078: There and Back (and Forward) Again with Bob Baxley

• Artwork by Eli Jorgensen

Bob Baxley, a Silicon Valley pioneer, takes us back in time through the history of Silicon Valley and gives us a glimpse into the future of it. Spoiler alert: He’s got concerns. He reveals how every little interaction matters and motivates us to be proud enough of the work we do to want to show our friends and family…otherwise, we’ve got more work to do. He challenges us to challenge the status quo and constantly be looking for ways to improve our work by asking, ‘How could this be better?’. He also likens our work to building sandcastles on the beach, causing us to reflect on the brevity and temporal nature of it, and inspires us to make everything we make with our friends (for others) count.

Bob Baxley is a design executive, advisor, mentor, and advocate that has built, managed, and led UX teams at some of Silicon Valley’s most respected companies. With a career spanning three decades, Bob’s work at Apple, Pinterest, Yahoo!, and elsewhere has touched hundreds of millions of users around the world. Currently, Bob serves as the Senior Vice-President of Design at ThoughtSpot, a business intelligence and data analytics platform. An advisor to Project Invent, Bob is committed to recruiting and inspiring the next generation of designers by mentoring individuals and advising organizations that are working to improve the profession and practice of digital product design. When he was a kid, he was attacked by a baby goat at a petting zoo and to this day he can’t stand goats.

• Crash Course History of Silicon Valley (7:52)
• Love at First Byte: (Re)Discovering the Magic of Computing (14:17)
• The Beautiful ‘Burden’ of Doing Great Work That We’re Proud Of (21:11)
• The Question Steve Jobs Was Known to Ask In Design Reviews (24:55)
• Technology: Wonderful Servant, Terrible Master (26:53)
• Employing Analogue Tools for Deeper Creativity (34:10)
• There Are No Rolling Credits for Interaction Designers (52:51)
• We Need More Designers and Less Roadblocks (54:45)
• Is There a Growth Trajectory for IC’s Besides Mgmnt? (1:10:01)
• What’s Your Recommended Path for Design Leadership? (1:21:54)
• Where is Silicon Valley Going? Do You Have Concerns? (1:27:35)
• What’s Your Design Superpower? (1:34:28)
• What’s Your Design Kryptonite? (1:35:19)
• What’s Your UX Superhero Name? (1:37:41)
• Habit of Success? (1:38:23)
• Invincible Resource or Tool? (1:42:37)
• Recommended Books (1:45:25)
• What’s the Best Lesson You Learned From Steve Jobs? (1:48:30)
• Best Advice? (1:53:44)
• Connect & Keep Up (2:03:16)

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