Robinhood's CEO Vlad Tenev reveals their strategy for maintaining design quality is to place the best craftspeople in leadership roles, rather than people who are just good managers. This ensures the leaders have trusted taste and keeps the focus on high-quality work, even during meetings.
Related Insights
Designers often focus on selling their craft to design managers, but the final hiring decision frequently lies with product leaders. To succeed, designers must frame their value as a business investment, emphasizing the ROI and metric impact that resonates with the ultimate approver.
Leaders often feel they must have all the answers, which stifles team contribution. A better approach is to hire domain experts smarter than you, actively listen to their ideas, and empower them. This creates a culture where everyone learns and the entire company's performance rises.
Base fosters a "chop wood, carry water" culture where leaders are still individual contributors. The founding team set this tone by writing the first code and installing the first batteries themselves. This ensures a hands-on, problem-solving mindset permeates the company as it scales.
As companies scale, the "delivery" mindset (efficiency, spreadsheets) naturally pushes out the "discovery" mindset (creativity, poetry). A CEO's crucial role is to act as "discoverer-in-chief," protecting the innovation function from being suffocated by operational demands, which prevents the company from becoming obsolete.
To scale his company Exit Five, the founder (the "Visionary") promoted his COO to CEO (the "Integrator"). This structure, from the book *Traction*, allows the creator to focus on ideas and content while the operator runs the business, manages the team, and implements processes.
At Crisp.ai, the core value is that the best argument always wins, regardless of who it comes from—a new junior employee or the company founder. This approach flattens hierarchy and ensures that the best ideas, which often originate from those closest to the product and customers (engineers, PMs), are prioritized.
The company's design leadership is pushing back against justifying design solely through business metrics, arguing it signals a lack of confidence in craft. They foster a culture where the primary measure of success is the team's own high bar for taste, trusting this will ultimately drive long-term value.
The ideal company culture balances two opposing forces: the 'artisan' (creativity, innovation, imagination) and the 'operator' (predictability, efficiency, financial controls). Founder Eric Ryan strives to build teams that excel at both, creating a durable business that can innovate at scale, citing Apple and Nike as examples.
Robinhood's superior user experience isn't just the design team's responsibility; it's a core part of the company's DNA, driven by leadership. The CEO and VPs spend significant time on design details, ensuring a high bar for polish that competitors often neglect.
Product managers often operate like "poker players," optimizing for short-term wins. In contrast, designers tend to be "chess players," thinking holistically and several moves ahead—a trait they share with C-suite executives. This strategic alignment is a powerful, often overlooked, advantage.