Tony Fadell on Learning To See, Telling Stories, & Being A Troublemaker

In this episode, Tony Fadell and Pete Flint discuss the role of fresh perspectives in entrepreneurship and how climate change can be addressed as a design problem. They explore the importance of storytelling in startups, the iterative process of startup development, and the value of learning from failure. The conversation also covers reflections on the product design process and the relationship between constraints and creativity.

It’s not often you get to see through the eyes of someone who created a product that you and hundreds of millions of other people use, hundreds of times a day, every single day, and have for a decade or more.

Tony Fadell is the legendary inventor of the iPod, co-inventor with Steve Jobs of the iPhone, and Founder of Nest. Now he is the Principal at Future Shape, an investment and advisory firm coaching over 200+ startups.

There’s almost an infinity of things to learn from Tony, but what we most wanted to uncover are his product frameworks and first principles for design. How can Founders think about designing products that are both high-utility and beloved -- that achieve dent-in-the-universe levels of adoption?

As Tony puts it: For truly great designs, 50% of the design is the design. 50% of the design is the story behind the design.

And it all begins with re-learning how to see.

(0:00) Introduction and guest Tony Fadell (3:01) The role of naivety and fresh perspective in entrepreneurship (8:15) Addressing climate change as a design problem and the role of storytelling (14:25) Learning from the pandemic and the relationship between constraints and creativity (20:00) The importance of storytelling in startups and decision making (23:04) The iterative process of startup development and assisting founders (35:21) The importance of being a troublemaker and learning from failure in entrepreneurship (44:17) Reflections on product design process, sprints, and failure modes