35 years of product design wisdom from Apple, Disney, Pinterest and beyond | Bob Baxley

Baxley looks for a credible founder or CEO story about why design matters. Working in a culture that does not value the work creates repeated friction. His interview question tests the support behind the role, rather than assuming a design title guarantees influence.

He describes collective creativity, or scenius, as something he has usually experienced in small teams. The point is finding a new direction together, not preventing a successful company from adding people for production and scale. His historical team-size examples are not verified here.

Baxley wants a few people from design, engineering and product who can explore before the next step is obvious. Waiting until the design is fully finished turns partners into order takers. Early involvement lets them help form the direction rather than merely approve it.

He says key engineers and product colleagues need to care about the design enough to defend, improve and build it. That is deeper than agreeing with a presentation. Designers cannot bring a product into the world alone, so treat other makers as part of its creation.

Baxley finds broad words such as clear and beautiful too easy to agree with to settle a debate. A useful tenet chooses between competing directions. Look for a debate the team keeps repeating and make a clear product-level choice instead of another vague principle.

He describes this as one of ThoughtSpot's design tenets for business users. The product should be approachable before exposing more power. The tenet was specific to that audience and product, not a claim that every advanced tool should hide its complexity.

Another tenet asks the product to feel as though it came from a single mind. Teams optimizing their own feature can fragment the overall experience. Review how a local choice fits the whole product, even when the system-level decision is less convenient for one team.