Mark Kawano has an absolutely incredible career. For the past 25 years, he has worked at Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, Slack, Zendesk, and now he is the first-ever Chief Design Officer at Zoom. During our interview, he shared how his previous experience helped him be a great fit for the new role and choose the right talent for his team.
Join us for the second episode of our Chief Design Officer Series, where we talk to Chief Design Officers from the most forward-thinking companies.
Read our favourite insights from our interview with Mark and watch the conversation to learn:
👉 When the titles are unimportant, and when do companies really need ‘C’ in the Design role
👉 What do you need to focus on while developing your team
👉 Why you should be open for feedback on design from the non-design members of your team
'Titles are both unimportant and important. I look at some of the best companies that I respect. Their products are really well-designed. Many of them don't have Chief Design Officers, because the C-suite already values design in a strong way and knows where design fits in.
With my conversations at Zoom, it was very clear. We are trying all together, as an executive team, to figure out where design will fit into Zoom for the next five to ten years of our company. With those conversations, it made a lot of sense to have the Chief Design Officer title so that I could properly be recognised for that position.'
'A lot of designers have an assumption that once you get to C-level and you have a seat at the table, that you're bringing the same conversations that designers are having today to the boardroom. It's not true at all.
I don't think most people want to work at a company where an executive team is just talking about design all the time. I don't think that business will last very long. They need to be talking about the business mostly. A lot of those meetings are dry, but they're super important. I do have to spend a lot of time thinking about the business side of things. What is our strategy? Do I understand it clearly? Where does design fit into each of these areas? What matters to me is how I can help them win as a business. That's what a lot of people should be thinking about when they're at that most senior head of design role.'
'One of the things that I learned early on at Apple was that great design can come from anywhere. I was the lead designer on the project and one of the engineers sent me an idea and said: “Hey, I saw the UI that you had for this feature. What do you think about this?” His file was better than most of the files that I created. And I could have done a couple of different things. One is: “Hey, this is my job. Why are you going onto my turf? This is inappropriate.” But I went the other direction and said: “This is a way better design than what I shared. Yes, let's go in that direction.”
A lot of designers think: “This is the part of the product-building experience that I own.” That is ultimately the wrong way to think about it. It doesn't matter where the ideas come from. It can come from interns, from different people in sales or marketing. Chief Design Officer needs to influence design outside of the design organisation so that more ideas can come from so many of the people in that diverse team that you've built.'
To learn more about the role of a Chief Design Officer, join us for the next episode of the series with Janaki Kumar, Chief Design Officer at JP Morgan Chase & Co.
Learn how to make an impact in the boardroom with our Executive Programme for Design Leaders.
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