WHY DESIGN?

What does it actually cost to get into design if you don't come from money?
In this episode of Why Design, James Wood shares the belief that sits at the heart of Studio Wood: that good design should reach a million homes, not one art gallery, and that the studio building it should be just as accessible.
Rather than chase investment or fast growth, James chose to grow Studio Wood slowly, freelancing for six years before making his first hire. That decision led to a seven-person studio behind the Chilly's Series 2 bottle and the Joseph Joseph Draw Store, run on his own terms.
This conversation isn't about a design portfolio.
It's about who gets to build one in the first place.
Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast.
Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign
What You'll Learn
→ 🎓 Why Studio Wood lists a university degree as "nice to have," not essential, on every job ad.
→ 📵 Why the studio doesn't have a phone, and what that protects.
→ ✉️ Why every one of 350 applicants for one junior role got a personal reply, good news or bad.
→ 💷 Why James believes a plumbing apprentice can out-earn a design graduate carrying £50,000 to £60,000 of debt.
→ 🤖 How James is preparing his team for AI, and why physical model-making stays safe longer than digital design skills.
→ 🧭 What it actually takes to move out of the top or bottom of the income scale, according to the data James has read.
Memorable Quotes
"I don't think design should be for a few people. I'd rather design something that's in a million people's homes than in one art gallery."
"If you went and did the plumbing apprenticeship when you're eighteen, you'd make more money as a plumber than you would as an industrial designer with fifty, sixty grand of debt."
"If we start to lean too introverted, I'd probably be more inclined to look towards hiring someone who's extroverted."
"I always look for someone who's got their own engine. You're not having to go and constantly throw coal in their engine to get them going."
"All the strongest lessons in life come through hard times. You won't ever become a well-rounded person without some form of hardship."
6e. Resources & Links
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon
👥 Join the Why Design community
📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram
🎥 Watch full episodes
🔗 Follow Chris Whyte
🔗 Explore Studio Wood
🔗 Connect with James Wood
About the Episode
Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.
Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it: the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.
About Kodu
Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups.
We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.

What does it actually take to convince someone to write a cheque for a business that has to build something physical before it can sell anything?
In this compilation episode of Why Design, nine hardware founders and one investor share the belief that sits underneath every one of their rounds: that raising capital for a physical product is a fundamentally different exercise to raising for software, and treating it like the same game is how good companies lose winnable rounds.
Rather than accept the vague, feel-good pitch that dazzles nobody, this group of founders learned, sometimes the hard way, exactly what an investor is measuring, what a cap table cannot survive, and how far real discipline can stretch a small amount of capital.
This isn't about pitching harder. It's about understanding the room you're actually in.
Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign
What You'll Learn
💡 Why an investor calling your valuation too high can be the best call of your fundraise
📊 What investors are actually measuring when the product itself is emotionally compelling
🧾 How one missing founder vesting agreement can poison every future raise
🎯 Why the team slide belongs three slides into a deck, not seventeen
⚙️ How the leanest hardware teams turn limited capital into a competitive advantage
🚻 What female founders are still asked in rooms where their co-founders are asked about vision

Memorable Quotes
"My CEO thought it wasn't that good a call. But I thought it was a really great call."
Sid Shaikh, CTO, Fieldwork Robotics
"Investors invest in teams. Team slide needs to be like three slides in."
Bill Liao, General Partner, SOSV
"The investment just went poof."
Bill Liao, General Partner, SOSV
"We will always operate in the leanest way possible to keep everyone as creative as they can be."
Mark Tapscott, Co-founder, Longbow Motors
"We exist as a company because raising capital hasn't been easy."
Tess Cosad, CEO, Béa Fertility
Resources & Links
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club
👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign
📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram
🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod
🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte
About the Episode
Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.
Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it: the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.
About Kodu
Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups.
We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.
🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

What happens to a business the year there's no bonus to hand out?
In this episode of Why Design, Kirsty Dias shares the belief that sits at the heart of her work: that a creative business is built by giving people permission to take the slow, unglamorous route on the things that actually matter.
Rather than train as a designer, Kirsty studied French, worked in theatre and ran exhibitions at the Barbican. That decision led her into PriestmanGoode as head of comms 25 years ago, and eventually into the Managing Director's seat of one of the world's leading aviation and rail design consultancies.
This conversation isn't about aircraft seats.
It's about what it actually costs, in time and attention, to build a business that outlasts its founders.
Disclaimer:
This episode includes a brief, personal reflection on the tax treatment of employee ownership for founders. It is not tax, legal or financial advice. Please seek independent professional advice before making any related decisions.

What You'll Learn
🎯 Why running an aviation and rail design consultancy has nothing to do with holding a design degree
💡 How PriestmanGoode's business got stronger the one year it didn't pay a bonus
🛫 What actually happens between an airline's brief and the seat in front of you, from colour and material to a five year certification programme
🤝 Why Kirsty rates a stint on a bar or shop floor over a polished CV when she's hiring
🏫 How a deliberate, unglamorous investment in schools and internships built a team close to a 50-50 gender split
🔧 Why the design industry needs to explain its own career paths a lot better than it currently does

Memorable Quotes
“We became stronger as an EOT in the one year where we did not give a bonus.”
“I worked in the hairdressers as a receptionist when I was at sixth form. I use the skills that I learned in that job every day.”
“That is how you are convincingly yourself. Like don't pretend to be something you're not.”
“Use our expertise for good.”
“I think the ability to communicate and tell a story.”
Resources & Links
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club
👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign
📸 Follow @_whydesign on Instagram
🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod
🔗 Follow Chris Whyte
🔗 Explore PriestmanGoode
🔗 Connect with Kirsty Dias
About the Episode
Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.
Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it: the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.
About Kodu
Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups.
We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.
🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

What if the candidate who interviews best is exactly the one you should not hire?
In this compilation of Why Design, fifteen hardware founders, CTOs and design leaders share the belief that sits underneath every hire they have ever made: the CV gets someone in the room, but it never tells you who you are actually hiring.
Rather than trusting the interview process alone, several guests built their own techniques instead, deliberate questions, gut checks, and screens designed to get past a rehearsed answer. That decision led to hiring practices most HR playbooks would not recognise, and results most HR playbooks cannot claim.
This conversation isn't about interview technique.
It's about the cost of getting it wrong, and the discipline it takes to trust your own judgement over a process built for someone else's team.
Don't just listen. Go beyond the podcast.
Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign
What You’ll Learn
🧠 Why the signals that predict a good hire are almost never on the CV
⚠️ How to spot the ego trap before you have made the offer
🎯 The interview questions built specifically to get past a rehearsed answer
💸 What the first firing actually costs, and why founders keep hiring too early anyway
🤝 Why the best leaders on this show all learned to hire above themselves
🔍 How to tell, in the room, whether your gut is right about a candidate

Memorable Quotes
“One person on that narcissistic spectrum in a startup can destroy the work of any other ten people at once.”
“The people who have big egos often present very well. The people who are humble but very talented often are a little too humble in the hiring process.”
“If you think the person isn't a fit, they're likely not a fit.”
“Never once have I had a bad feeling about someone and still offered them the job. Never has it worked out.”
“If they can do that in a way that shows me they've actually thought about it, and can articulate it, that's a win.”
Resources & Links
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club
👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign
📸 Follow @whydesign on Instagram
🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod
🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte
🔗 Explore the full guest list and individual episodes → whydesign
🔗 Get in touch about a hardware hire → teamkodu.com
About the Episode
Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.
Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.
About Kodu
Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups.
We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.
🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

The hardware and deep tech industry does not do much to tell talented people how to get in, when to make a move, or how to build a career that lasts.

Over twelve episodes of Why Design, Chris Whyte has spoken with founders, CTOs, and senior design and engineering leaders who worked all of that out for themselves, often without a roadmap.

This compilation is the result.

Featured guests

- Tess Cosad, CEO, Béa Fertility (Ep 01) on the one thing she looks for in every hire, and what that tells candidates about how to show up.

- Dan Salisbury, Industrial Designer, Automata (Ep 02) on almost not passing probation, playing to his strengths, and why he would not jump ship for anything less than exactly right.

- Dr Liz McGloughlin, Co-Founder, Tympany Medical (Ep 03) on how to articulate yourself in five or six sentences, and why most people skip the most practisable part of interview preparation.

- Rob Hallifax, Co-Founder, Windfall Energy (Ep 04) on meeting his co-founder at a random IoT meetup and why getting out there is the one strategy that has never let him down.

- Sid Shaikh, CTO, Fieldwork Robotics (Ep 05) on what attracts great engineers to startups, and why communication is the professional habit that compounds fastest over a career.

- Felicity Boyce, Head of R&D, Koroyd (Ep 06) on going with her gut to move to Monaco for a role she could not fully see yet, and what saying yes to something terrifying actually taught her.

- Matt Batchelor, Co-founder, Instrument Industries (Ep 08) on building a portfolio after redundancy, funding a master's degree through a Victorian-era scholarship, and his take on what a career actually is.

- Bob Schwartz, Design Leader and CDO, GE Healthcare, P&G, and Motorola (Ep 10) on table stakes in an interview, how to guide the room when you are the one being interviewed, and the question he wishes someone had asked him thirty years earlier.

- Mark Tapscott, Co-founder, Longbow Motors (Ep 11) on buying a Lotus Elise on a student loan, trading his time with race teams to get in, and what it costs to live the work you have always wanted to do.

- Lisa Gralnek, US Managing Director, iF Design (Ep 12) on a thirty-year career of taking roles that did not exist, and what it means to be found rather than to apply.

- Stephan Clambaneva, Creative Director, PARK (Ep 14) on what David Kelly told him about identity, and why leaning into what makes you different is the only career strategy that actually holds up.

- Shaun Fynn, Founder, Studio Fynn (Ep 16) on what he believed about design at 25 that he no longer believes, and why the impact he was after requires disciplines design cannot access on its own.

What you will learn
* Why the skills on your CV are table stakes and what interviewers are actually deciding in the room
* How to articulate who you are as a designer or engineer in five to six sentences before anyone asks
* Why the most interesting hardware careers were built through side doors, traded time, and things that looked wrong from the outside
* How to trust your gut on a career move when you do not have all the information
* What sustains a long career in physical product when the work is hard and the bag is still packed
* Why leaning into what makes you different is more effective than trying to replicate what worked for someone else
* How to communicate up and down and across technical and non-technical audiences as a technical leader
* What the question "what is your why" actually reveals when you have to answer it honestly

Resources and Links

Béa Fertility: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E1

Automata: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E2

Tympany Medical: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E3

Windfall Energy: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E4

Fieldwork Robotics: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E5

Koroyd: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E6

Instrument Industries: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E8

iF Design ifdesign.com: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E12

PARK: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E14

Studio Fynn: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E16

Longbow Motors: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E11

Bob Schwartz: https://www.whydesign.club/episodes/S5E10

About Kodu

Kodu is the specialist recruitment partner for hardware and deep tech teams. We place industrial designers, mechanical engineers, and product development leaders in companies building physical products, from medtech and consumer hardware to robotics and mobility. We work with founding teams and global R&D organisations alike, and we understand what great looks like in the room, not just on paper. NPS: +92.

teamkodu.com
About the Episode

Nobody Told Me How to Get Here | Why Design: Being Hired is a compilation episode of Why Design, the podcast hosted by Chris Whyte, founder of Kodu. Each episode brings together founders, engineers, and design leaders working at the frontier of physical product to talk honestly about what it takes to build hardware teams that ship.
Looking for your next role in hardware or deep tech?

Kodu specialises in placing industrial designers, mechanical engineers, and product development leaders across medtech, consumer hardware, robotics, mobility, and more.

Get in touch: teamkodu.com