you set is the now that you get." "Use our expertise for good." "I will be the last person to get money." "If we stop developing hardware, we're ghosts." Links & Connect Béa Fertility: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E1 Automata: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E2 Tympany Medical: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E3 Windfall Energy: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E4 Fieldwork Robotics: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E5 Koroyd: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E6 Phil Stauton: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E7 Instrument Industries: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E8 Flush-Locks: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E9 Bob Schwartz: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E10 Longbow Motors: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E11 iF Design ifdesign.com: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E12 Bill Liao: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E13 PARK: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E14 PENSA: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E15 Studio Fynn: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E16 Priestman Goode: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E19 Studio Wood: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E18 Kohler Mira: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E19 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon - https://whydesign.club/ 👥 Join the Why Design community - https://teamkodu.com/whydesign/ 📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/why.design_/ 📸 Follow @_whydesign on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@_whydesign 📸 Follow @kodurecruitment on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kodurecruitment/ 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte/

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Why Artificial Intelligence Makes You a Little Bit Dumber | A Why Design Guide on AI

What does AI actually do to the people building the physical world around you? In this compilation of Why Design, ten hardware practitioners share the belief that sits at the heart of good AI use: it is a tool for someone who already knows what good looks like, not a replacement for knowing. Rather than accepting AI hype at face value, these guests interrogate it from inside real hardware work: robotics, medical devices, industrial design, investment, and recruitment. That interrogation led to some of the most honest, occasionally contradictory, moments the show has recorded on the subject. This conversation is not about whether AI is good or bad. It is about who stays in the loop when it is used well, and what gets lost when nobody does. Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn Why an SOSV investor believes AI is not like any other tool, and what a hammer teaches you that AI does not How a field robotics team turned every operational anomaly into training data instead of a disaster Why one engineer's rule is: if you can write the problem in a prompt, you have already solved it What a real executive AI mandate looks like from inside a design team, with no training and no plan Why large language models are structurally built to find the average, and what that costs inclusive design Why the expert-in-the-loop principle is the one rule almost every guest agrees on Memorable Quotes "It fundamentally makes you a little bit dumber when you use it most of the time." "My problem is it's scary believable rather than scary accurate." "If I can write it in a prompt, I've solved the problem." "That's a terrible creative brief." "LLMs are just massive heuristic engines. They're like a pachinko machine on the scale of the solar system." Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @why.design_ on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it: the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com This episode is sponsored by Vax and TTi Floorcare. Kodu, is running the hiring. Recruiting for Vax for more than ten years, placing over fifty people including a VP of Engineering and a Head of Design. We know how they build. Right now they’re rebuilding their UK engineering and innovation function from the ground up: advanced development, design engineering and industrial design, all at once. We haven’t seen them move at this pace in a decade of working with them.

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Why Women Leave Design, and What Actually Keeps Them | Alba Bayona

What does it take to go from a one-way ticket to London with no job, to a seat on the board of one of the UK's best known bathroom manufacturers? In this episode of Why Design, Alba Bayona shares the belief that sits at the heart of her work: that curiosity is what actually builds a design career, and that leadership only works once you stop pretending you can be good at everything, all the time. Rather than settle into one discipline early, Alba built her own jewellery brand alongside a full time design job. That decision led to one of the hardest calls of her career, closing it down, and one she has since come to see as brave rather than as a failure. This conversation isn't about job titles. It's about what it actually costs, and gives back, to build a career and a family in an industry that still doesn't have enough visible role models for either. Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn 🧭 Why Alba Bayona prefers “work-life sway” to “work-life balance” 🚿 How one design team at Kohler Mira builds for three completely different users across Mira Showers, RADA and Recoup ✈️ Why a one-way ticket to London, with almost no money and little English, became the turning point in her career 🧵 What it took to walk away from her own jewellery brand, and why she no longer calls that decision a failure 🪑 How leaving your functional hat at the door changes what design contributes in the boardroom 👩‍🎨 Why the design industry still struggles to keep and promote female talent, and what more visible role models could change Memorable Quotes “I've discovered a term I much prefer called work-life sway.” “Calling it sway gives you a little bit of forgiveness of like actually that I'm swaying, I'm not balanced.” “There was bravery in admitting that I couldn't do it all.” “I think 99% of the times that you follow your gut, you will be right.” “Motherhood shouldn't be a hindrance, should be something that actually helps them gain incredible leadership skills anyway.” Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 🔗 Explore Kohler Mira → https://www.mirashowers.co.uk/ 🔗 Connect with Alba Bayona → https://www.linkedin.com/in/alba-bayona-68055874/ About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com This episode is sponsored by Vax and TTi Floorcare. Kodu, is running the hiring. Recruiting for Vax for more than ten years, placing over fifty people including a VP of Engineering and a Head of Design. We know how they build. Right now they’re rebuilding their UK engineering and innovation function from the ground up: advanced development, design engineering and industrial design, all at once. We haven’t seen them move at this pace in a decade of working with them.

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The Biggest Mistake keeping Designers Underpaid | James Wood, Studio Wood

What does it actually cost to get into design if you don't come from money? In this episode of Why Design, James Wood shares the belief that sits at the heart of Studio Wood: that good design should reach a million homes, not one art gallery, and that the studio building it should be just as accessible. Rather than chase investment or fast growth, James chose to grow Studio Wood slowly, freelancing for six years before making his first hire. That decision led to a seven-person studio behind the Chilly's Series 2 bottle and the Joseph Joseph Draw Store, run on his own terms. This conversation isn't about a design portfolio. It's about who gets to build one in the first place. Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn → 🎓 Why Studio Wood lists a university degree as "nice to have," not essential, on every job ad. → 📵 Why the studio doesn't have a phone, and what that protects. → ✉️ Why every one of 350 applicants for one junior role got a personal reply, good news or bad. → 💷 Why James believes a plumbing apprentice can out-earn a design graduate carrying £50,000 to £60,000 of debt. → 🤖 How James is preparing his team for AI, and why physical model-making stays safe longer than digital design skills. → 🧭 What it actually takes to move out of the top or bottom of the income scale, according to the data James has read. Memorable Quotes "I don't think design should be for a few people. I'd rather design something that's in a million people's homes than in one art gallery." "If you went and did the plumbing apprenticeship when you're eighteen, you'd make more money as a plumber than you would as an industrial designer with fifty, sixty grand of debt." "If we start to lean too introverted, I'd probably be more inclined to look towards hiring someone who's extroverted." "I always look for someone who's got their own engine. You're not having to go and constantly throw coal in their engine to get them going." "All the strongest lessons in life come through hard times. You won't ever become a well-rounded person without some form of hardship." 6e. Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon 👥 Join the Why Design community 📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte 🔗 Explore Studio Wood 🔗 Connect with James Wood About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it: the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.

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Hardware Money | A Why Design? Investment and Fundraising Guide

What does it actually take to convince someone to write a cheque for a business that has to build something physical before it can sell anything? In this compilation episode of Why Design, nine hardware founders and one investor share the belief that sits underneath every one of their rounds: that raising capital for a physical product is a fundamentally different exercise to raising for software, and treating it like the same game is how good companies lose winnable rounds. Rather than accept the vague, feel-good pitch that dazzles nobody, this group of founders learned, sometimes the hard way, exactly what an investor is measuring, what a cap table cannot survive, and how far real discipline can stretch a small amount of capital. This isn't about pitching harder. It's about understanding the room you're actually in. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn 💡 Why an investor calling your valuation too high can be the best call of your fundraise 📊 What investors are actually measuring when the product itself is emotionally compelling 🧾 How one missing founder vesting agreement can poison every future raise 🎯 Why the team slide belongs three slides into a deck, not seventeen ⚙️ How the leanest hardware teams turn limited capital into a competitive advantage 🚻 What female founders are still asked in rooms where their co-founders are asked about vision Memorable Quotes "My CEO thought it wasn't that good a call. But I thought it was a really great call." Sid Shaikh, CTO, Fieldwork Robotics "Investors invest in teams. Team slide needs to be like three slides in." Bill Liao, General Partner, SOSV "The investment just went poof." Bill Liao, General Partner, SOSV "We will always operate in the leanest way possible to keep everyone as creative as they can be." Mark Tapscott, Co-founder, Longbow Motors "We exist as a company because raising capital hasn't been easy." Tess Cosad, CEO, Béa Fertility Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it: the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

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Why Most Founder Exits Fail, and Why This One Took Eight Years to Get Right | Kirsty Dias, PriestmanGoode

What happens to a business the year there's no bonus to hand out? In this episode of Why Design, Kirsty Dias shares the belief that sits at the heart of her work: that a creative business is built by giving people permission to take the slow, unglamorous route on the things that actually matter. Rather than train as a designer, Kirsty studied French, worked in theatre and ran exhibitions at the Barbican. That decision led her into PriestmanGoode as head of comms 25 years ago, and eventually into the Managing Director's seat of one of the world's leading aviation and rail design consultancies. This conversation isn't about aircraft seats. It's about what it actually costs, in time and attention, to build a business that outlasts its founders. Disclaimer: This episode includes a brief, personal reflection on the tax treatment of employee ownership for founders. It is not tax, legal or financial advice. Please seek independent professional advice before making any related decisions. What You'll Learn 🎯 Why running an aviation and rail design consultancy has nothing to do with holding a design degree 💡 How PriestmanGoode's business got stronger the one year it didn't pay a bonus 🛫 What actually happens between an airline's brief and the seat in front of you, from colour and material to a five year certification programme 🤝 Why Kirsty rates a stint on a bar or shop floor over a polished CV when she's hiring 🏫 How a deliberate, unglamorous investment in schools and internships built a team close to a 50-50 gender split 🔧 Why the design industry needs to explain its own career paths a lot better than it currently does Memorable Quotes “We became stronger as an EOT in the one year where we did not give a bonus.” “I worked in the hairdressers as a receptionist when I was at sixth form. I use the skills that I learned in that job every day.” “That is how you are convincingly yourself. Like don't pretend to be something you're not.” “Use our expertise for good.” “I think the ability to communicate and tell a story.” Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @_whydesign on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte 🔗 Explore PriestmanGoode 🔗 Connect with Kirsty Dias About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it: the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

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I Thought I Knew How to Hire | Why Design: A Guide to Hiring

What if the candidate who interviews best is exactly the one you should not hire? In this compilation of Why Design, fifteen hardware founders, CTOs and design leaders share the belief that sits underneath every hire they have ever made: the CV gets someone in the room, but it never tells you who you are actually hiring. Rather than trusting the interview process alone, several guests built their own techniques instead, deliberate questions, gut checks, and screens designed to get past a rehearsed answer. That decision led to hiring practices most HR playbooks would not recognise, and results most HR playbooks cannot claim. This conversation isn't about interview technique. It's about the cost of getting it wrong, and the discipline it takes to trust your own judgement over a process built for someone else's team. Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign What You’ll Learn 🧠 Why the signals that predict a good hire are almost never on the CV ⚠️ How to spot the ego trap before you have made the offer 🎯 The interview questions built specifically to get past a rehearsed answer 💸 What the first firing actually costs, and why founders keep hiring too early anyway 🤝 Why the best leaders on this show all learned to hire above themselves 🔍 How to tell, in the room, whether your gut is right about a candidate Memorable Quotes “One person on that narcissistic spectrum in a startup can destroy the work of any other ten people at once.” “The people who have big egos often present very well. The people who are humble but very talented often are a little too humble in the hiring process.” “If you think the person isn't a fit, they're likely not a fit.” “Never once have I had a bad feeling about someone and still offered them the job. Never has it worked out.” “If they can do that in a way that shows me they've actually thought about it, and can articulate it, that's a win.” Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 🔗 Explore the full guest list and individual episodes → whydesign 🔗 Get in touch about a hardware hire → teamkodu.com About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

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Nobody Told Me How to Get Here | A Why Design Guide on Being Hired

The hardware and deep tech industry does not do much to tell talented people how to get in, when to make a move, or how to build a career that lasts. Over twelve episodes of Why Design, Chris Whyte has spoken with founders, CTOs, and senior design and engineering leaders who worked all of that out for themselves, often without a roadmap. This compilation is the result. Featured guests - Tess Cosad, CEO, Béa Fertility (Ep 01) on the one thing she looks for in every hire, and what that tells candidates about how to show up. - Dan Salisbury, Industrial Designer, Automata (Ep 02) on almost not passing probation, playing to his strengths, and why he would not jump ship for anything less than exactly right. - Dr Liz McGloughlin, Co-Founder, Tympany Medical (Ep 03) on how to articulate yourself in five or six sentences, and why most people skip the most practisable part of interview preparation. - Rob Hallifax, Co-Founder, Windfall Energy (Ep 04) on meeting his co-founder at a random IoT meetup and why getting out there is the one strategy that has never let him down. - Sid Shaikh, CTO, Fieldwork Robotics (Ep 05) on what attracts great engineers to startups, and why communication is the professional habit that compounds fastest over a career. - Felicity Boyce, Head of R&D, Koroyd (Ep 06) on going with her gut to move to Monaco for a role she could not fully see yet, and what saying yes to something terrifying actually taught her. - Matt Batchelor, Co-founder, Instrument Industries (Ep 08) on building a portfolio after redundancy, funding a master's degree through a Victorian-era scholarship, and his take on what a career actually is. - Bob Schwartz, Design Leader and CDO, GE Healthcare, P&G, and Motorola (Ep 10) on table stakes in an interview, how to guide the room when you are the one being interviewed, and the question he wishes someone had asked him thirty years earlier. - Mark Tapscott, Co-founder, Longbow Motors (Ep 11) on buying a Lotus Elise on a student loan, trading his time with race teams to get in, and what it costs to live the work you have always wanted to do. - Lisa Gralnek, US Managing Director, iF Design (Ep 12) on a thirty-year career of taking roles that did not exist, and what it means to be found rather than to apply. - Stephan Clambaneva, Creative Director, PARK (Ep 14) on what David Kelly told him about identity, and why leaning into what makes you different is the only career strategy that actually holds up. - Shaun Fynn, Founder, Studio Fynn (Ep 16) on what he believed about design at 25 that he no longer believes, and why the impact he was after requires disciplines design cannot access on its own. What you will learn * Why the skills on your CV are table stakes and what interviewers are actually deciding in the room * How to articulate who you are as a designer or engineer in five to six sentences before anyone asks * Why the most interesting hardware careers were built through side doors, traded time, and things that looked wrong from the outside * How to trust your gut on a career move when you do not have all the information * What sustains a long career in physical product when the work is hard and the bag is still packed * Why leaning into what makes you different is more effective than trying to replicate what worked for someone else * How to communicate up and down and across technical and non-technical audiences as a technical leader * What the question "what is your why" actually reveals when you have to answer it honestly Resources and Links Béa Fertility: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E1 Automata: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E2 Tympany Medical: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E3 Windfall Energy: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E4 Fieldwork Robotics: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E5 Koroyd: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E6 Instrument Industries: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E8 iF Design ifdesign.com: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E12 PARK: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E14 Studio Fynn: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E16 Longbow Motors: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E11 Bob Schwartz: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E10 About Kodu Kodu is the specialist recruitment partner for hardware and deep tech teams. We place industrial designers, mechanical engineers, and product development leaders in companies building physical products, from medtech and consumer hardware to robotics and mobility. We work with founding teams and global R&D organisations alike, and we understand what great looks like in the room, not just on paper. NPS: +92. teamkodu.com About the Episode Nobody Told Me How to Get Here | Why Design: Being Hired is a compilation episode of Why Design, the podcast hosted by Chris Whyte, founder of Kodu. Each episode brings together founders, engineers, and design leaders working at the frontier of physical product to talk honestly about what it takes to build hardware teams that ship. Looking for your next role in hardware or deep tech? Kodu specialises in placing industrial designers, mechanical engineers, and product development leaders across medtech, consumer hardware, robotics, mobility, and more. Get in touch: teamkodu.com

Why He Diversified from Designing Products and Started Asking Why? | Shaun Fynn

What if the most important thing a designer can do has nothing to do with making? In this episode of Why Design, Shaun Fynn shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that observation, not making, is the true foundation of design. That culture defines meaning. That before you build anything, you have to understand who will receive it including, eventually, who will receive it when it is done being useful. Rather than staying in the design of products, Fynn chose to follow the question of why. That decision led to a research practice serving Steelcase, Coca-Cola, HNI and KI, to documentaries filmed on e-waste landfill sites in Delhi, to photography books published by Princeton Architectural Press, and to a new venture called Apertura, which places branded storytelling inside architectural space. This conversation is not about making better products. It is about what design looks like when it starts with observation and follows the question all the way to the end. Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community at teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn 🌍 Why living across four countries does not just broaden your perspective - it permanently rewires how you read meaning in objects and spaces. 🔎 How to make the intangible tangible: the phrase a Steelcase design director used to describe Studio Fynn, and what it means in practice. 📽️ Why visual storytelling does what a strategy deck cannot, and how Fynn has used documentary and photography to shift actual business decisions. 🏙️ What Le Corbusier's lead architect told a young researcher when asked what the master said to him: "Everything is there. If you deserve it, you will see it." 🗑️ Why the world of the receiver the people who inherit discarded products at the end of their useful life is the design problem the industry has consistently refused to look at. 🏛️ How Apertura is using architectural space as a medium for branded cultural stories, and why Fynn believes it is the next frontier for getting art out of the gallery and into public life. Memorable Quotes "Culture defines meaning. What we were designing for maybe one market or one culture was not relevant to the other." "A presentation can often just be seen as a document of what you've done. Visual storytelling, I think, understands the media you're using and the audience you speak to." "We don't spend much time on looking at who receives things once they are done - once they've finished their active life." "He said nothing. He said, everything is there. If you deserve it, you will see it." "When I was younger, I believed design had more power than it really does. I always thought singularly that design can change something." Resources and Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon -> whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community -> teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes -> YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte -> linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 🔗 Explore Studio Fynn -> studiofynn.com 🔗 Explore Apertura -> apertura-art.com Connect with Shaun: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaun-fynn-8b317a3/ About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership - bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more -> teamkodu.com

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They Gave Their Own Product Away for Free, Then It Funded in a Day | Pensa

What does twenty years of serious product work actually look like from the inside? In this episode of Why Design, Marco and Mark, co-founders of Pensa, share the belief that sits at the heart of their work: that the best products come from designers and engineers working through the same problems at the same time, not handing work over fences and telling each other what can't be done. Rather than building a conventional consultancy where disciplines operate in sequence, Marco and Mark built Pensa around a model they call finishing, not fixing. That decision led to a 20-year-old studio in Brooklyn that has worked on everything from razors to wire bending machines to medical implants, much of it still under NDA. This conversation isn't about design trends or career highlights. It's about what it takes to build something that lasts. It's about what happens when you build a founding team of people who don't do the same thing. It's about the ego problem in hiring, and why the people who want the job the most often show it the least. Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community: teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn Why involving engineers and designers together from day one produces better outcomes than the standard design-then-engineering handoff How Pensa solved a decade-long invisible portfolio problem by building their own products under the Pensa Labs name Why the most dangerous hire in a creative studio is the person who presents brilliantly but can't move a project How a wire bending tool built for internal use became a bootstrapped product business serving aerospace, orthodontics, and medical implants What "finishing not fixing" looks like in practice, including the OneBlade razor story where dozens of prototypes led to a pivot that became the foundation of all subsequent work Why storytelling is the most underrated skill for designers and engineers, and why the ability to bring a client along on a three-year development process matters more than most schools teach Memorable Quotes "It's not giving up to admit that we need to pivot to a direction that's simpler. And simpler is usually better." "We got to see foldable phones ten years before they came out because we were working on it." "People who have big egos often present very well. And the people who are humble but very talented often are a little too humble in the hiring process." "You're not going to AI your way out of that discussion." "The last thing you want is partners that do the same thing that you do." Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 🔗 Explore Pensa → pensa.co 🔗 Connect with Marco & Mark → Marco / Mark About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

Why the Best New Design Leaders Change Nothing in Their First 90 Days | Stephan Clambaneva

Are you designing for the middle of the bell curve, or for the people who need it most? In this episode of Why Design, Stephan Clambaneva shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that industrial design's greatest contribution is at the front end of product development, where 80% of environmental impact is determined, where material choices get locked in, and where the decisions that actually matter are still open. Rather than taking the conventional path of pure industrial design consultancy, Stephan built a career across mechanical engineering, CAD work, sustainability research, design leadership education, and two decades of community-building inside IDSA. That refusal to specialise led to a perspective that very few practitioners have. This conversation isn't about making good-looking products. It's about the responsibility that comes with sitting at the tip of the spear. This conversation isn't about AI replacing designers. It's about what happens when the average becomes the default. Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn 🧠 Why AI is architecturally designed to find the average, and why that is the opposite of what good design does 🔩 How 80% of environmental impact is locked in by the first 20% of the product development process 🏛 Why Stephan pushed IDSA into NYC Design Week a decade ago and what it took to make it happen 👥 How the Park Academy surfaces gaps that successful design managers did not know they had ♻️ Why people, planet, prosperity is a more useful frame than people, planet, profit 🎨 Why sketching is still the skill young industrial designers most undervalue Memorable Quotes “If you’re using a large language model, no matter how good it is, it’s gonna find the average. It’s gonna find the safe thing.” “80% of the costs, 80% of the impact on the environment is determined in the initial 20% of the product development process. That’s where design lives. That’s where innovation lives.” “We need to move away from people, planet, profit to people, planet, prosperity. It’s not about profit. You have to be profitable, otherwise you’ll go out of business. But you don’t have to make 100 million percent profit. If you can be prosperous, it might even be a better metric.” “If you can find someone that can do something 80% as well as you, that’s golden.” “If you’re taking on a new role, the easiest thing to do is to make a bunch of changes. What I would say is just wait a little bit, take a pause, get to know the organization.” Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 🔗 Explore Park → https://park.bz/ 🔗 Connect with Stephan Clambaneva → https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanclambaneva/ About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build — but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership — bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

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The SOSV Partner Who Says the Best Persuaders Are Introverts (And Why He Backs Them First) | Bill Liao

What if the science works, the market is ready, and your company still dies? In this episode of Why Design, Bill Liao shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that the stories we co-believe in are our civilisation, and that the words you choose, the values you name, and the futures you speak aloud determine not just what you build, but whether it survives. Rather than following a conventional path from engineer to executive, Bill built a career at the intersection of technology, persuasion, and purpose. From co-founding WeForest to investing in molecular medicine and microbiome hardware at SOSV, that decision led to a body of work shaped by one question: what actually kills companies? This conversation is not about funding rounds or product-market fit. It is about the gap between doubt and conviction, why self-actualisation is a lie, and what happens when the air goes out of a room. Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn 🧠 Why values alignment is worth more than skill when building the first team, and how to test for it in an interview 🔍 How oxidised cholesterol causes four in ten human deaths, and why Cyclarity’s molecule may change that 💬 Why replacing the word “but” with “and” changes how people receive disagreement 🧘 What intersubjective actualisation means, why it makes people happier than self-actualisation, and why AI makes it harder 🌿 How to use Food Marble to identify which foods are disrupting your microbiome at home ⏰ Why the half-life of an insight is twenty-four hours, and the only way to extend it Memorable Quotes “The future that you set is the now that you get.” “The only difference between persuasion and manipulation is intent.” “One person on that narcissistic spectrum in a startup can destroy the work of any other ten people at once.” “It’s not the persistent hallucination that gets under my skin. It’s the unbelievably sycophantic yet confident way in which it tells you the lies.” “The half-life of an insight is 24 hours. And the only way to extend its half-life is to take action on it.” 6e. Resources and Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 🔗 Connect with Bill Liao → LinkedIn About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership — bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

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Why Design Is Still a Polite Cost Centre With Good PR | Lisa Gralnek

What does it take to build brand presence for one of the world's most rigorous design institutions in a market that barely knows it exists? In this episode of Why Design, Lisa Gralnek shares the belief that sits at the heart of her work: that design is not just products and packaging, but platforms, places, and policies and that if designers cannot speak the language of business, they will always be treated as a cost centre. Rather than staying in a thriving solo consultancy, Lisa chose to take the first role she had ever been offered that she had not in some way anticipated. That decision led to becoming iF Design's first ever US Managing Director, Head of Global Sustainability and Impact, and the person responsible for introducing one of the world's oldest and most rigorous design institutions to a market that had never needed to think about it before. This conversation is not about design awards. It is about what happens when you spend 30 years building things that do not exist yet - and what that costs, and what it gives you. Join the Why Design community -> teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn 🧭 Why iF Design had 74 years of global authority and almost no US brand presence outside product design, and what it actually takes to change that. 🔄 How change agents get beaten by organisations, not by their own ideas - and what to check before taking on an internal transformation role. 💬 Why designers who cannot speak the language of business will always be positioned as a cost centre, and how the iF Design Academy is trying to fix it. 🤖 What confident AI decision-making looks like for design leaders who are not engineers and cannot predict where the field is going. 🌱 Why 20% of every iF Design Award score now goes to sustainability across all 93 categories - and what the gold winners tell you about what excellence really means. 🏗️ How to think about design leadership in hardware when talent pipelines are shrinking and everything is changing faster than your planning cycle. Memorable Quotes "I've only ever in that almost 30 year career had roles that don't exist before I take them." "There are 10,000 things that can go wrong in change management... 9,998 of them have nothing to do with the change agent." "The hybrid between the business and the creative side. That is my superpower." "I graduated into financial collapse of 08 with over $200,000 of capitalized debt for that short degree program." "You design products, you design packaging, you design platforms, you design places, you design policies. Like it is all design." Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon -> whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community -> teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes -> YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte -> linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 🔗 Connect with - iF Design 🔗 Connect with Lisa Gralnek -> LinkedIn About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.

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How He Built a Sports Car Company Without an Engineering Team | Mark Tapscott

When was the last time a car company asked you what you actually wanted in the car before they built it? In this episode of Why Design, Mark Tapscott shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that lightness is not a compromise. It is the design. That an electric sports car under 900 kilograms, built in Britain, engaging to drive and priced within reach of ambitious buyers, is not just possible but necessary. And that the automotive industry has spent decades walking in the wrong direction. Rather than building a vertically integrated giant, Mark and his co-founder Daniel chose a decentralised model: the best experts in brakes work on brakes, the best in hydraulics work on hydraulics, all coordinated from the centre. That decision led to a fully driving prototype in seven months and a chassis platform now being considered by other manufacturers. This conversation is not about electric cars. It is about what happens when you take lightness seriously as a design principle. It is not about startup culture. It is about what genuine empowerment to make decisions looks and feels like. It is not about the legacy of Tesla. It is about what Mark carried from that experience into what he is building now. Join the Why Design community: teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn 🔧 Why the philosophy inside early Tesla was built around the cost of stalling rather than the cost of making a wrong call ⚖️ How Longbow went from drawings to a driving prototype in seven months without a traditional in-house engineering team 📐 Why lightweighting is a design argument, not just a technical one, and what gets better when you take it seriously across all forms of transport 🎯 What 200 customer interviews revealed that most automotive brands never bother to find out 🏭 Why building in Britain is a strategic advantage in performance and prestige, not a patriotic compromise 🔩 How Peter Brock, designer of the first Corvette and still working in his nineties, thinks about what comes next rather than what he has already done Memorable Quotes "Good decisions aren't always the right ones, but you have the freedom to make those decisions." "If you were to ever say that's how someone else does something, that would be your easiest exit plan for Tesla." "Everything's getting heavier, Chris. It's like we've walked ourselves into it." "You are not a car company until you have delivered cars to customers." "The bag will remain packed and I'll keep a smile on my face until it's done." Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 🔗 Explore Longbow Motors → longbowmotors.com 🔗 Connect with Mark Tapscott → LinkedIn About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

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Why Bob Schwartz Walked Into GE Healthcare Carrying 50 Dream Catchers

How do you spend thirty five years inside hardware giants, take 22 IDEA medals out the door, and still end up best known as the guy who refused to chant “I am GE”? In this episode of Why Design, Bob Schwartz shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: design without a strategy is just decoration, and strategy without trust and respect is just paperwork. Rather than waving his hands above his head about how great design is, Bob spent decades being subversive with goodness in his heart. That decision led to a $50,000 Business Week deal that rewrote how American business talked about the IDEA Awards, a global design organisation rebuilt at GE Healthcare on revenue earned from GE Aviation, and a CEO walking through a movie set in a nurse’s uniform. This conversation isn’t about how much design has won. It’s about what it costs to keep your soul while you climb. Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign What You’ll Learn 🧭 Why Bob refused to chant “I am GE” inside a 400-person dinner, and what that taught him about the line between giving and selling out. 🛠️ How a non-profit and a lobbying job set Bob up for manufacturing, and what it actually takes to convince a hardware C-suite to hire someone from outside their world. 📈 What the $50,000 IDEA Awards deal with Business Week did to the conversation about design in American business. 🪤 Why “make it about everybody else” beats every clever piece of design propaganda Bob has ever tried. 🎭 How the storytelling maze worked: a CMO with 500 useless PowerPoint slides, a CEO in a nurse’s uniform, and 3,000 visitors who saw design differently afterwards. 🔍 What the CAR model (Context, Action, Results) reveals about a senior candidate that a polished CV usually hides. Memorable Quotes “I will give you my head, heart and hands all in, but I’m not gonna give you my soul.” “There’s a stranger in my kitchen.” “God damn it Schwartz, you don’t get it. I need cash now. I don’t have time for this fluffy bunny shit.” “We were being subversive with goodness in our hearts.” “You cannot implement strategy if people don’t trust and respect you.” Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 🔗 Explore Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design → miad.edu 🔗 Connect with Bob Schwartz About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it: the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

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No Engineering Degree. No Prototype. He Signed Up for CES Anyway | Floyd Freeman

What does it take to solve a problem that everyone experiences and nobody has fixed? In this episode of Why Design, Floyd Freeman shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that the most obvious problems are sometimes the hardest to solve not because the technology does not exist, but because no one has connected the pieces. FlushLocks a smart lock and unattended tap payment system for commercial restrooms is the result of one afternoon in Boulder, Colorado, a nappy emergency and a door with a code that said customers only. Rather than staying in a secure, well-paid career managing 400 people at one of America's most recognisable convenience chains, Floyd walked away to build a hardware product from scratch. No engineering background, no product experience, no prototype when he signed up to exhibit at CES. That decision led to a van journey to Las Vegas, a prototype that arrived three days before the show, and a booth in Eureka Park where strangers kept saying: nobody has thought of that. This conversation is not about inventing something new. It is about recognising something obvious and refusing to wait for someone else to build it. It is not about hardware expertise. It is about knowing what you do not know, finding the people who do, and trusting them enough to let them lead where you cannot follow. It is not about the perfect founding story. It is about making the same decision twenty-five times a week until it sticks. Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community -> teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn 🔒 Why unattended tap payment certification only became legally possible at the end of 2025 - and how FlushLocks was built in almost perfect timing with the infrastructure that makes it work 🧾 How Floyd decided to leave a twelve-year career with nothing but an idea on a Word document and a meeting with a patent attorney 🛠 Why choosing the right manufacturer is less about technical capability and more about leadership style, pace, and working relationship 📍 What it actually costs to build hardware from scratch: not just money, but the trust you place in people you have never worked with before 🏪 Why the hardest part of selling a hardware product into restaurants is not the product or the pitch it is finding the person in a 25-location chain who actually makes the decision 🧠 How a general manager thinks about building a technical company: learning just enough of each discipline to direct the people who know more Memorable Quotes "I would have been happy to just pay for a restroom. I don't need the soda. This was an emergency." "We asked ourselves twenty five times a week: is this the right thing to do? Can we do this without falling apart?" "I have no degree in anything I'm doing right now. I am a general manager that's my mindset, that's who I am as a human being." "I will be the last person to get money. If I have twenty grand, I'm going to make sure five goes to you, five goes to you, five goes to you and then maybe if there's anything left over." "You can't have lift if you don't invest in the project. The runway is irrelevant if you don't have lift." Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon -> whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community -> teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes -> YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte -> linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 🔗 Explore FlushLocks -> paidrestrooms.com 🔗 Connect with Floyd Freeman -> floyd@flush-locks.com About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more -> teamkodu.com

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What Building the Production Machine Teaches You About the Design | Matt Batchelor

What does it actually take to get something you designed onto a supermarket shelf at scale? In this episode of Why Design, Matt Batchelor shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that the best design does not stop at the render. It runs all the way through the material choice, the tooling, the supply chain, and the factory floor and the designer should know all of it. Rather than staying in the comfortable upstream of concept and CAD, Matt and his co-founder Nick Paget built Instrument into a studio that also manufactures what it designs, co-invests in the products it believes in, and builds the machines when no suitable machine exists. That decision led to ten weeks in hotels, a crimping machine that kept stopping, and a refillable aluminium personal care system now stocked across four major UK supermarkets. This conversation is not about packaging. It is about what engineering at volume actually demands, and why most design processes are not built for it. It is not about sustainability as a brand position. It is about what it takes to give people a genuinely better object and get it made reliably at scale. Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community -> teamkodu.com/whydesign What You'll Learn 🔩 Why the hardest part of the Meadow project was not the invention - it was getting cans reliably off a conveyor 📐 How ergonomic research from a Sheffield engineering lecturer shaped the torque specification for a refillable closure 🔬 Why Matt hired a test engineer into a team of starters, and what a love of statistics does for a product development process 🏭 What you learn about design when you also manufacture what you design - and why most consultancies miss this feedback loop 🎓 How hiring only from your known network shapes the kind of work a studio attracts, and what it costs in diversity and capability 🤖 Why AI has not transformed physical product development - and the difference between embedded intelligence and badly considered tools Memorable Quotes "As with any project, it's always the details - like a hinge or a lock or a seal - that take all the time. Most of the machine will look like the first sketch." "There's no point designing a safety mechanism if someone's grandmother can't open it." "I was never sat there thinking, what am I doing this? It's like, well, there's this thing I do. How do I get people to pay me money to go and do it?" "There is still a part of my job which is making myself redundant." "Good designers are just people who can articulate why that quality is good to someone who maybe can't sense it, but can't see it in definitive terms." Resources and Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon -> whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community -> teamkodu.com/whydesign 📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes -> YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte -> linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 🔗 Explore Instrument Industries -> instrumentindustries.co.uk 🔗 Connect with Matt Batchelor -> linkedin.com/in/mattbatchelor About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more -> teamkodu.com

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