WHY DESIGN?

What does it actually take to convince someone to write a cheque for a business that has to build something physical before it can sell anything?

In this compilation episode of Why Design, nine hardware founders and one investor share the belief that sits underneath every one of their rounds: that raising capital for a physical product is a fundamentally different exercise to raising for software, and treating it like the same game is how good companies lose winnable rounds.

Rather than accept the vague, feel-good pitch that dazzles nobody, this group of founders learned, sometimes the hard way, exactly what an investor is measuring, what a cap table cannot survive, and how far real discipline can stretch a small amount of capital.

This isn't about pitching harder. It's about understanding the room you're actually in.

Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign

What You'll Learn

• 💡 Why an investor calling your valuation too high can be the best call of your fundraise
• 📊 What investors are actually measuring when the product itself is emotionally compelling
• 🧾 How one missing founder vesting agreement can poison every future raise
• 🎯 Why the team slide belongs three slides into a deck, not seventeen
• ⚙️ How the leanest hardware teams turn limited capital into a competitive advantage
• 🚻 What female founders are still asked in rooms where their co-founders are asked about vision

Memorable Quotes

"My CEO thought it wasn't that good a call. But I thought it was a really great call."

Sid Shaikh, CTO, Fieldwork Robotics

"Investors invest in teams. Team slide needs to be like three slides in."

Bill Liao, General Partner, SOSV

"The investment just went poof."

Bill Liao, General Partner, SOSV

"We will always operate in the leanest way possible to keep everyone as creative as they can be."

Mark Tapscott, Co-founder, Longbow Motors

"We exist as a company because raising capital hasn't been easy."

Tess Cosad, CEO, Béa Fertility

Resources & Links

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign

📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte

About the Episode

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.

Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it: the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.

About Kodu

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups.

We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

What happens to a business the year there's no bonus to hand out?

In this episode of Why Design, Kirsty Dias shares the belief that sits at the heart of her work: that a creative business is built by giving people permission to take the slow, unglamorous route on the things that actually matter.

Rather than train as a designer, Kirsty studied French, worked in theatre and ran exhibitions at the Barbican. That decision led her into PriestmanGoode as head of comms 25 years ago, and eventually into the Managing Director's seat of one of the world's leading aviation and rail design consultancies.

This conversation isn't about aircraft seats.

It's about what it actually costs, in time and attention, to build a business that outlasts its founders.

Disclaimer:

This episode includes a brief, personal reflection on the tax treatment of employee ownership for founders. It is not tax, legal or financial advice. Please seek independent professional advice before making any related decisions.

What You'll Learn

• 🎯 Why running an aviation and rail design consultancy has nothing to do with holding a design degree
• 💡 How PriestmanGoode's business got stronger the one year it didn't pay a bonus
• 🛫 What actually happens between an airline's brief and the seat in front of you, from colour and material to a five year certification programme
• 🤝 Why Kirsty rates a stint on a bar or shop floor over a polished CV when she's hiring
• 🏫 How a deliberate, unglamorous investment in schools and internships built a team close to a 50-50 gender split
• 🔧 Why the design industry needs to explain its own career paths a lot better than it currently does

Memorable Quotes

“We became stronger as an EOT in the one year where we did not give a bonus.”

“I worked in the hairdressers as a receptionist when I was at sixth form. I use the skills that I learned in that job every day.”

“That is how you are convincingly yourself. Like don't pretend to be something you're not.”

“Use our expertise for good.”

“I think the ability to communicate and tell a story.”

Resources & Links

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign

📸 Follow @_whydesign on Instagram

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte

🔗 Explore PriestmanGoode

🔗 Connect with Kirsty Dias

About the Episode

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.

Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it: the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.

About Kodu

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups.

We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

What if the candidate who interviews best is exactly the one you should not hire?

In this compilation of Why Design, fifteen hardware founders, CTOs and design leaders share the belief that sits underneath every hire they have ever made: the CV gets someone in the room, but it never tells you who you are actually hiring.

Rather than trusting the interview process alone, several guests built their own techniques instead, deliberate questions, gut checks, and screens designed to get past a rehearsed answer. That decision led to hiring practices most HR playbooks would not recognise, and results most HR playbooks cannot claim.

This conversation isn't about interview technique.

It's about the cost of getting it wrong, and the discipline it takes to trust your own judgement over a process built for someone else's team.

Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast.

Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign

What You’ll Learn

• 🧠 Why the signals that predict a good hire are almost never on the CV
• ⚠️ How to spot the ego trap before you have made the offer
• 🎯 The interview questions built specifically to get past a rehearsed answer
• 💸 What the first firing actually costs, and why founders keep hiring too early anyway
• 🤝 Why the best leaders on this show all learned to hire above themselves
• 🔍 How to tell, in the room, whether your gut is right about a candidate

Memorable Quotes

“One person on that narcissistic spectrum in a startup can destroy the work of any other ten people at once.”

“The people who have big egos often present very well. The people who are humble but very talented often are a little too humble in the hiring process.”

“If you think the person isn't a fit, they're likely not a fit.”

“Never once have I had a bad feeling about someone and still offered them the job. Never has it worked out.”

“If they can do that in a way that shows me they've actually thought about it, and can articulate it, that's a win.”

Resources & Links

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign

📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte

🔗 Explore the full guest list and individual episodes → whydesign

🔗 Get in touch about a hardware hire → teamkodu.com

About the Episode

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.

Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.

About Kodu

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups.

We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

The hardware and deep tech industry does not do much to tell talented people how to get in, when to make a move, or how to build a career that lasts.

Over twelve episodes of Why Design, Chris Whyte has spoken with founders, CTOs, and senior design and engineering leaders who worked all of that out for themselves, often without a roadmap.

This compilation is the result.

Featured guests

- Tess Cosad, CEO, Béa Fertility (Ep 01) on the one thing she looks for in every hire, and what that tells candidates about how to show up.

- Dan Salisbury, Industrial Designer, Automata (Ep 02) on almost not passing probation, playing to his strengths, and why he would not jump ship for anything less than exactly right.

- Dr Liz McGloughlin, Co-Founder, Tympany Medical (Ep 03) on how to articulate yourself in five or six sentences, and why most people skip the most practisable part of interview preparation.

- Rob Hallifax, Co-Founder, Windfall Energy (Ep 04) on meeting his co-founder at a random IoT meetup and why getting out there is the one strategy that has never let him down.

- Sid Shaikh, CTO, Fieldwork Robotics (Ep 05) on what attracts great engineers to startups, and why communication is the professional habit that compounds fastest over a career.

- Felicity Boyce, Head of R&D, Koroyd (Ep 06) on going with her gut to move to Monaco for a role she could not fully see yet, and what saying yes to something terrifying actually taught her.

- Matt Batchelor, Co-founder, Instrument Industries (Ep 08) on building a portfolio after redundancy, funding a master's degree through a Victorian-era scholarship, and his take on what a career actually is.

- Bob Schwartz, Design Leader and CDO, GE Healthcare, P&G, and Motorola (Ep 10) on table stakes in an interview, how to guide the room when you are the one being interviewed, and the question he wishes someone had asked him thirty years earlier.

- Mark Tapscott, Co-founder, Longbow Motors (Ep 11) on buying a Lotus Elise on a student loan, trading his time with race teams to get in, and what it costs to live the work you have always wanted to do.

- Lisa Gralnek, US Managing Director, iF Design (Ep 12) on a thirty-year career of taking roles that did not exist, and what it means to be found rather than to apply.

- Stephan Clambaneva, Creative Director, PARK (Ep 14) on what David Kelly told him about identity, and why leaning into what makes you different is the only career strategy that actually holds up.

- Shaun Fynn, Founder, Studio Fynn (Ep 16) on what he believed about design at 25 that he no longer believes, and why the impact he was after requires disciplines design cannot access on its own.

What you will learn

* Why the skills on your CV are table stakes and what interviewers are actually deciding in the room

* How to articulate who you are as a designer or engineer in five to six sentences before anyone asks

* Why the most interesting hardware careers were built through side doors, traded time, and things that looked wrong from the outside

* How to trust your gut on a career move when you do not have all the information

* What sustains a long career in physical product when the work is hard and the bag is still packed

* Why leaning into what makes you different is more effective than trying to replicate what worked for someone else

* How to communicate up and down and across technical and non-technical audiences as a technical leader

* What the question "what is your why" actually reveals when you have to answer it honestly

Resources and Links

Béa Fertility: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E1

Automata: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E2

Tympany Medical: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E3

Windfall Energy: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E4

Fieldwork Robotics: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E5

Koroyd: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E6

Instrument Industries: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E8

iF Design ifdesign.com: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E12

PARK: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E14

Studio Fynn: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E16

Longbow Motors: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E11

Bob Schwartz: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E10

About Kodu

Kodu is the specialist recruitment partner for hardware and deep tech teams. We place industrial designers, mechanical engineers, and product development leaders in companies building physical products, from medtech and consumer hardware to robotics and mobility. We work with founding teams and global R&D organisations alike, and we understand what great looks like in the room, not just on paper. NPS: +92.

teamkodu.com

About the Episode

Nobody Told Me How to Get Here | Why Design: Being Hired is a compilation episode of Why Design, the podcast hosted by Chris Whyte, founder of Kodu. Each episode brings together founders, engineers, and design leaders working at the frontier of physical product to talk honestly about what it takes to build hardware teams that ship.

Looking for your next role in hardware or deep tech?

Kodu specialises in placing industrial designers, mechanical engineers, and product development leaders across medtech, consumer hardware, robotics, mobility, and more.

Get in touch: teamkodu.com

What if the most important thing a designer can do has nothing to do with making?

In this episode of Why Design, Shaun Fynn shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that observation, not making, is the true foundation of design. That culture defines meaning. That before you build anything, you have to understand who will receive it including, eventually, who will receive it when it is done being useful.

Rather than staying in the design of products, Fynn chose to follow the question of why. That decision led to a research practice serving Steelcase, Coca-Cola, HNI and KI, to documentaries filmed on e-waste landfill sites in Delhi, to photography books published by Princeton Architectural Press, and to a new venture called Apertura, which places branded storytelling inside architectural space.

This conversation is not about making better products. It is about what design looks like when it starts with observation and follows the question all the way to the end.

Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast.

Join the Why Design community at teamkodu.com/whydesign

What You'll Learn

• 🌍 Why living across four countries does not just broaden your perspective - it permanently rewires how you read meaning in objects and spaces.
• 🔎 How to make the intangible tangible: the phrase a Steelcase design director used to describe Studio Fynn, and what it means in practice.
• 📽️ Why visual storytelling does what a strategy deck cannot, and how Fynn has used documentary and photography to shift actual business decisions.
• 🏙️ What Le Corbusier's lead architect told a young researcher when asked what the master said to him: "Everything is there. If you deserve it, you will see it."
• 🗑️ Why the world of the receiver the people who inherit discarded products at the end of their useful life is the design problem the industry has consistently refused to look at.
• 🏛️ How Apertura is using architectural space as a medium for branded cultural stories, and why Fynn believes it is the next frontier for getting art out of the gallery and into public life.

Memorable Quotes

"Culture defines meaning. What we were designing for maybe one market or one culture was not relevant to the other."

"A presentation can often just be seen as a document of what you've done. Visual storytelling, I think, understands the media you're using and the audience you speak to."

"We don't spend much time on looking at who receives things once they are done - once they've finished their active life."

"He said nothing. He said, everything is there. If you deserve it, you will see it."

"When I was younger, I believed design had more power than it really does. I always thought singularly that design can change something."

Resources and Links

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon -> whydesign.club

👥 Join the Why Design community -> teamkodu.com/whydesign

📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram

🎥 Watch full episodes -> YouTube.com/@whydesignpod

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte -> linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte

🔗 Explore Studio Fynn -> studiofynn.com

🔗 Explore Apertura -> apertura-art.com

Connect with Shaun: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaun-fynn-8b317a3/

About the Episode

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.

Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.

About Kodu

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups.

We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership - bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.

🔗 Learn more -> teamkodu.com

What does twenty years of serious product work actually look like from the inside?

In this episode of Why Design, Marco and Mark, co-founders of Pensa, share the belief that sits at the heart of their work: that the best products come from designers and engineers working through the same problems at the same time, not handing work over fences and telling each other what can't be done.

Rather than building a conventional consultancy where disciplines operate in sequence, Marco and Mark built Pensa around a model they call finishing, not fixing. That decision led to a 20-year-old studio in Brooklyn that has worked on everything from razors to wire bending machines to medical implants, much of it still under NDA.

This conversation isn't about design trends or career highlights.

It's about what it takes to build something that lasts.

It's about what happens when you build a founding team of people who don't do the same thing.

It's about the ego problem in hiring, and why the people who want the job the most often show it the least.

Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community: teamkodu.com/whydesign

What You'll Learn

• Why involving engineers and designers together from day one produces better outcomes than the standard design-then-engineering handoff
• How Pensa solved a decade-long invisible portfolio problem by building their own products under the Pensa Labs name
• Why the most dangerous hire in a creative studio is the person who presents brilliantly but can't move a project
• How a wire bending tool built for internal use became a bootstrapped product business serving aerospace, orthodontics, and medical implants
• What "finishing not fixing" looks like in practice, including the OneBlade razor story where dozens of prototypes led to a pivot that became the foundation of all subsequent work
• Why storytelling is the most underrated skill for designers and engineers, and why the ability to bring a client along on a three-year development process matters more than most schools teach

Memorable Quotes

"It's not giving up to admit that we need to pivot to a direction that's simpler. And simpler is usually better."

"We got to see foldable phones ten years before they came out because we were working on it."

"People who have big egos often present very well. And the people who are humble but very talented often are a little too humble in the hiring process."

"You're not going to AI your way out of that discussion."

"The last thing you want is partners that do the same thing that you do."

Resources & Links

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign

📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte

🔗 Explore Pensa → pensa.co

🔗 Connect with Marco & Mark → Marco / Mark

About the Episode

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.

Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.

About Kodu

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups.

We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

Are you designing for the middle of the bell curve, or for the people who need it most?

In this episode of Why Design, Stephan Clambaneva shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that industrial design's greatest contribution is at the front end of product development, where 80% of environmental impact is determined, where material choices get locked in, and where the decisions that actually matter are still open.

Rather than taking the conventional path of pure industrial design consultancy, Stephan built a career across mechanical engineering, CAD work, sustainability research, design leadership education, and two decades of community-building inside IDSA. That refusal to specialise led to a perspective that very few practitioners have.

This conversation isn't about making good-looking products. It's about the responsibility that comes with sitting at the tip of the spear.

This conversation isn't about AI replacing designers. It's about what happens when the average becomes the default.

Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast.

Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign

What You'll Learn

• 🧠 Why AI is architecturally designed to find the average, and why that is the opposite of what good design does
• 🔩 How 80% of environmental impact is locked in by the first 20% of the product development process
• 🏛 Why Stephan pushed IDSA into NYC Design Week a decade ago and what it took to make it happen
• 👥 How the Park Academy surfaces gaps that successful design managers did not know they had
• ♻️ Why people, planet, prosperity is a more useful frame than people, planet, profit
• 🎨 Why sketching is still the skill young industrial designers most undervalue

Memorable Quotes

“If you’re using a large language model, no matter how good it is, it’s gonna find the average. It’s gonna find the safe thing.”

“80% of the costs, 80% of the impact on the environment is determined in the initial 20% of the product development process. That’s where design lives. That’s where innovation lives.”

“We need to move away from people, planet, profit to people, planet, prosperity. It’s not about profit. You have to be profitable, otherwise you’ll go out of business. But you don’t have to make 100 million percent profit. If you can be prosperous, it might even be a better metric.”

“If you can find someone that can do something 80% as well as you, that’s golden.”

“If you’re taking on a new role, the easiest thing to do is to make a bunch of changes. What I would say is just wait a little bit, take a pause, get to know the organization.”

Resources & Links

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign

📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte

🔗 Explore Park → https://park.bz/

🔗 Connect with Stephan Clambaneva → https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanclambaneva/

About the Episode

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.

Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build — but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.

About Kodu

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups.

We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership — bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

What if the science works, the market is ready, and your company still dies?

In this episode of Why Design, Bill Liao shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that the stories we co-believe in are our civilisation, and that the words you choose, the values you name, and the futures you speak aloud determine not just what you build, but whether it survives.

Rather than following a conventional path from engineer to executive, Bill built a career at the intersection of technology, persuasion, and purpose. From co-founding WeForest to investing in molecular medicine and microbiome hardware at SOSV, that decision led to a body of work shaped by one question: what actually kills companies?

This conversation is not about funding rounds or product-market fit. It is about the gap between doubt and conviction, why self-actualisation is a lie, and what happens when the air goes out of a room.

Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast.

Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign

What You'll Learn

• 🧠 Why values alignment is worth more than skill when building the first team, and how to test for it in an interview
• 🔍 How oxidised cholesterol causes four in ten human deaths, and why Cyclarity’s molecule may change that
• 💬 Why replacing the word “but” with “and” changes how people receive disagreement
• 🧘 What intersubjective actualisation means, why it makes people happier than self-actualisation, and why AI makes it harder
• 🌿 How to use Food Marble to identify which foods are disrupting your microbiome at home
• ⏰ Why the half-life of an insight is twenty-four hours, and the only way to extend it

Memorable Quotes

“The future that you set is the now that you get.”

“The only difference between persuasion and manipulation is intent.”

“One person on that narcissistic spectrum in a startup can destroy the work of any other ten people at once.”

“It’s not the persistent hallucination that gets under my skin. It’s the unbelievably sycophantic yet confident way in which it tells you the lies.”

“The half-life of an insight is 24 hours. And the only way to extend its half-life is to take action on it.”

6e. Resources and Links

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign

📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte

🔗 Connect with Bill Liao → LinkedIn

About the Episode

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry. Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.

About Kodu

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership — bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

What does it take to build brand presence for one of the world's most rigorous design institutions in a market that barely knows it exists?

In this episode of Why Design, Lisa Gralnek shares the belief that sits at the heart of her work: that design is not just products and packaging, but platforms, places, and policies and that if designers cannot speak the language of business, they will always be treated as a cost centre.

Rather than staying in a thriving solo consultancy, Lisa chose to take the first role she had ever been offered that she had not in some way anticipated. That decision led to becoming iF Design's first ever US Managing Director, Head of Global Sustainability and Impact, and the person responsible for introducing one of the world's oldest and most rigorous design institutions to a market that had never needed to think about it before.

This conversation is not about design awards. It is about what happens when you spend 30 years building things that do not exist yet - and what that costs, and what it gives you.

Join the Why Design community -> teamkodu.com/whydesign

What You'll Learn

• 🧭 Why iF Design had 74 years of global authority and almost no US brand presence outside product design, and what it actually takes to change that.
• 🔄 How change agents get beaten by organisations, not by their own ideas - and what to check before taking on an internal transformation role.
• 💬 Why designers who cannot speak the language of business will always be positioned as a cost centre, and how the iF Design Academy is trying to fix it.
• 🤖 What confident AI decision-making looks like for design leaders who are not engineers and cannot predict where the field is going.
• 🌱 Why 20% of every iF Design Award score now goes to sustainability across all 93 categories - and what the gold winners tell you about what excellence really means.
• 🏗️ How to think about design leadership in hardware when talent pipelines are shrinking and everything is changing faster than your planning cycle.

Memorable Quotes

"I've only ever in that almost 30 year career had roles that don't exist before I take them."

"There are 10,000 things that can go wrong in change management... 9,998 of them have nothing to do with the change agent."

"The hybrid between the business and the creative side. That is my superpower."

"I graduated into financial collapse of 08 with over $200,000 of capitalized debt for that short degree program."

"You design products, you design packaging, you design platforms, you design places, you design policies. Like it is all design."

Resources & Links

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon -> whydesign.club

👥 Join the Why Design community -> teamkodu.com/whydesign

📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram

🎥 Watch full episodes -> YouTube.com/@whydesignpod

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte -> linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte

🔗 Connect with - iF Design

🔗 Connect with Lisa Gralnek -> LinkedIn

About the Episode

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.

Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.

About Kodu

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups.

We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.

When was the last time a car company asked you what you actually wanted in the car before they built it?

In this episode of Why Design, Mark Tapscott shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that lightness is not a compromise. It is the design. That an electric sports car under 900 kilograms, built in Britain, engaging to drive and priced within reach of ambitious buyers, is not just possible but necessary. And that the automotive industry has spent decades walking in the wrong direction.

Rather than building a vertically integrated giant, Mark and his co-founder Daniel chose a decentralised model: the best experts in brakes work on brakes, the best in hydraulics work on hydraulics, all coordinated from the centre. That decision led to a fully driving prototype in seven months and a chassis platform now being considered by other manufacturers.

This conversation is not about electric cars. It is about what happens when you take lightness seriously as a design principle.

It is not about startup culture. It is about what genuine empowerment to make decisions looks and feels like.

It is not about the legacy of Tesla. It is about what Mark carried from that experience into what he is building now.

Join the Why Design community: teamkodu.com/whydesign

What You'll Learn

• 🔧 Why the philosophy inside early Tesla was built around the cost of stalling rather than the cost of making a wrong call
• ⚖️ How Longbow went from drawings to a driving prototype in seven months without a traditional in-house engineering team
• 📐 Why lightweighting is a design argument, not just a technical one, and what gets better when you take it seriously across all forms of transport
• 🎯 What 200 customer interviews revealed that most automotive brands never bother to find out
• 🏭 Why building in Britain is a strategic advantage in performance and prestige, not a patriotic compromise
• 🔩 How Peter Brock, designer of the first Corvette and still working in his nineties, thinks about what comes next rather than what he has already done

Memorable Quotes

"Good decisions aren't always the right ones, but you have the freedom to make those decisions."

"If you were to ever say that's how someone else does something, that would be your easiest exit plan for Tesla."

"Everything's getting heavier, Chris. It's like we've walked ourselves into it."

"You are not a car company until you have delivered cars to customers."

"The bag will remain packed and I'll keep a smile on my face until it's done."

Resources & Links

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign

📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte

🔗 Explore Longbow Motors → longbowmotors.com

🔗 Connect with Mark Tapscott → LinkedIn

About the Episode

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.

Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.

About Kodu

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups.

We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com