Name: Brainstorm Design 2019: A People-first Approach To Innovation
Uploaded: 2019-03-19
Duration: 21 min 1 s
Description: Fortune's Maithreyi Seetharaman interviews Jenny Arden, Director of Transportation, Airbnb

She has the most interesting history that I could imagine for someone who has been on both the design side, and the business side. Studied fine arts, oil painting am I right? That's right. Went to college, did graphic designing with physics. Who combines those two? I ask. Then she had jobs at JP Morgan, Goldman- Sachs, [ UNKNOWN ], Google with their self- driving cars, Airbnb with now two different roles. I think the first question to ask, since we've been talking about his combination of finding value in business and design Is who exactly is Jenny Arden? Love that question. It's always a soul- searching question isn't it? So as she mentioned, I started out as an artist. As a child, I was very drawn to just fine arts in general, painting and drawing. I had a pretty intensive art studies as a young child and then went into classical portrait art, portrait painting. And a lot of that process is actually not about the product of painting and the product of the art that you create but Seeing what is actually right in front of you and painting it accurately. So it's a truth seeking exercise, and when I progressed throughout my career I found that the reason why I gravitated away from fine arts and into design, is that it became a much more interesting problem for me to solve not who is the person in front of me that I'm painting, but what am I actually solving for and what's the real problem to solve for here and what's the truth behind that problem, so if you hear designers say all the time, Why are we doing this? That's why they're asking that question all the time. They want to know what's the real issue and the real problem in front of them. So throughout my career, yeah. I've gone through quiet a journey, I worked in financial services for 10 years. [ UNKNOWN ] was you know, Tim was here earlier here today. That was amazing opportunities as well, Google, the self driving projects. The thread between all of these ventures and all of these roles. Is that I truly enjoy understanding what is the mega- problem behind it. What's the systemic problem that's behind it that needs to be solved? And I really love geeking Speaking out on specific domains like having no experience or no understanding for financial services whatsoever sitting on a treating platform at gold movement and suddenly I'm talking baskets and options because I'm absorbing it through some sort of osmosis I'm learning at rapid fire how exactly they do they job in deigning software for them. And the same thing happened at Google, working on the self- driving car. I didn't know anything robotics, LIDAR, all of these technologies that they were creating. And suddenly I'm talking shop with them, and these are guys who have PhDs, the top thinkers of the world in robotics. And I get to sit next to them and talk about their job, understand them, and then translate that into an actual human interface. And so I think that this is something that I personally really really love and thrive of this. It sought of like that deep download of a domain and truly understanding it. So that seems to have translated across and And the kind of work you've done in the past and Airbnb as well. And we can't avoid the fact that you now do have a very interesting role that, I'm guessing a whole bunch of people wanna more about. [ LAUGH ] But first, let's touch on one point that you may, you like the whole download aspect and then translating the problem How does it get tackled at Airbnb when you're looking at all the various stakeholders? Whether it be hosts or the customers, or the internal teams themselves. How does that process work for you? And how do you drive it? Because now you're on the business side. Yeah. How do you bridge the gap between the business side and the design side. Yes, for some context here, my role has been a designer role. I've been a design director so I had the responsibility of representing users, that's the ultimate job of a design actor to represent that voice and make sure that the customer Is not forgotten in the strategy and in the plans that you develop. And I think my transition now is actually a business role. This is really kind of different right now for me in that I'm, you know, accountable for the full- fledged strategy. Though its early stage, we don't necessarily have that. But we're forming it. And also the " pinelle ", like real business- type things that you wouldn't normally put a designer responsible for. But the reason why we're doing this is we believe that first and foremost, as a business, you design products that people need. That they want. And then from there, a strategy unfolds. And you start to discover. And a lot of what I'm doing is like a startup. I'm acting as an entrepreneur. I'm acting as a founder. There's no job too small or too large in my role. Which is why we kind of just put it in to this umbrella business role. So how do you accountability in all of that? Yeah. So accountability for me is recognizing that before as a designer like I said, accountable for the user. But now I'm accountable for actually delivering the whole [ UNKNOWN ]. This means yes, what the user wants, but also what the business needs. And connecting the two together. So for me, they're one and the same currently. I think it's more common that these roles and responsibilities, it's divided into multiple people, not just one. But this is really early early stage. Certainly we'll grow and probably what I'm doing right now will be separated into many people. But right now in this sort of early stage phase, we get the opportunity to just dream. About what's possible for travel, and keep that focused on the user, and then figure out what the business will do. So what is on the Jenny Arden wishlist, because your CEO has said that this entire entry that you're making into what is a very, very competitive field It needs to be seamless, but for it not to be just another place to buy a ticket. You've also hired someone who's well- known for being in the airline industry that you'll be working with. So within all of that context, what is the wish list that you're going to aim for? Yeah, I mean, I have my own personal wish list. These are just my aspirations for those who want to travel at all. Our mission at Airbnb is to provide a world where anyone can belong anywhere. And this is really meaning, you can travel to a community that you've never seen before, and feel like. You are a welcome member of that community, even if it's just temporarily, for a few days or months or years. And my hope is that that mission and that vision can be achieved in all phases of a trip. So I'm pretty sure there's a universal truth that As you are travelling safe through an airport and they are moments where you do not feel like you belong in fact they are moments in transportation in particular where it's design to not make you feel like you belong, you need to be at you know hyper- alert and hear this announcements in the airport like stay alert, look for suspicious packages, I mean there is a lot of signals to users. Puts them in a state of just god. And so a lot other things I just dream about and think about is a world and a future in which every single moment of a trip, not just the products that you buy when you book a trip, like you knew you will rent a car and you will rent a house and You book a flight but every single moment in between that we don't drop you, that there's no lack of thought that went into the end- to- end experience. So that there's this sense of like, okay, well I belong to that moment, but I didn't belong in that moment and that's okay. We actually might say that that's not okay, that you should actually feel And joy the moment you leave your house and the moment you return home. So Ben Shepard made an interesting point in one of his leavers. He talked about more than a feeling. How is that in your mind's eye at this point because this is a work in progress. How is it going to be more than a feeling for Airbnb? Because you guys have done a great job in the first two sections of A, booking a place, say, and then having an amazing experience when you get Get there. What do you think is gonna happen for this to become more than a feeling? Yeah, I'm not sure if we've ever operated based off of feelings. I don't think that that's a real accurate description of what designers do. So to push on that, more than a feeling is actually opportunity. We see opportunity because the users are telling us this. We have millions of users telling us exactly what they hope for. What's painful and what's not painful. So if anything it's not a feeling, it's listening. It's empathy and compassion. But it's in all of that ends up being an opportunity to do better and have something that people actually love. And are willing to either pay for or have loyalty behind. So how are you going to get the business side and the designers to work on this very interesting third element that you're adding to Airbnb? How is that going to function when it comes to the teams? Because that's something that people would wonder. You're going up against an incumbent industry, again, which has had a lot of time, and is quite entrenched in its own culture. Yeah, we don't really get caught up in, is it competitive? I mean, we wouldn't have started the company if we were just thinking about, there's so much competition in accommodations. Rather than worry about is it so entrenched, is it so competitive. How do you disrupt? Well it could be disrupt, but I think it all comes back to do users need something better? At the end of the day, is there something better out there or is there a niche or something that hasn't been served that people clearly need? And so when I look at this industry, I don't see a landscape of all these people we have to compete against. I see users who have told us, and you and I have probably experienced this within the last five days traveling here. The moments that have pain that we can solve. Well, I wanna ask all of you, how many of you in the last couple of years have used Airbnb for your trips? That's a pretty good number. A room of fans. [ LAUGH ] How many of you are really enthused by the fact that Airbnb is going into transportation? [ LAUGH ] A little less. How many of you are sure they'll do well? [ LAUGH ] All right, you have a lot of people to convert in this room. But I'm guessing when you started off with Airbnb just for the hotel stays and competing then, you kind of have the same reaction. Yeah, absolutely, the thing is, and I understand this response because It's a commodity business. And what Airbnb is well known for is a marketplace of really fantastic, unique, bespoke inventory. And so, when you try to translate, there's not a direct translation, and I completely see that. But what is sort of in the roots of [ INAUDIBLE ] So, the founders especially [ INAUDIBLE ] they actually went to the same school as they [ INAUDIBLE ] And a lot of their process is actually where the heart of success lies. And it's really imagining the ideal state, what is the ideal state of the world. And then work your way backwards. Unedited, unincumbent, like just dream. And then really think, okay, well, that's 20 years out. Then, we look at ten, we look at five, so it's not even like a three year plan. It's like really, ultimately what is your purpose? What are you trying to do? And we don't know if this is something that we can achieve. But I think it's worth trying, because we know that people, when they travel, they don't travel just to stay in a place. They travel to go on a trip. You say, I'm going to Singapore, I'm going to Paris. You talk about these destinations as a unit of a trip. Not that the tabs on a website that you're going to purchase. And so I think that that is really what we're imagining is what a trip should be, and not just one sliver of your trip. I think the other interesting element is the person who came onboard to work with you. Fred Reid is the new global head of transport at Airbnb and I think that also defines a lot of the culture at Airbnb where you're talking about bringing in two different kinds of people two different kinds of teams to work together to design something fantastic. Yeah. Tell us a little bit more about that. That top process that goes into bringing someone like that in. Yeah, Fred is a very special individual. He was the founder- CEO of Virgin America which is one of the most celebrated airlines in the United States. Really special service that they thought through forward thinking design obviously but also in service, I think what was really magical about what Fred walked through is baking customer service into the DNA of the airline from the very beginning, really thinking through hospitality as part of the airline from the very beginning So obviously really aligns with how AirBnB and our founders think [ UNKNOWN ] really the community and really creating the trust is baked in our DNA as well. And then we think about throughout the company what When you're starting something new, when you're starting a new venture, whether it is a startup that you're gonna start on your own, or you're venturing out within your company, there is sort of like a secret sauce, I think, when you're trying something brand new. And it's when you put someone that's Naive with really fresh ideas, and kinda like no industry baggage whatsoever, with someone who is an industry expert, and put them together in a room. And you get this really lovely balance of creativity and reality that come together and hopefully You see what's possible in the world. So it's sort of like grounded but also what if, all the time. What if we did this, what if you did this? Well, have you considered these things? No, what about this? You're constantly pitching ideas at each other and that's sort of the relationship that Fred and I are starting to form. Do you think that At the core of all of this. I know when we were talking, you said the human is at the center of everything. Yep. Do you think that really translates, as the company gets bigger and bigger, and the excitement around it gets bigger? Will that remain the core, or is that going to change, as a culture? I mean, it has to, it has to. This The entire product, Airbnb, is based off of a really robust, loyal community. Without that community, there really is no product. I mean, I always talk about this with my teams that 10 % of what we make is technical. It's a digital platform. But 90 % is the offline experiences of connecting humans to humans. And if you forget that at any point and treat people as a commodity and stop treating people like humans, like individuals, and forget the serendipity and the magic that happens when you put strangers together, that's when you've sort of lost your way. And I think what I'm so amazed of over my time, almost four years at Airbnb, I've never seen the company forget about that. I've seen them really focus on the users, not from just a usability standpoint, not just can they click through this flow. It's not about that. Do they love this? Are they connecting to it? Do they feel that there's a social contract within the community? Do they understand our mission? And can this thrive for many decades to come? Well since so many of you are AirBnB users, there's got to be a question out there for Janie in terms of how she looks at design for both hosts and customers. And in her new role as well, so who's got a question? Andrew from 8Inc. Just wanted to ask Jenny, while you're here in Singapore, are you staying at a hotel or an AirBnb? You know, I am staying at this hotel right now. And I love hotels and we actually do have boutique hotels on our platform. This is not necessarily like us versus them. I actually believe that there's a place for every form of accommodation. There's sometimes when I take my family in a vacation and they have like an amazing amenity for kids. I have a three year old and a one year old that love to swim. If we go to a hotel that has amazing food, that's awesome. I don't think it's necessary that like there's only one way. I think that there are multiple modes of transportation. I think there are multiple modes of staying. I think there are many reasons why people take trips. And there's never like one answer. I think it's depending on the user and what they actually want to do. Anyone else? Right at the back. Vivian from Philanthropy Walks. A more serious question actually. How many cases of assault Have been reported in Airbnb accommodations, and is there a certain standard in terms of how you deal with that? For instance, in reporting to the police and ensuring that the right review and actions are taken? And what happens if that's not followed? Thank you. Yeah, this is not my area of expertise unfortunately, so I don't have that data for you. Obviously, we have a pretty robust customer support center that has a way of [ UNKNOWN ] Problems that come to the platform, but I can't give you specifics around that particular area. I appreciate you addressing it even though it's not in your agreement. And hopefully somebody from AirBnb will answer that question. Mm- hm. Is there any other questions from everyone, becaue I have one last one for Jenny if you don't. Right. So, if I can ask you, in all of the humanity within the design process, within Airbnb, you are designing across a lot of regions. How do you keep that consistency? Yeah, as a global company, it's incredibly important to have. Employees and just people going to all corners of the world and experiencing the product firsthand and staying with host listening to host talking to guests all over the world. I think more specifically like our China team, we have a dedicated team in China. That is structured to move super, super fast in that particular environment, and severed from our headquarters so that they can make decisions as quickly as possible. Because that world is just so different, it moves so, so fast that you have to give them the autonomy to work. So throughout the entire world we have many, many offices And giving each individual office accountability and autonomy to do what is necessary for their particular community is extremely important. > Jennie, I appreciate your flying all the way to Singapore and giving us quite a bit of insight into what you're hoping makes it to the wish list. And she said, 10 % of whatever she wishes hopefully comes true. So, you never know what's gonna come with Airbnb transportation. Thank you again, very much. Give her a round of applause everyone. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: A People-first Approach To Innovation

Design

Fortune's Maithreyi Seetharaman interviews Jenny Arden, Director of Transportation, Airbnb