Config 2025 was one of the most anticipated annual gatherings in the design and technology space, hosted by Figma. This year, as in previous editions, hundreds of designers, product managers, researchers, and UX professionals from around the world came together to explore the future of design, innovative tools, and the evolving role of AI in shaping digital experiences. The event featured inspiring talks from leaders and teams across top companies, addressing both the opportunities and responsibilities of modern design in a rapidly changing world.

To celebrate and reflect on the event, I’ve decided to summarize and share 10 of the most inspiring talks from Config 2025. These talks cover a wide range of topics — from the shift from design to business, rituals and skills in the age of AI, and crafting tools that stand the test of time, to designing for climate disaster, turning designs into clean code with AI, and empowering teams through intelligent systems. The collection is especially curated for product designers, innovation leaders, and anyone passionate about the future of design at the intersection of technology, creativity, and social impact.

🎙️ Making the leap from design to business

Speaker: Parteek Saran | Co-founder, Stealth
🎞 You can watch the full speech on YouTube

In this energetic and thought-provoking talk, a former designer — now founder of a successful cybersecurity startup — makes a compelling case: more designers should become founders. Drawing from personal experience, he argues that many designers are already doing the work of a founder: identifying problems, empathizing with users, and shaping human-centered solutions.

📌 Key Takeaways:

• Design isn’t just about visuals — it’s strategic thinking, problem-solving, and experience creation.
• Designers have a unique ability to envision the future, prototype ideas, and tell compelling stories.
• Founding a company requires expanding your view beyond the product — toward market dynamics, team-building, growth, and sustainability.
• In today’s landscape, design taste is a critical competitive advantage — especially as AI lowers the technical barriers to building.
• Mistakes are inevitable, but growth comes from fast learning, adapting, and moving forward.

💬 One important perspective from a business standpoint:

Being a designer is a strong foundation, but building a successful business requires more — skills like market insight, financial planning, sales, prioritization, and leadership. Great founders don’t just design products; they design systems, strategies, and sustainable impact.

🎙️ Rituals & skills in the age of AI

Speakers: Yuhki Yamashita & Shishir Mehrotra
🎞 You can watch the full speech on YouTube

At Config 2025, a thought-provoking conversation unfolded between Yuhki Yamashita, Chief Product Officer at Figma, and Shishir Mehrotra, CEO of Grammarly and co-founder of Coda. The session centered on the evolving role of rituals, effective management, and career transformation in the age of AI.

The talk began with a reflection on the speakers’ shared history — from the time Yuhki was considering joining the YouTube iOS team under Shishir’s leadership, to their later collaborations at Uber and eventually at Coda. Mehrotra emphasized that one of the keys to building successful product teams is establishing structured rituals that support decision-making and team alignment.

Shishir introduced two core rituals developed at Coda — both of which were quickly adopted at Grammarly:

• Dory: A meeting facilitation system where participants submit questions in advance and vote to prioritize them.
• Pulse: A practice of collecting individual written input before group discussion, designed to combat groupthink and ensure diverse perspectives.

Alongside these rituals, Mehrotra shared a few cultural practices from Grammarly, such as karaoke nights at the Berlin office — a nod to the company’s Ukrainian team culture — and spelling bees, which align perfectly with Grammarly’s language-focused identity.

In the second half of the session, Shishir addressed the new challenges of leading teams in an AI-powered world. Rather than fearing that AI will replace jobs, he argued we should see it differently:

AI is accelerating the journey from individual contributor to manager.

People are no longer just task executors — they’re increasingly responsible for directing a team of AI agents: fast, knowledgeable, drama-free assistants that still need human creativity and judgment to be effective.

To help leaders navigate this shift, he introduced a framework called the “Triangle of Bad Management,” outlining three dysfunctional leadership styles:

• Micromanager — delegates authority but still does the work themselves.
• Dictator — demands results without regard for constraints.
• Over-empathizer — takes on the team’s burden instead of helping them grow.

Looking ahead, Mehrotra predicted that tools and rituals must evolve to keep up with the volume of output generated by AI agents. For example, agents could soon track OKR progress automatically, synthesizing updates from tools like Slack, Jira, Docs, and Coda — something previously hindered by operational complexity.

He concluded by outlining Grammarly’s new mission: transforming the product from a writing assistant into a platform for agents that support real-world work. In his words:

“We’re redefining how people interact with their daily work — where agents don’t just respond, but help us reason and decide.”

The talk wrapped up with two open questions for the audience to reflect on:

• In this new era, how can we empower individual contributors to become effective leaders?
• What rituals and tools will we need to ensure quality decision-making and outcomes?

🎙️ Crafting creative tools that endure

Speaker: Karri Saarinen, Co-founder & CEO, Linear
🎞 You can watch the full speech on YouTube

At Config 2025, Karri Saarinen, Co-founder and CEO of Linear, delivered a thoughtful talk titled “Crafting Creative Tools that Endure” — a reflection on the role of quality, craftsmanship, and care in building lasting digital products.

He opened with a simple but powerful question:

“Why is quality so rare?”

Despite all the advancements in tech and speed, he argued, true quality often feels absent. The reason? We’ve gradually replaced human judgment and care with metrics, processes, and the obsession to ship faster. In the race to optimize and scale, we’ve lost our connection to craft.

Saarinen believes that craftsmanship is a deeply human process — shaping something from nothing and putting part of yourself into the work. When that connection is lost, products may function but often feel hollow. He described how in modern product teams, decisions have shifted from “Does this feel right?” to “Does it convert?”, and warned that this mindset risks eroding quality.

Drawing from his experience building Linear, he shared how prioritizing quality — not just in design, but across the entire experience from onboarding to support — has helped the company grow organically, without relying on aggressive marketing or sales.

“Quality becomes your best differentiator when the market is crowded.”

He stressed that quality is not a process — it’s a belief. And it starts with individuals who care. At Linear, that belief is embedded in the way teams work: keeping teams small, minimizing handoffs, relying on intuition and user conversations rather than just data, and fixing bugs within seven days.

In closing, Saarinen reminded the audience:

“Technology may promise speed and scale, but we don’t have to surrender to it. We can still choose craft, care, and quality — every day, in everything we build.”

🎙️ Designing for Climate Disaster

Speaker: Megan Metzger, Designer and Founder of Forerunner
🎞 You can watch the full speech on YouTube

At Config 2025, Megan Metzger delivered a powerful and moving talk titled “Designing for Climate Disaster”, drawing a compelling parallel between her work as a recovery diver and her mission as a product designer building tools for climate resilience.

She opened with a vivid description of descending into a dark, icy lake — an experience she knows intimately as a volunteer technical diver tasked with recovering lost items or even victims. In these intense, high-stakes situations, gear must function perfectly. There is no room for error. This, she explained, shaped her core design philosophy: the only design that matters is design that works.

Metzger is now leading 4Runner, a software company that builds tools to help local and state governments prepare for and respond to climate disasters. These tools must operate in real-world crisis conditions — limited internet, damaged infrastructure, stressed users — where failure isn’t just frustrating, it’s consequential.

She introduced three core principles that have guided her team’s work across the disaster lifecycle:

1. Reliability under pressure builds trust: Whether it’s a diving regulator or a mobile app in a crisis zone, people need tools that won’t fail when everything else does. Reliability isn’t a luxury — it’s foundational.
2. The right tools make the impossible possible: Good design empowers people to do hard things in hard conditions. From offline data collection to real-time FEMA-approved damage estimates, Metzger’s team reduced assessment times from 4 hours to just 45 minutes — unlocking $2.4B in recovery funding more quickly.
3. Clarity enables action: In high-pressure situations, there’s no time for guesswork. Clean, focused interfaces reduce mental load, enabling faster, more confident decisions when it matters most.

Through case studies — such as field tools used by building officials in hurricane-prone Florida — Metzger emphasized the need to design for real-world messiness: working in flooded trailers, using cracked phones, operating on low battery. This means designing for resilience, not perfection.

Her closing message was a challenge to the design community:

What if we shifted our values?

What if reliability under pressure became the most celebrated trait in our work?

What if resilience — not aesthetics — was our north star?

Design, she reminded us, isn’t just about delight. In crisis contexts, it can mean the difference between clarity and chaos, between healing and harm. And as climate change accelerates, building tools that stand up when everything else falls apart is not just good design — it’s essential.

🎙️ Using AI to turn designs into clean code

Speaker: Steve Sewell | CEO, builder.io
🎞 You can watch the full speech on YouTube

At Config 2025, Steve Sewell, co-founder and CEO of Builder.io, delivered a compelling and practical talk on bridging the persistent gap between design and development using AI. Drawing from his own experience as a designer-turned-engineer, Steve explored how large language models (LLMs) and visual editing tools are transforming the workflow from design to production-ready code.

The Design-to-Code Gap

Steve began by highlighting a familiar problem in product development: the disconnect between beautiful designs created in tools like Figma and the actual codebases developers work with. Traditionally, turning designs into code involves manual handoffs, rework, miscommunication, and significant delays. While many AI tools attempt to address this, few integrate seamlessly with real-world workflows, repositories, and design systems.

Builder.io’s mission is to change that. By leveraging AI and a powerful visual editor, they aim to empower not just engineers, but also designers and PMs to directly impact the product in production.

Introducing AI-Powered Visual Editing

The core of the presentation was a live demo of Builder.io’s new visual AI-powered editor. Unlike many tools that generate throwaway prototypes or zip files of raw HTML/CSS, Builder’s platform integrates with real codebases (e.g., Next.js) and respects existing components, tokens, and design systems.

In the demo, Steve showed how:

• A designer (or non-technical user) could visually add a new “Contact Us” page, insert links into the navigation, and generate clean, consistent code.
• Builder’s system reuses components and design patterns intelligently, based on what it learns from the existing codebase.
• AI-generated changes could be reviewed, refined, and ultimately committed via pull requests — just like a human developer would.
• Designers could copy sections directly from Figma and paste them into the live product, with Builder respecting the design system and only modifying necessary parts of the code.

Practical Use Cases

Steve explored several real-world use cases that Builder.io enables:

1. Real Prototyping, Not Just Mockups: PMs and designers can prototype directly on the actual product code, reducing the risk of surprises later in development.
2. Unblocking Low-Priority Fixes: Minor UI tweaks or long-overdue cleanup — typically de-prioritized — can now be handled immediately by anyone on the team.
3. Faster Internal Tooling: Internal tools often lack the resources for constant iteration. Builder lets anyone update them quickly, freeing developers from maintenance bottlenecks.
4. Collaborative Workflows: Teams can mix and match workflows. Designers can stay in Figma, engineers in their IDEs, and both can sync changes through Builder’s AI assistant.

Human-Centered AI and Future Vision

A key insight from the talk was that truly effective design-to-code workflows require a visual canvas and a shared language between humans and machines. Builder.io’s interface is deliberately familiar — resembling tools like Figma — to ensure adoption across technical and non-technical roles.

Steve emphasized that AI should enhance creativity and collaboration, not replace it. His ultimate goal is to democratize development: to give every team member the power to contribute meaningfully to the product, without compromising quality or consistency.

To close the talk — adding a touch of humor and daring — Steve tested the system by prompting it to embed the classic game Doom into the product page, showcasing just how far AI-enabled code generation has come.

Key Takeaways:

• Builder.io enables real-time, AI-assisted design-to-code transformation using actual company codebases.
• The tool empowers designers, PMs, and engineers to collaborate more fluidly and iterate faster.
• AI is used not just to write code, but to understand the product’s structure, reuse components, and respect existing design systems.
• This approach helps reduce waste, eliminate redundant work, and turn design intent into production-ready outcomes.

If you’ve ever dreamed of turning Figma designs into real, maintainable code — without waiting weeks for implementation — this talk was your wake-up call. Steve’s vision isn’t about replacing developers with AI, but about removing friction so the entire product team can build together, smarter and faster.

🎙️ Enabling teams with AI

Speakers: Matt Boncek, Adam Presson, Facundo Ruiz, David Kossnick
🎞 You can watch the full speech on YouTube

This dynamic panel discussion brought together design and tech leaders from Meta, Figma, and Mercado Libre to explore how AI is transforming the way teams work, create, and grow. The conversation was structured around three major themes: how AI is shaping product strategy, team organization, and daily workflows.

🔹 Highlights & Key Takeaways:

1. AI as a True Competitive Advantage

Companies that integrate AI deeply into their workflows are twice as likely to gain market share compared to those that bolt it on as an afterthought. Deep integration matters — AI must be essential, not ornamental.

2. Organizational Culture Matters

Facundo Ruiz emphasized how Mercado Libre’s startup mindset and culture of experimentation drive fast adoption of AI. They’ve built internal platforms — a sandbox for everyone, and an agent-based tool (“Beri”) for engineers — to democratize AI use across teams.

3. Redefining the Design Process

At Meta, the Origami tool was enhanced with in-house LLMs to allow designers to create and validate AI-driven experiences faster. This has accelerated both decision-making and prototype fidelity, reducing friction between design and engineering.

4. The Role of Designers Is Evolving

As generative tools become more capable, the question becomes: What do designers do now? The answer lies in judgment, product sense, and user empathy. As Adam Presson put it: “Outsource production, not your thinking.”

5. Three Levels of AI Maturity

• Level 1: Speeding up existing design work.
• Level 2: Rethinking what design roles even mean.
• Level 3: Rethinking how tech companies are structured.

6. The Power of Shared Tools

Figma’s “Make” — their new prompt-to-prototype platform — empowers designers to express complex ideas without writing code. This collaborative space allows real-time co-creation and exploration, unlocking creativity that was previously gated by technical skill.

7. Embracing Chaos and Redundancy

Mercado Libre intentionally allows teams to explore the same problems independently. In Facundo’s words: “It’s chaotic, but healthy. If something makes sense, it will shine.” They’ve embraced early-stage duplication as a form of discovery.

8. Fast Feedback, Faster Learning

Rapid prototyping enables faster user feedback cycles. Teams are now iterating on product ideas in real time — sometimes within hours of user interviews — unlocking a new layer of learning and design responsiveness.

9. From AI as Copilot to Human as Copilot

Facundo noted a shift in mindset: “At first, we thought AI would assist humans. But increasingly, we think humans may become copilots to AI.” This reversal reflects the scale and speed at which AI can now operate.

10. Craft, Taste & Empathy Matter More Than Ever

AI will flood the market with mediocre software. The differentiators? Design craft, emotional intelligence, and the ability to build products that truly resonate. As one speaker put it: “Just because you can generate it fast doesn’t mean it solves the right problem.”

The session closed with a reminder: this is a moment of reinvention for designers. For the first time in a long while, they have the chance to define and build the very tools they work with. In a world increasingly powered by AI, the human edge will be defined not by speed — but by clarity, care, and creativity.

🎙️ Designing for play and friction in a fast-paced world

Speaker: Michelle Lee | Executive Managing Director, Play Lab at IDEO
🎞 You can watch the full speech on YouTube

At Config 2025, Michelle Lee from IDEO delivered an insightful talk titled “Designing for Play and Friction in a Fast-Paced World.” Drawing on her experience at IDEO’s Play Lab — a team that creates toys for major brands and leverages the power of play to address cross-industry challenges — Michelle explored how purposeful friction can enhance engagement, connection, and meaning in both physical and digital experiences.

She began by noting that unlike most human pursuits, play is not about making things faster or easier. In fact, we often introduce challenges and obstacles deliberately for the sake of fun. She illustrated this with familiar examples: turning a simple walk from the living room to the kitchen into a game of “the floor is lava,” or voluntarily getting locked in an escape room to solve puzzles. These are not efficient or easy tasks, yet we seek them out — and even pay for them — because they’re memorable, rewarding, and fun.

To demonstrate the role of friction, Michelle introduced a game called “Wait, Wait, Wait,” designed by her colleague Takashi Wicks. In this game, players must resist the urge to race across the screen and instead wait until a counter reaches a specific number. By adding visual obstacles (friction), the game becomes more engaging. Friction, she emphasized, pushes us to think, adapt, and enjoy the challenge more deeply.

To bring this idea to life, she invited the audience to play a simple object-passing game. The first round involved passing an item back and forth with no constraints; the second, with a rule that hands couldn’t be used. The laughter and increased difficulty highlighted how a bit of friction made the activity more engaging and socially enriching.

Michelle then turned to a broader issue: our accelerating relationship with technology. With devices streamlining everything — from navigation to relationships — she raised a key question: In saving time and effort, what are we losing? She presented insights from Gen Z, a generation growing up entirely in the digital age. Many are actively questioning the value of constant convenience and are choosing to reclaim messiness, slowness, and even discomfort in pursuit of authenticity and connection.

She cited examples of Gen Z rejecting hyper-efficiency: people doing digital detoxes, switching to flip phones, or embracing digital minimalism. Many are rediscovering analog joys like drawing, writing stories, and being fully present. They’re recognizing that our brains are losing their ability to sit with thoughts — and that intimacy requires effort, time, and attention.

Companies are responding. Bottega Veneta shut down its social media in favor of a thoughtful, long-form digital journal. Bodega, in partnership with Heineken, released “The Boring Phone,” a device intentionally limited in functionality to encourage real-world interaction. These moves reflect a desire for slower, deeper engagement over endless content consumption.

Michelle underscored that Gen Z is not anti-technology — they’re fluent in it — but they’re calling for a different relationship with it. They remind us that not everything should be streamlined, and not every process should be automated.

She then explored how IDEO has used deliberate friction in real-world projects:

• In a partnership with Sesame Workshop, the “Elmo Calls” preschool app was designed so that Elmo would only appear in short bursts — creating special, meaningful moments instead of extended screen time.
• For Mattel, a new version of the classic View-Master was designed without a head strap. Kids could explore immersive VR scenes, but only for a minute or two before their arms got tired — encouraging play in the real world.
• In developing Ethically, an AI-powered writing tool for students, IDEO resisted the temptation to let AI write essays. Instead, the tool was designed to support students in crafting their own ideas, using AI to handle grammar and mechanics while preserving the joy of thinking and self-expression.
• Michelle made the case that not all work is created equal. Some tasks are burdensome and well-suited to automation, but others — like writing, reflecting, creating — are essential to being human. We shouldn’t let AI take those away.

She anticipated some skepticism: wouldn’t all this take more time? Isn’t speed important? Of course, she said — but we need to be selective about where we prioritize efficiency.

She proposed some thoughtful provocations:

• What if we didn’t watch videos at 2x speed?
• What if map apps offered a “discovery route” in addition to the fastest route?
• What if our social media feeds introduced pauses — prompts to take a walk, grab a coffee, or explore offline experiences?

Her message was clear: we can be more mindful about where we use technology to speed things up — and where we should design for friction, for thoughtfulness, for real connection.

Michelle concluded by inviting designers and technologists to reconsider their defaults. Instead of always designing for ease, what if we embraced complexity, ambiguity, and effort? Could life become more meaningful, more social, and more joyful?

A fitting end to a talk that reminded us: sometimes, the hard way is the best way.

🎙️ Better Research, Better Design

Speaker: Ned Dwyer, Co-founder & CEO of Great Question
🎞 You can watch the full speech on YouTube

At Config 2025, Ned Dwyer delivered a compelling talk titled “Better Research, Better Design”, where he emphasized the transformative power of UX research and how AI can democratize and accelerate it across organizations.

He began with a personal story from his previous startup, Tweaky, which allowed customers to tweak any part of their website for $25 per task. Despite early praise and media attention, the business struggled to scale. Eventually, it was acquired by GoDaddy. While this seemed like a success on the surface, Ned revealed that it felt like a personal failure — not because they sold, but because they never achieved the lasting impact they aspired to.

The core reason? A misalignment with what users truly wanted. Tweaky focused on the method (“tweaks”), whereas GoDaddy focused on the outcome: better websites. This insight, gained through UX research, helped GoDaddy grow the business significantly post-acquisition. It was a lesson in humility and the starting point for Ned’s next venture — Great Question.

Great Question is an all-in-one UX research platform that helps teams run interviews, surveys, and prototype tests — fast and affordably. Ned argued that the goal is to make research as accessible as Figma made design — breaking it out of the silo and into the hands of product managers, marketers, and developers.

He shared key insights:

• Talking to users isn’t enough. It’s not just about collecting opinions, but about deeply understanding customer needs, motivations, and frustrations.
• Prototype testing is an ideal entry point. It’s easy to start, requires minimal time, and yields high-impact insights — especially when done asynchronously with AI.
• AI removes research friction. Great Question can automatically suggest goals, methods, sample sizes, and even recruit participants from a global panel of 3 million users.
• Mixed-method research leads to better decisions. From pricing sensitivity studies to concept and usability testing, combining qualitative and quantitative methods creates stronger outcomes.
• Research isn’t always necessary — but knowing when it is, matters. For low-risk changes (e.g., button colors), ship fast. For high-risk decisions (e.g., pricing), research is non-negotiable.

Ned also challenged common excuses for skipping research — lack of time, budget, or access to users — calling them outdated myths. He encouraged teams to involve sales and customer success colleagues in user recruiting and leverage modern, AI-enabled tools to reduce cost and complexity.

He concluded with a live demo of Great Question’s AI-powered features. In less than five minutes, the tool helped frame a research goal, select a suitable method, identify participants, and generate a complete test plan with relevant questions. The results included AI-summarized insights, participant videos, and actionable clips — all integrated with tools like Figma.

Key takeaways:

• Quality research starts with quality participants.
• Give users just enough direction to simulate real-world conditions.
• Video feedback creates emotional impact and alignment across teams.
• UX research is a superpower — not only for better products but also for your own career growth.

Ned closed with a clear call to action: start small, but start today. One good conversation with a real user can change the direction of your product — and possibly your company.

🎙️ New options for accessible design

Speaker: Tal Kailler | Group Product Manager at Evinced
🎞 You can watch the full speech on YouTube

At Config 2025, Tal Kailler, accessibility advocate and product expert at Avinc, delivered a powerful and practical talk titled “New Options for Accessible Design”. Her session addressed a critical and often overlooked question in the design world: “Is this button truly accessible?” This seemingly simple question opened the door to a rich exploration of inclusive design practices and the tools that support them.

Accessibility: More Than Meets the Eye

Kailler reminded the audience that accessibility goes far beyond visual design. A button that looks fine — with decent contrast, readable font, and proper size — may still be inaccessible to a blind user or someone with motor impairments. She walked through essential considerations that every designer should account for:

• Can the button be operated via keyboard?
• Is the screen reader able to identify and announce it?
• Are focus states present and consistent?
• Does the component support all necessary interactions?

Without these considerations, a critical component like a checkout button might as well not exist for users relying on assistive technologies.

Introducing the Design Assistant Plugin for Figma

To address these challenges, Kailler introduced Design Assistant, a plugin built for Figma that simplifies and automates the process of making components and layouts accessible. The tool operates in two primary modes:

Component Mode — Automatically audits design components like buttons, checking for:

• Sufficient color contrast
• Complete focus and default states
• Proper size for touch targets

Layout Mode — Assists in annotating full pages by guiding designers through:

• Defining landmarks (e.g., Header, Main, Footer)
• Identifying heading structures
• Adding alternative text (alt text) for images and icons
• Creating proper keyboard navigation flows

The plugin not only evaluates your designs but also educates designers on accessibility principles, helping bridge the knowledge gap across teams.

Empowering Developers with Detailed Handoffs

One of the most practical aspects of Kailler’s solution is its developer-ready handoff documentation. Once accessibility checks are complete, Design Assistant generates:

• Semantic HTML and ARIA role recommendations
• Keyboard interaction guidelines
• Focus order annotations
• A detailed content hierarchy including alt texts and landmarks

These guidelines are saved within the Figma file itself, ensuring version consistency and security, even for developers with view-only access.

The Next Frontier: AI-Powered Accessibility

Looking ahead, Kailler shared a glimpse into what’s coming next from her team: an AI-powered auto-annotation tool that can scan entire designs and automatically apply accessibility annotations — from labeling images to defining complex structures like sortable data grids. This innovation aims to dramatically reduce the manual burden of accessibility work, especially for large and complex UIs.

Climbing the Mountain of Inclusive Experience

Kailler closed with a compelling metaphor: the “Design Mountain”. For users without disabilities, we rarely settle for a product that simply “works” — we strive for delight, simplicity, and speed. But for users with disabilities, many products still reside at the bottom of the mountain, providing only the most basic functionality.

Her call to action was clear: “We must climb the mountain of disability-inclusive design with the same passion we apply elsewhere.”

Kailler’s talk was a standout moment at Config 2025 — a reminder that true innovation in design isn’t just about what looks good, but what works well for everyone. With tools like Design Assistant and the power of AI, creating accessible products is no longer just a responsibility — it’s increasingly becoming achievable, automated, and collaborative.

🎙️Crossing the Chasm Between Quality and Performance

Speaker: Ricardo Vazquez, Director of Product Design at Dropbox
🎞 You can watch the full speech on YouTube

In this compelling talk, Ricardo Vazquez explores a critical yet often overlooked gap in product development — the artificial separation between quality and performance. Drawing on his experience at companies like Shopify and Dropbox, he argues that these two dimensions should not be treated as separate disciplines but as mutually reinforcing components of design excellence.

Ricardo begins by challenging a common industry assumption: that quality is owned by UX and design teams, while performance is the domain of engineering. This divide, he asserts, limits what cross-functional teams can achieve. He illustrates this point with a case study from Shopify, where his team reimagined the Point of Sale (POS) app for brick-and-mortar merchants. Unlike online merchants who interact with systems in quiet, controlled environments, in-store merchants face dynamic, high-pressure settings. Designing for this context required not just aesthetic clarity but also speed, stability, and reliability.

Despite building a beautiful and purpose-driven design system tailored for physical retail, Ricardo highlights that early user tests revealed a critical flaw: long checkout times. These delays — exceeding a minute — were unacceptable for daily, repetitive transactions. It was a stark reminder that without performance, design is merely decorative. True quality, he emphasized, must encompass both visual appeal and real-world functionality.

To bridge the gap, Ricardo focused on load lifecycle metrics — from Time to First Byte to Time to Interactive. These performance indicators allowed the team to track whether users could meaningfully engage with the app quickly and without friction. At Shopify, they created internal benchmarks for every key screen, treated performance KPIs on par with business metrics, and built dashboards to monitor and act on them. The result: they cut checkout times by more than half, delivering both delight and speed to their users.

At Dropbox, Ricardo applied a similar rigor but added a qualitative lens through what he calls “product principles.” These guiding values — such as “Give it focus,” “Make it just work,” “Make it magical,” and “Push it to premium” — help the design team center their work around clarity, user trust, and emotional resonance. He shared examples of how subtle copy changes, thoughtful interface reductions, and joyful micro-interactions contribute to perceived quality.

To ensure consistency across teams, Ricardo introduced “problem framing cards” at Dropbox. These artifacts help designers clearly define success, articulate trade-offs, and align with engineering and product leads. The cards include performance scorecards, quality metrics, and customer satisfaction indicators — tools that foster shared language and structured collaboration. Beyond closing the chasm between quality and performance, these tools improved internal team satisfaction and productivity.

In closing, Ricardo offers several “north stars” for teams seeking to navigate this space. He urges organizations to embrace intentional simplicity, create opinionated yet flexible frameworks, and above all, observe deeply — not just user behavior, but also organizational gaps in knowledge, communication, and accountability. Quality, he insists, must not be defined by visuals alone but by how well a product delivers against the user’s intent in real-world conditions.

By combining thoughtful design, measurable performance, and a culture of cross-functional collaboration, Ricardo Vazquez reminds us that the most enduring products are those that are not only beautiful and usable — but also fast, reliable, and built to empower.

Finally

In the end, Config 2025 did more than showcase the future of design — it highlighted the pivotal role designers play in responding to environmental crises, driving digital transformation, and navigating the rise of AI. This collection of 10 talks is an attempt to share insights, experiences, and lessons that can inspire and empower today’s and tomorrow’s design leaders.

I hope you find this series useful and thought-provoking. I’d love to hear your thoughts — let me know which talk resonated most with you and why. Let’s keep the conversation going and build a stronger, more connected design community together.

Listening to this discussion about the Scottish Police Service Design Team and its impact on public safety was both inspiring and educational. It demonstrated how service design can play a crucial role in improving the operations of a vital institution like the police.

One of the unique aspects of the Scottish Police Service Design team is their headquarters at Tulliallan Castle . This historic castle, located in the heart of Scotland, not only provides an inspiring workspace but also symbolizes the seamless blend of tradition and innovation in the country. The team’s presence in this setting fosters a dynamic and creative environment, instilling a strong sense of belonging and responsibility among its members. By leveraging modern design methodologies, they are committed to developing solutions that enhance public safety and improve police operations.

Service Design in Scottish Policing: A Groundbreaking Transformation

When Police Scotland underwent a structural overhaul, the service design team was integrated as a key element of the new organization. Rather than merely being an auxiliary unit, this team became a core component of the force’s new operational methods. Its primary mission was to collaborate with officers at all levels to understand their needs, identify challenges, and develop services that would enhance public security.

The Key Role of Service Design in Transforming Police Scotland

1. A Central Element of Organizational Reform

The service design team played a fundamental role in transforming Police Scotland, emphasizing the importance of service design as an essential function within the organization. It not only optimized existing services but also introduced new approaches to tackling complex security challenges.

2. A Collaborative and User-Centered Approach

The team continuously engages with officers at all levels to gain a deep understanding of their needs and challenges, ensuring that solutions are practical, effective, and aligned with the real requirements of the police force. This collaboration ensures that organizational changes are driven by the experiences and insights of frontline officers.

3. Developing and Delivering Innovative Services

The core responsibility of the team is to explore, design, and implement services that contribute to public safety. This process involves conducting research, analyzing experiential data, interviewing officers and citizens, and testing service prototypes, ultimately leading to enhanced efficiency and effectiveness within the organization.

4. Addressing Diverse Needs Across a Vast Geography

The service design team works closely with police officers in various environments, from densely populated urban areas like Glasgow to remote rural regions in the Highlands and Islands. This engagement ensures that designed services are flexible, scalable, and tailored to the unique challenges of each area, providing solutions that are both effective and adaptable.

5. Building Trust and Delivering Sustainable Value

The team operates based on six core principles aimed at fostering trust, enhancing engagement between police forces and communities, and improving public safety through effective design. These principles include transparency, understanding real needs, leveraging reliable data, developing collaborative solutions, and enhancing the quality of services provided to citizens.

6. A Unique and Inspiring Work Environment

One of the fascinating aspects of this team is its workplace — a 14th-century castle. This distinctive setting not only provides an inspiring atmosphere for innovation but also symbolizes Scotland’s seamless blend of history, tradition, and modernity. Working in such a historic space instills a sense of purpose and motivation in the team members, reinforcing their commitment to delivering the best possible services.

The Impact of Service Design on Public Safety

The presence of a service design team within Police Scotland has demonstrated how modern design approaches can drive positive change within a large and complex organization. Some of the most notable outcomes of these efforts include:

• Increased Operational Efficiency — Innovative solutions have optimized processes and reduced response times.

• Enhanced Police Officer Experience — Service design has created systems that better support officers in their daily operations.

• Improved Community Engagement — Mechanisms have been developed to strengthen the relationship between police forces and citizens, fostering public trust.

• Advancement of Data-Driven and Technological Systems — The integration of new technologies and data analytics has improved accuracy and effectiveness in decision-making.

• Strengthened Security in High-Risk Areas — Tailored solutions have been introduced to address the unique security needs of critical and high-risk regions through efficient service design.

Conclusion

Service design has proven to be a strategic tool in the restructuring of Police Scotland, enhancing organizational efficiency, fostering collaboration among police forces, and delivering more effective services to the public. By adhering to key design principles, the team has developed innovative, user-centered solutions that directly address the real needs of both officers and citizens.

The emphasis on data-driven decision-making, collaboration, and adaptability has enabled Police Scotland to operate more effectively in today’s rapidly evolving environment.

For me, listening to this episode was an invaluable experience, as it illustrated how Scotland, while preserving its historical identity, continues to embrace innovation and progress in crucial areas such as public safety. This is a shining example of how tradition and modernity can seamlessly coexist in a country I have always admired.

In a portion of his latest keynote speech at the Service Design Global Conference 2024, he addressed a significant and thought-provoking topic:
“One of the primary criticisms of the design thinking approach is that it has often been reduced to a mere toolkit. We extract individual pieces of these methods and apply them in workshops without considering the specific objectives or how the different parts interconnect. It’s as if we want to utilize these methods without understanding the underlying roots and assumptions.
This approach has its origins in industrial thinking and assembly lines. Process optimization and a mechanistic view of work stem from this mindset. But is designing digital products akin to mass-producing components? In the digital realm, our products exist as software and data, disseminated across vast platforms. These platforms are akin to complex ecosystems that necessitate a different approach.
Instead of viewing digital design as an assembly line, it’s more appropriate to liken it to a garden. A garden that is continually growing and evolving, requiring constant care and attention. Within this garden, the balance between individual creativity and group collaboration, between innovation and preserving harmony, is paramount.
For instance, landscaped gardens like Stourhead Park in the UK exemplify this approach. These gardens have evolved over time and interact with their surroundings. Digital design should similarly evolve continuously, adapting to user needs and the environment in which it is situated.”

Let’s not forget that design thinking training isn’t merely a one-day or multi-day workshop involving colorful sticky notes, employees casually gathered around a table, and a few toolkits.
The objective of design thinking training is to foster a cultural shift within an organization. This cultural transformation necessitates that all organizational members, from executives to frontline employees, perceive design thinking as a powerful approach to problem-solving and innovation and, more importantly, put it into practice.

Japan is renowned for its order, attention to detail, and commitment to quality. These attributes are embodied in a deep-rooted philosophy called “chanto,” which translates to “doing things properly.” Chanto goes beyond simply completing tasks; it’s a way of life that emphasizes precision, efficiency, and respect for one’s work and others.

Chanto (ちゃんと) is a Japanese word that conveys a sense of doing something earnestly, reliably, consistently, focused, accurately, and correctly. It can refer to your work or your interactions with others.

Examples of Chanto in Action One of the most striking examples of chanto can be seen in Tokyo’s public transportation system. The impeccable precision and order of Japanese trains are legendary. At every station, the platform attendant performs numerous safety checks, including inspecting the platform edge and train signals, to ensure that no passenger is at risk. This process is carried out with meticulous care, even if some of the actions seem redundant.

Why is Chanto so Important to the Japanese? There are several reasons for this:

• Reduced errors: Doing things right from the outset minimizes the likelihood of mistakes. This is crucial not only for simple tasks but also for complex and sensitive work.
• Increased efficiency: By focusing on precision and doing things correctly, processes can be optimized, reducing waste of time and resources.
• Building respect: Chanto demonstrates respect for oneself, others, and the work being done. When we approach tasks with care and precision, we show others that we value them and their work.
• Achieving satisfaction: Doing things right brings a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. Knowing that we have completed our tasks to the best of our ability motivates us to continue striving for improvement.

Lessons for Life Chanto is a philosophy that can be applied anywhere in the world, not just in Japan. By adopting a chanto approach in our lives, we can see positive changes in the quality of our work, relationships, and lives.

Here are a few tips for incorporating chanto into your daily life:

• Detailed planning: Before starting any task, dedicate time to planning and organizing the steps involved.
• Attention to detail: Pay attention to even the smallest details and leave nothing to chance.
• Care and patience: Don’t rush; do your work carefully and patiently.
• Accountability: Take responsibility for your work and its outcomes.
• Respect for others: Respect your colleagues, customers, and others, and do your best work for them.

By following these tips and adopting a chanto approach, we can achieve greater results and find more satisfaction in doing things right.

Leveraging the Philosophy of Chanto in Service Design

As a designer, I’ve been thinking about how applying the philosophy of chanto to service design (especially for businesses) could be incredibly effective. We can see the subtle influences of chanto in the work of Japanese service designers.

For example, in customer service, “meeting customer needs properly” means greeting customers, smiling, explaining services, respecting customers, being prompt, offering fair prices, ensuring quality, and providing after-sales support; all of which lead to customer satisfaction. And these factors are very important in the discussion of designing and providing services:

• Focusing on user needs
• Attention to detail
• Commitment to quality
• Long-term focus
• Importance of customer experience
• Creating seamless and frictionless user experiences
• Increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Strengthening brand reputation
• Creating a competitive advantage

Chanto, a philosophy deeply rooted in Japanese culture, can serve as a powerful philosophy (values and principles) and tool for service designers worldwide, in addition to its direct impacts on work and life. By understanding and applying chanto, designers can create services that are not only functional but also aesthetically and ethically outstanding.

Understanding Emotions: Key to User-Centered Design

Understanding human emotions is the foundation of user-centered design. “Inside Out,” by portraying emotions like joy, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger, demonstrates how these emotions influence individuals’ behavior and decision-making. By recognizing these emotions, designers can create products and services that address users’ real needs and deliver a positive and user-friendly experience.

Empathy: Bridging the Gap for Better Design

The film “Inside Out” strongly emphasizes the importance of empathy. Product and service designers should empathize with their users, putting themselves in their shoes to accurately comprehend their needs and challenges. This film, by showcasing the complexities of the emotional world, reminds designers how empathy can significantly impact product and service design.

Adaptability to Emotional Changes

“Inside Out” effectively illustrates how our emotions change over time, affecting our experiences. Product and service designers should consider that the user experience may evolve over time and should design products and services that are adaptable and can accommodate users’ changing emotional needs.

Creating Positive Emotional Experiences

One of the primary goals of product and service design is to create positive experiences for users. “Inside Out” reminds designers that positive and joyful experiences can significantly impact user satisfaction. Designers should strive to enhance positive emotions in users, whether through beautiful and user-friendly design or by providing high-quality services and responsiveness to user needs.

Drawing Inspiration from “Inside Out” for Behavior Design

Behavior design, a subset of user experience design, aims to induce desired behavioral changes in users. “Inside Out” can serve as a source of inspiration for designers, offering the following techniques for behavior design:

• Positive and Negative Reinforcement: Designers can utilize rewards and positive reinforcements to encourage desired behaviors, just as the character Joy in the film strives to keep Riley happy. For instance, offering points, discounts, or other rewards to users can promote positive behaviors.
• Principle of Emotional Association: In the film, each memory is linked to a specific emotion. Designers can enhance the user experience by creating positive emotional associations for users. For example, using pleasant colors, images, and sounds can contribute to a positive experience.
• Designing for Emotional Adaptability: As the film portrays, human emotions change over time. Designers should create products and services that can adapt to these changes and address users’ diverse emotional needs at different times.

Conclusion

The film “Inside Out” serves as a powerful educational tool for product and service designers, providing a deeper understanding of human emotions and their impact on the user experience. By watching this film, designers can cultivate greater empathy for their users and design products and services that not only meet practical user needs but also respond to their emotions and experiences. “Inside Out” reminds designers that product and service design is not solely about functionality and performance; it should also consider the human and emotional aspects of the user experience.

In the intricate world of large enterprises, where the boundaries between products and services often blur, the intersection of product design and service design is gaining increasing significance. This video, which summarizes a presentation at the ADPList BeMore 2023 festival titled “Product Design Meets Service Design in the Big Company World,” delves into these two disciplines.

Two experienced practitioners in the field, Stephen Barros[Staff Product Designer at Meta] and Federico Francioni [Head of Digital Ecosystem at Meta], provide valuable guidance for designers navigating this landscape by offering definitions, outlining the distinctions and overlaps, and sharing their own experiences. They also focus on the challenges and solutions facing product and service designers in large companies, ultimately offering insights to overcome hurdles and create seamless, user-centered experiences.

This video will be valuable not only for product and service designers but for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of how to craft positive user experiences in the complex world of large enterprises.

Defining Service Design:

• Service design focuses on the entire user experience, encompassing interactions before, during, and after using a product or service.
• It involves understanding the needs and wants of various stakeholders, including customers, employees, and partners.
• Service designers employ various methods like user journey mapping, prototyping, and user testing to create efficient and user-friendly services.

Distinguishing Product Design from Service Design:

• Product design centers on the features and functionality of a specific product.
• Product designers utilize methods like user research, interaction design, and prototyping to develop products that meet user needs and desires.
• Service design has a broader scope, encompassing the overall user experience when interacting with a company or organization.
• Service designers, in addition to the methods used by product designers, employ techniques like process mapping, system design, and stakeholder management.

The Overlap of Product Design and Service Design:

• While product design and service design are distinct disciplines, they share common ground.
• Both fields emphasize understanding user needs, creating efficient and user-friendly solutions, and delivering a positive user experience.
• In large companies, product and service designers often collaborate to create seamless, integrated user experiences.

Challenges of Product and Service Design in Large Companies:

• Large enterprises often have complex organizational structures that can hinder collaboration between different teams.
• Multiple stakeholders may be involved in product or service design decisions, potentially leading to conflicts and delays.
• Sufficient resources for user research, testing, and prototyping may not always be available.

Strategies to Overcome Product and Service Design Challenges in Large Companies:

• Establish a culture of collaboration across teams.
• Effectively communicate with stakeholders and manage their expectations.
• Utilize agile methods for developing and testing products and services.
• Measure and track the impact of design on the user experience.

Design Thinking: A Powerful Tool for Designers

• Design thinking can empower designers to develop creative and user-friendly solutions to complex problems.

Conclusion:

Product design and service design are two crucial disciplines that can be utilized to create positive user experiences in large companies. By understanding the distinctions and overlaps between these two fields, designers can collaborate to generate innovative and effective solutions.

“Design Transformation” represents a profound shift in the way organizations approach and integrate design into their business practices, strategies, and culture. This concept has gained significant traction as businesses increasingly recognize the value of design in driving innovation, improving user experiences, and gaining competitive advantage.

Definition and Scope
-Holistic Integration: Design Transformation involves embedding design thinking and methodologies into every facet of an organization, transcending traditional boundaries of where and how design is applied.
- Beyond Aesthetics: While design has often been seen primarily as a tool for improving aesthetics, Design Transformation recognizes its role in problem-solving, strategy development, and innovation.

Key Elements
1.Organizational Culture Change: Shifting the mindset from seeing design as merely a service to a strategic partner. This involves cultivating an environment where creativity, user-centricity, and experimentation are valued and encouraged.
2. Process Reengineering: Incorporating design methodologies, such as design thinking, into the core business processes, including product development, marketing, and even human resources.
3. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Encouraging collaboration between designers and other departments, breaking down silos to foster a more integrated approach to projects.
4. Capability Building: Investing in training and development programs to enhance the design skills of the workforce, including those in non-design roles.

The Core Principles of Design Transformation:

1. Action-Oriented Approach:
Transformation transcends theory; it demands execution. Beyond mere aesthetics, ‘Design’ in this context signifies a fundamental reorientation in problem-solving methodologies, combining strategic insight with bold, decisive action.

2. Harmonizing Internal and External Dynamics:
True Design Transformation encompasses more than external product solutions; it includes addressing internal organizational challenges. By resolving internal inefficiencies, businesses can amplify their impact externally, leading to enhanced customer experiences and a stronger market position.

3. Preparing for Constant Change:
In an era defined by unceasing change, Design Transformation prepares organizations to not just endure but flourish. It cultivates an ethos of readiness, enabling businesses to achieve long-term goals while adeptly navigating the flux of the business landscape.

4. Embracing Continuous Evolution:
Given the perpetual nature of change, transformation is not a finite project but an ongoing journey. It’s essential to embed this process into the very fabric of the business model, ensuring continuous evolution to confront emerging challenges and seize new opportunities.

Conclusion:
Design Transformation stands as a strategic cornerstone for businesses seeking to maintain competitiveness and relevance in tomorrow’s market. This holistic approach merges innovative thinking with operational shifts and perpetual adaptation. By adopting these principles, organizations can position themselves for enduring success, converting potential obstacles into avenues for growth and innovation.

In the realm of cinema, especially in the science fiction genre, the world displayed on the screen must be attention-grabbing, appealing, and sometimes believably predict different futures or realities. Here, product designers play a crucial role in transforming imaginative concepts into tangible elements that define the visual aesthetics and practicality of a film or series.

The role of a product designer in cinema
Product designers in the film industry are involved in designing and creating everything from futuristic gadgets to the design of spacecraft. Their work involves a combination of problem-solving, artistic, and practical design perspectives, meaning that each item is not only visually appealing but also makes sense within the story’s context. These designers collaborate closely with directors, production designers, and special effects teams to visualize the script’s descriptive imagery, while also designing products and gadgets that represent an ideal world free from our current problems.

Impact on storytelling
The contribution of product designers goes beyond visual appeal; they significantly influence the narrative. For example, the design of a gadget or vehicle can convey the technological advancement of a civilization or character in a science fiction story. The intricate design of the DeLorean in “Back to the Future,” the lightsabers in “Star Wars,” the operating system and smart gadgets in the film Her, or the pods in “The Pod Generation” that solve fertility issues, are not only symbolic but vital in narrative and character development.

Challenges and innovations
Product designers often face the challenge of balancing creativity and feasibility, especially in science fiction where the design must be both futuristic and relatable. They innovate with various materials and techniques to design and create high-quality, cost-effective designs that have not been seen before. This has led to advancements in various production techniques, including 3D printing and CGI modeling. For instance, 3D printers were used in making “Star Wars.”

Notable product designers in cinema
1. Syd Mead, known for his work on films like “Blade Runner,” “Tron,” and “Aliens,” has had a lasting impact on the science fiction genre with his futuristic designs.

2. Colin Cantwell, known for his work on “Star Wars,” designed some of the series’ most famous ships, including the Death Star, X-Wing, and TIE Fighter.

3. H.R. Giger’s unique biomechanical style, best exemplified in his creature and set designs for “Alien,” has been highly influential.

4. K.K. Barrett, the product designer for Her (2013), created a minimal and believable future with advanced AI-based operating systems, appealing and practical user interfaces, contributing significantly to the film’s ambiance. “Her” was nominated for production design and costume design awards at prestigious ceremonies like the Oscars but won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar awarded to Spike Jonze.

5. Navin Iyengar, a prominent and innovative product designer known for his work with Netflix. He leads a team focusing on UI/UX at Netflix, significantly impacting how users interact with the platform. He is renowned for creating user experiences that are both appealing and practical, playing a key role in improving film and series search and recommendation designs on Netflix. Given Netflix’s pioneering status in the streaming industry, his work in enhancing user experience on the platform is highly significant. He has also been a leader in the product design team for the series Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. His lecture titled “Design Like a Scientist” on YouTube is recommended viewing.

Conclusion
Product designers in science fiction films and series are unsung heroes essential in creating immersive and believable worlds. Their work bridges the gap between the director’s vision and the audience’s experience, making them crucial in the cinematic storytelling process. With advancing technology and growing interest in visually stunning and thought-provoking science fiction films, the role of these designers will continue to push the boundaries of imagination and design, even shaping ideas for our future world.

Rethinking Insurance: A Service, Not a Product
In the realm of insurance, exemplary customer experience is often an afterthought. This industry is typically mired in complexities and bureaucratic tangles, leaving customers feeling vulnerable, especially during times of need​​.

Gjensidige Forsikring ASA is a Norwegian insurance company. The company traces its roots back to 1816 when a fire mutual was founded as Land Gjensidige Brandkasse in what is today Innlandet county. Gjensidige demutualised and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in December 2010
https://www.gjensidige.com/

Gjensidige’s Strategic Shift
Facing a saturated and price-driven market, Gjensidige, a prominent Norwegian insurer, embarked on a transformative journey in 2009. Breaking away from traditional market practices, they pivoted towards enhancing their service quality, prioritizing customer needs above all else​​.

Cultivating a Customer-Centric Culture
To realize this vision, Gjensidige initiated a comprehensive change program titled “Extreme Customer Orientation.” Spearheaded by senior executives, the initiative aimed to restructure the company’s workflow, focusing on customer-oriented service delivery. This involved mobilizing internal change agents and setting up extensive training programs across the organization​​.

Embracing Service Design Principles
Gjensidige adopted service design methods to harmonize the operations of various departments, aligning them towards a cohesive, customer-first approach. They delved into intensive research to understand both customer and employee perspectives, uncovering insights that would reshape their service model​​.

Key Insights and Transformative Actions

Building Trust through Reliability: Addressing minor operational glitches significantly enhanced customer trust in the company​​.
Demystifying Insurance: A major goal was to clarify the often-invisible aspects of insurance, steering the focus from mere cost comparison to understanding value​​.
- Tailoring to Customer Preferences: Research revealed a preference for straightforward, transparent, and personalized insurance experiences​​.
- Redefining Internal Metrics: Gjensidige shifted its internal performance metrics to emphasize customer satisfaction, moving away from traditional sales targets​​.
- Authentic Engagement: The company stressed the importance of genuine, personalized interactions with customers​​.
- Unified Communication: Keeping communication channels consistent and customer-preferred was identified as key to enhancing the service experience​​.
- Simplification of Insurance Language: Efforts were made to make insurance terminology more accessible to the average customer​​.
Innovative Prototyping and Feedback
The company utilized advanced prototyping techniques, including a Microsoft Excel-based simulation, to test new service concepts. This approach enabled real-time feedback from staff and customers, refining the service proposition based on practical insights​​.

Transformative Outcomes
- Revolutionizing Product Offerings: Gjensidige simplified its product line from a plethora of options to just two comprehensive plans, a radical shift that brought clarity and ease to customers​​.
- Achieving Recognition and Success: This customer-centric approach led to a significant boost in customer satisfaction and financial performance, setting new industry standards​​.

Conclusion
Gjensidige’s story is a testament to the transformative power of service design in the insurance industry. By placing the customer at the heart of their operations, they not only enhanced service quality but also established a strong competitive position. This case highlights the efficacy of customer-centric strategies in fostering business growth and customer loyalty.

The article from the book “Service Design: From Insight to Implementation” focuses on the transformation of Gjensidige, Norway’s largest general insurer, from a product-oriented to a service-oriented company.

1.END OF AN ERA: IDEO has been synonymous with the term “design thinking,” a method that emphasizes empathy, ideation, and experimentation. The phrase “the era of design thinking is coming to an end” suggests that the industry is evolving beyond the principles Ideo espoused. This could be due to market saturation, changes in customer demand, or the emergence of new methods.

2. Market dynamics: The design industry is not immune to economic pressures. Factors such as global economic recession, changes in customer spending and competition can affect even the largest companies. The downsizing of the idea may reflect broader market challenges rather than reducing the relevance of design thinking.

3. Evolution of Design Thinking: While the core principles of design thinking remain valuable, the way they are applied may be changing. Companies may integrate these principles into their internal teams, reducing the need for outside consultants like Ideo. This self-sufficiency can affect the business models of design companies.

4. Digital Transformation: The rapid pace of digital transformation can change the landscape of design services. As more companies embrace digital solutions, there may be a shift toward digital experience design, data-driven design, or other specialties that require different skill sets.

5. Innovation and Adaptation: Downsizing at Ideo could be part of a strategic move to realign their services with emerging industry trends. Companies often need to innovate and adapt to stay relevant. The idea may focus on new areas of design that promise future growth.

6. Industry Impact: Ideo has been a leader in the design industry and its actions may have a ripple effect. Other companies may reevaluate their strategies, and professionals in the field may need to adapt their skills to the changing landscape.

In my opinion, Ideo’s recent move is a significant development in the design industry. This could indicate a shift in the relevance of design thinking, the need to adapt to market changes, or the emergence of new design paradigms. It’s a reminder that industries are dynamic and even the strongest companies must evolve to remain competitive.