(10) Building beautiful products with Stripe’s Head of Design

Created

Oct 2, 2024 12:45 AM

URL

https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-beautiful-products-with

Type

Share this post

Building beautiful products with Stripe’s Head of Design | Katie Dill (Stripe, Airbnb, Lyft)

www.lennysnewsletter.com

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Building beautiful products with Stripe’s Head of Design | Katie Dill (Stripe, Airbnb, Lyft)

Share this post

Building beautiful products with Stripe’s Head of Design | Katie Dill (Stripe, Airbnb, Lyft)

www.lennysnewsletter.com

1×

0:00

1:34:00

Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade.

Building beautiful products with Stripe’s Head of Design | Katie Dill (Stripe, Airbnb, Lyft)

Lenny Rachitsky

Oct 15, 2023

Share this post

Building beautiful products with Stripe’s Head of Design | Katie Dill (Stripe, Airbnb, Lyft)

www.lennysnewsletter.com

ShareTranscript

Brought to you by Sidebar—Catalyze your career with a Personal Board of Directors | Jira Product Discovery—Atlassian’s new prioritization and roadmapping tool built for product teams | OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster

—

Katie Dill is the Head of Design at Stripe. Previously, she was Head of Experience Design at Airbnb and Head of Design at Lyft. Katie has been named one of Business Insider’s 10 People Changing the Tech Industry as well as one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business and received the Girls in Tech “Creator of the Year” award. In today’s episode, she shares:

What makes a design great
Advice on building high-performing teams in hyper-growth environments
A pivotal lesson in leadership she learned at Airbnb
Stripe’s focus on quality and how it’s tied to growth
A formula for removing organizational friction
How to increase productivity
What to look for when hiring a designer

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Overcast, and YouTube.

Where to find Katie Dill:

X: https://twitter.com/lil_dill
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@lil_dilly
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-dill-79168b3/

Where to find Lenny:

Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Katie’s background

(04:47) Katie’s pivotal leadership moment at Airbnb

(10:55) Advocating for design ROI

(16:07) Stripe’s quality focus

(17:50) Stripe’s vast scope

(18:45) How design enhances utility

(21:39) Defining beauty and its role in product growth

(26:19) Operationalizing quality

(28:44) Katie’s insights from dialogues with diverse organizations

(34:47) 15 Essential Journeys: Stripe’s method for holistic UX understanding and unified vision

(44:35) Stripe’s PQR quality review

(46:25) Stripe’s prioritization philosophy

(48:29) Measuring impact beyond metrics

(50:28) Performance = potential – interference

(54:09) Building and managing large teams

(1:01:46) Removing interference at Lyft: a practical example of Katie’s leadership impact

(1:06:10) Stripe’s physical workspace design

(1:07:41) Embracing bold ideas

(1:11:07) Qualities of great designers

(1:15:15) Stripe Press

(1:19:19) Katie’s parting wisdom

(1:23:17) Lightning round

Referenced:

Beauty: https://www.amazon.com/Sagmeister-Walsh-Beauty-Stefan/dp/0714877271
Terry (Olivia Colman) and Richie peel mushrooms—scene from The Bear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7D8THR_osU
Building a culture of excellence | David Singleton (CTO of Stripe): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/building-a-culture-of-excellence-david-singleton-cto-of-stripe/
Figma: https://www.figma.com/
The Creative Act: A Way of Being: https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Act-Way-Being/dp/0593652886
Quote by Robert Henri: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/43397-the-object-isn-t-to-make-art-it-s-to-be-in
Brian Chesky’s 11-star experience: https://www.product-frameworks.com/11-Star-Experience.html
How to Win Friends and Influence People: https://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671027034
The Wright Brothers: https://www.amazon.com/Wright-Brothers-David-McCullough/dp/1476728755/
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse: https://www.amazon.com/Boy-Mole-Fox-Horse/dp/0062976583/
Oppenheimer: https://www.oppenheimermovie.com/
Shrinking on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/shrinking/umc.cmc.apzybj6eqf6pzccd97kev7bs
Toniebox: https://www.amazon.com/Toniebox-Starter-Lightning-McQueen-Playtime/dp/B09V7NJCD8
Stripe Press: https://press.stripe.com/
Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger: https://press.stripe.com/poor-charlies-almanack
Stripe’s job board: https://stripe.com/jobs/search

Books on design craft:

Dieter Rams: Ten Principles for Good Design: https://www.amazon.com/Dieter-Rams-Principles-Good-Design/dp/3791387324
The Vignelli Canon: https://www.amazon.com/Vignelli-Canon-Massimo/dp/3037782250
Forget All the Rules About Graphic Design: Including the Ones in This Book, by Bob Gill: https://www.amazon.com/Forget-Rules-About-Graphic-Design/dp/0823018644
Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things: https://www.amazon.com/Emotional-Design-Love-Everyday-Things/dp/0465051367
The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition: https://www.amazon.com/Design-of-Everyday-Things-audiobook/dp/B07L5Y9HND
Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0063046067
In Praise of Shadows: https://www.amazon.com/Praise-Shadows-Junichiro-Tanizaki/dp/0918172020
Interaction of Color: https://www.amazon.com/Interaction-Color-Anniversary-Josef-Albers/dp/0300179359
Content Design: https://contentdesign.london/shop/content-design-by-sarah-winters-paperback
Graphic Design Manual Principles and Practice: https://www.niggli.ch/en/produkt/graphic-design-manual/
Collaborative Product Design: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/collaborative-product-design/9781491975022/
Principles of Form and Design: https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Form-Design-Wucius-Wong/dp/0471285528/ref=asc_df_0471285528
The Timeless Way of Building: https://www.patternlanguage.com/bookstore/timeless-way-of-building.html

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

57 Likes

1 Restack

Discussion about this podcast

Share this discussion

Building beautiful products with Stripe’s Head of Design | Katie Dill (Stripe, Airbnb, Lyft)

www.lennysnewsletter.com

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover concrete, actionable, and tactical advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Listen on