WHY DESIGN?

Why would Airbus bring in three guys in a shed at the bottom of somebody's garden?

In this episode of Why Design, Nick Ford shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that a small, curious team brought in at exactly the point where others get stuck will outperform a bigger one, provided it is willing to break things to learn.

Rather than following an academic route into design, Nick chose the shop floor of a racing engine company, broom in hand, asking questions until the machinists taught him their jobs. That decision led to museum exhibits, an insolvency, Pipsqueak, more than a thousand jobs, and a tool Airbus uses to fit engines to wings.

This conversation isn't about a career path. It's about choosing who you work for, and what you are prepared to say no to.

Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast.

Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign

What You'll Learn

• 🚛 Why Nick drove a 32 ton lorry over his own prototype, on purpose
• 🧹 How a cleaner with too many questions learned every machinist's job
• 🏗️ Why big engineering firms hand their £10k jobs to a tiny studio
• ✈️ What Airbus needed that only three guys in a shed could deliver
• 💷 How Patent Box can cut corporation tax on patent profits to 10%
• 🎓 What happens when a design studio commits to work experience for 18 years

Memorable Quotes

"But what I loved about being a cleaner is that I wasn't a threat to anyone."

"Children are the most constructive and the most destructive force known to man."

"And so it's very easy to be popular if you're selling pound coins for 50p."

"We are there to make our clients look good. period. If we can't do that, we are failing."

"if you don't understand IP, you don't understand business."

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

🔗 Explore Pipsqueak Developments → pipdev.co.uk

🔗 Explore Patent Ferret → patentferret.co.uk

🔗 Connect with Nick Ford → linkedin.com/in/nick-ford-ps

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 compilation pulls together four Season 4 guests, a CEO, two design and innovation leaders, and a design consultancy owner, on where AI genuinely helps a hardware or design business: faster prototyping, a levelled playing field for smaller teams, a design process that runs like a loop. Every one of them also draws a line around what they're not ready to hand over: sketching, hiring judgement, the discipline to not chase every shiny new tool.

This is a short cut, roughly three and a half minutes, because that's the honest amount of verified, on-topic AI material Season 4 actually contains. No trailer, no host narration. Just four guests, in their own words.

Join the Why Design community to keep the conversation going: teamkodu.com/whydesign

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. Planning to interview for them with us? Here is what you need to know: VAX UK

What You'll Learn in this episode:

• 🔓 Why AI and cheaper design tools have removed the innovation monopoly that big organisations used to hold
• ✏️ Why an EVP of Industrial Design still won't hire on sketching skill alone if it's been replaced by an AI tool
• 🔁 What generative design looks like when a team, not software, runs the iteration loop
• 📈 Why a design consultancy owner treats the current AI moment like the dot-com era: worth testing, not worth betting the business model on
• 🚩 Why a CV or an application that reads as AI-polished can be a red flag rather than a strength

Memorable Quotes

"That has gone. You can design, prototype, innovate." — Will Butler-Adams OBE, Brompton

"If you can't communicate by sketching, that's a huge disadvantage." — Tylan Tschopp, Westinghouse

"It isn't chat GBT and it's got some left-of-field odd things in it." — Will Butler-Adams OBE, Brompton

"It reminds me of the dot com days." — Paul Metaxatos, Motive Design

"It's working as a full organism where people don't fight for your idea." — Joachim, FutureWave

Resources & Links

• 🎙️ Why Design podcast: whydesign.club
• 👥 Join the community: teamkodu.com/whydesign
• 📸 Instagram: @whydesignxkodu
• ▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@whydesignpod
• 💼 Chris Whyte: linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte

About the Episode

AI Doesn't Replace the Craft | Why Design: AI 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.

Average time-to-offer: 5 to 6 weeks on senior hardware roles. Retention at 12 months: 97%. All-time NPS: +92.

Learn more: teamkodu.com

What does two million pounds actually buy a hardware founder, and what does it cost?

This compilation pulls together nine Season 4 guests, founders, owners and senior leaders building physical products, on the money side of the business they don't usually put in the pitch deck: the near miss on running out of cash, the grant that only exists for companies younger than theirs, the licence that handed away creative control, and the acquisition or private ownership that bought speed a round never could.

No trailer, no host narration in this cut. Just nine guests, in their own words, on raising, not raising, and what it actually costs to keep control of what you built.

Join the Why Design community to keep the conversation going: teamkodu.com/whydesign

What You'll Learn

• 💸 Why raising too much too early can do more damage than raising too little
• 📉 How one bad round pushed a bike brand to sell at a loss until it went bust
• 📝 What a public grant's age rules can cost a growing hardware company
• 😴 Why staying debt-free changes how a founder sleeps at night
• 🤝 How an acquisition can hand a small business resources no round can match
• ©️ What licensing an invention actually costs a designer in creative control
• 💰 Why revenue generation from day one is a deliberate alternative to raising
• ⚡ How private ownership lets a leadership team commit fully instead of stopping and starting

Memorable Quotes

"Soon you're a puppet.", Paul Metaxatos, Motive Design

"It wouldn't work. No, it just wouldn't work. We're too long term.", Will Butler-Adams OBE, Brompton

"Really the fundraise is just ridiculous.", Joachim, FutureWave

"I'm not eligible anymore to this public funding.", Remi, Diplik / Bitpong

"This is my main job now, albeit one with zero salary.", Paul Marshall, Rapid Fluidics

"We've got to grow to survive. That's how a business survives, is risk by growth.", Paul Marshall, Rapid Fluidics

Resources & Links

🎧 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

The Money Side of Hardware | Why Design: Investment and Fundraising 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.

Average time-to-offer: 5 to 6 weeks on senior hardware roles. Retention at 12 months: 97%. All-time NPS: +92.

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

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.

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.

• 🔍 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.

"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/

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.

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

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/

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.

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.

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.