Efficiency, AI tools, and creative friction

We recorded this special live episode of Design Better at Sequoia Capital in Silicon Valley, with our Experts in Residence: Irene Au, Kevin Bethune, and James Buckhouse.

Longtime listeners will recognize these names—Irene appeared on Episode 1 of Design Better, we explored Kevin’s remarkable journey from nuclear engineer to Air Jordan designer in episode 72, and we visited James at Sequoia Capital for a live AMA last year. Together, they’ve shaped how businesses build, how design operates at scale, and how creativity thrives inside technology and venture capital.

Irene Au led the design practices at Yahoo! and Google during their formative years. Now a Design Partner at Khosla Ventures, she coaches designers, executives, and founders from seed stage through exit.

Kevin Bethune is a multidisciplinary design and innovation executive. His career spans nuclear engineering, product creation at Nike, and formal design training at ArtCenter. Kevin wrote two MIT Press books—Reimagining Design and Nonlinear. And he’s the host of the TV show, America ByDesign on CBS.

James Buckhouse is a Design Partner at Sequoia working with founders from idea to IPO to design companies, products, and cultures. His multidisciplinary career spans film (Shrek, Madagascar, The Matrix), fine art (exhibited at the Whitney Biennial and Guggenheim), ballet, and technology (Senior Experience Architect at Twitter).

Over the course of this conversation, we cover the evolution of design in technology, the value of diverse backgrounds in design, how technology is reshaping what designers do and how they work, cross-cultural design perspectives, and much more.

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