This compilation pulls together four Season 4 guests, a CEO, two design and innovation leaders, and a design consultancy owner, on where AI genuinely helps a hardware or design business: faster prototyping, a levelled playing field for smaller teams, a design process that runs like a loop. Every one of them also draws a line around what they're not ready to hand over: sketching, hiring judgement, the discipline to not chase every shiny new tool.

This is a short cut, roughly three and a half minutes, because that's the honest amount of verified, on-topic AI material Season 4 actually contains. No trailer, no host narration. Just four guests, in their own words.

Join the Why Design community to keep the conversation going: teamkodu.com/whydesign

This episode is sponsored by Vax and TTi Floorcare.

Kodu, is running the hiring. Recruiting for Vax for more than ten years, placing over fifty people including a VP of Engineering and a Head of Design.

We know how they build. Right now they’re rebuilding their UK engineering and innovation function from the ground up: advanced development, design engineering and industrial design, all at once. We haven’t seen them move at this pace in a decade of working with them. Planning to interview for them with us? Here is what you need to know: VAX UK

What You'll Learn in this episode:

• 🔓 Why AI and cheaper design tools have removed the innovation monopoly that big organisations used to hold
• ✏️ Why an EVP of Industrial Design still won't hire on sketching skill alone if it's been replaced by an AI tool
• 🔁 What generative design looks like when a team, not software, runs the iteration loop
• 📈 Why a design consultancy owner treats the current AI moment like the dot-com era: worth testing, not worth betting the business model on
• 🚩 Why a CV or an application that reads as AI-polished can be a red flag rather than a strength

Memorable Quotes

"That has gone. You can design, prototype, innovate." — Will Butler-Adams OBE, Brompton

"If you can't communicate by sketching, that's a huge disadvantage." — Tylan Tschopp, Westinghouse

"It isn't chat GBT and it's got some left-of-field odd things in it." — Will Butler-Adams OBE, Brompton

"It reminds me of the dot com days." — Paul Metaxatos, Motive Design

"It's working as a full organism where people don't fight for your idea." — Joachim, FutureWave

Resources & Links

• 🎙️ Why Design podcast: whydesign.club
• 👥 Join the community: teamkodu.com/whydesign
• 📸 Instagram: @whydesignxkodu
• ▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@whydesignpod
• 💼 Chris Whyte: linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte

About the Episode

AI Doesn't Replace the Craft | Why Design: AI 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.

About Kodu

Kodu is a specialist recruitment partner dedicated to physical product development.

We connect hardware brands and design consultancies with the very best design and engineering talent, from industrial designers and mechanical engineers to senior leaders across product, technology, and R&D.

Our clients range from well-funded start-ups and scale-ups under investor pressure to deliver, through to established businesses building serious hardware or innovation arms. They share a common challenge: they need to hire people who have actually built physical products before, and they cannot afford to get it wrong.

Average time-to-offer: 5 to 6 weeks on senior hardware roles. Retention at 12 months: 97%. All-time NPS: +92.

Learn more: teamkodu.com

Well what I remembered when I was at university was that innovation

was a privilege for only the biggest organizations.

It was only massive organizations that could afford the computers.

The practitioners on this show are building hardware.

Robots, medical devices, lab automation,

electric vehicles, consumer products.

They're using AI. Some of it is genuinely changing what is possible.

Some of it is not working the way anyone says it is,

and most of them have a sharper read on both sides than anything you'll find

in the mainstream conversation.

This is the Y design AI compilation.

biggest organizations that could afford these incredible,

you know, prototyping machines and 3D printers.

And so there was this huge barrier to entry.

And therefore, big companies had a monopoly on innovation.

That has gone. You know, you can design,

prototype, innovate. You have powerful AI,

powerful design technology that you can run off a computer that any of us could buy.

So in many respects,

real innovation and design has been,

you know, totally democratized.

And I think it will create better solutions for planet Earth.

~ and we need that because planet needs caring for.

And and I actually think all the technical solutions exist for us

to coexist happily on planet Earth.

The application hasn't improved

entirely been sorted yet, but the theoretical,

technical solutions are there,

whether it's desalination or whether it's photovoltaic cells or or

any of these hydroponics, you know,

there are some really big things that will transform how we live on planet Earth

in a positive way. ~ But we haven't implemented it enough and

we need more innovation to help us scale that that implementation at a global level.

Sub-Saharan Africa, you'll be implementing it in a different way to

how you might implement it in Europe.

But ~ you know, I I I think engineering has such a part to play in

in in solving these problems that we face on planet Earth.

and, you know, we're contributing one tiny little way,

but ~ there are an absolute truckload of other ways of go going about it.

It's almost mathematic. It's almost like an algorithm.

You know, you really have you know,

a lot of data.

You you basically replace data with people.

It's a bit the same thing. You have a lot of data.

How more data, how more different are your data.

And how more you can filter that and put like a very tuned filter,

how more accurate your response is gonna be at the end.

So it's the same. It's exactly the same.

~ So we're trying to replicate that but in a more human scale with

a large variety of competences that are going to generate and filter all these.

And and and then you create a loop in a cycle.

And that is going to to bit by bit crack to bit something that is

~ is more optimal. ~ typically your engineers are more going

to validate visibility and your strategy is more the viability and

the designer more disability in general.

But people are very nuanced and so obviously it's going to,

you know, ~

it's it's the answer is much more nuanced than than just

a very mathematical formula. So I think that that's ~ that's

the interesting ~ thing about this generative methodology

is that the the end result is something that is already a

bit de risk on the viability, desirability and and and feasibility.

And and this is this is something that that

That is thanks to or related to this kind of filtering effect.

~ yeah, that's that's a bit d the way it works.

the more you iterate and the more further you go,

because this can be just a as a brainstorm,

you can just just do a brainstorm of two hours with this kind of method.

You just say, Okay, let's let's ~ all generate individually ten minutes around that

brief, around this ID. Great.

How we filter that, okay, we have a selection.

And after that, should we do groups of two people,

two by two, and again do a round of ten minutes of generating

IDs around the three selected or more interesting ~

or more promising products,

the one that were not killed basically.

And ~ and it's important to have all these things that were killed because that

can also generate other IDs obviously.

But

And and and and based on on on that after that,

you you how more you iterate how f you know how further you can go.

But this can just be a two hour brainstorm session.

As much as you can do longer cycles,

~ with the same principle. But for example,

how far can you de risk? At some point you need to prototype.

So who is gonna prototype something?

For example, like if it's related more to electronics,

it's more an engineer, a tech.

engineer that is going to prototype that if it's more mechanical

a mechanical engineer and so obviously how more diverse is your team,

how more you can prototype fast these things and validate these assumptions.

And these are really important ~ in in in in terms of like what

you present to your client, the deliverable,

you know, the feasibility of your project,

but but a strategist is potentially going to say,

okay, well I'm going to do a thorough study.

research and check with with yeah a larger you know like do

a qualitative or quantitative study based on on what has been out.

And for example, it's much more interesting to show a prototype

or to show ~ even ~ visual content

or renderings to to a qualitative study to pe to to people that will

be part of the qualitative study.

than than just some base question marks.

And these are what this this is where the designer is is involved in

in in in participating in the study and helping the strategists to have

a more you know to suggest more ~ content.

These these are are are sort of important because they work much more together

to elevate and enhance the response that they might get.

~ and that that is that is sort of important in in the way we work and it's it's

not it's not crazy. It's just it's quite inspired by just the principle

of evolution when you when you it's just it's the same methodology and then

the same thing that you see in ~ in generative software.

but I think that yeah, it's it's just seems quite organic

and natural to work ~ like that,

like a full organism. It's it's

That's a bit d the the idea, right?

It's ~ working as a full organism where people don't fight for your ID.

~ all we care about is just keep making something useful and using anything that's

available, material science, you know,

3D printing, more powerful computers,

AI to make something even better,

more useful. Because ultimately that's what it is.

How useful is it? Something that's pretty and looks sexy.

That

That fades. It's use, it's real value.

Does it add value to your life?

And we are searching engineering solutions,

optimization to deliver better value and better performance for you,

the council customer.

Please excuse this short interruption.

We'll get back to the episode in a moment,

but I first wanted to share something really exciting that we're working on.

Kodu are proudly partnering with Vax and TTI Floorcare to rebuild their

UK engineering and innovation function in Droitwich.

A quick bit of history first. Vax started in Droitwitch in 1977 when Alan Brazier

built the first machine that let people wash the carpets in their own home.

A Milkchurn.

A shower pump and a water heater.

A world first. By nineteen eighty seven,

it was the best selling vacuum cleaner in Britain.

So the company was founded on wet,

and wet product development is now being built in the UK from the ground up.

Pumps, impellers, ceiling, ingress protection,

mechanism design, plastics. Alongside it,

an advanced development team standing up as its own function,

and an industrial design and design research team.

That owns the front end. Here's three things worth knowing if you work

in physical product development.

You'd be building the team rather than joining it.

The people going in now decide how this works.

The brief is deliberately loose.

Explore, prototype, test the risky part early,

prove it before anyone commits to tooling.

If you'd spent the last three years executing decisions somebody else made,

this is the exact opposite of that.

And it sits inside TTI, a group turning over fifteen billion dollars with Milwaukee,

Ryobi, and Hoover in the portfolio.

The scale behind it is real. Roles run from design engineer through

to senior leadership across advanced development,

design engineering, industrial design and electronics.

Every live vacancy is over at teamkodu.com slash jobs.

That's teamkodu.com slash jobs.

Right, let's get back to the episode.

I am a stereotypical industrial designer in the fact that I will look

at the portfolio first and I will read absolutely none of it at first.

We're just gonna look at images.

We're very visual people. And if you haven't refined the skills for that yet,

~ then you know, you haven't committed enough.

So it potential is is important.

So it really depends. You know,

if you're looking at entry level,

potential is key. You know, are is someone making the effort?

Are they growing through their portfolio?

~ can they sketch render? I know that that may be

~ viewed as an older skill by some younger folks that are using VizCom

or some of the AI tools, but ~ to date I still have not found ~ that

you can manipulatively control and execute a design through that.

They're a nice support and there's ways to use those tools.

But if you can't communicate by sketching,

~ that's a huge disadvantage. So you have to be able to sketch.

~ my least favorite thing and I I went through some portfolio reviews recently with

a ~ a school I I won't mention who it was,

but

Three or four of the students said,

~ me and sketching have a love hate relationship or I hate sketching,

I don't like to do it and I was like,

Well one, not something you say in an interview,

but two, I appreciate your candor,

but this is just not gonna be a fit ever.

I mean, if you're sit in a room with a either a senior leader

or you're sitting there with manufacturing side,

like and you need to solve a problem,

you need to like be able to throw down and communicate ~ a three dimensional concept

by by hand in a matter of minutes.

~

That's just a requirement for me.

So if ~ we couldn't solve problems or be a good designer without that skill.

It just has to be able to communicate.

it doesn't have to be blown off the page,

you know, killer renders with the fisheye lens angle and all that.

No, and and over stylized. You just have to be able to communicate.

A simple line drawing to communicate,

hey, what if we pull this from this direction or what if we do this shape?

Does that get things we want? ~

That type of communication is important.

I mean, I think it's actually something that most engineers,

some some that are very successful have the ability to do that as well.

~ which it's very helpful. Even even those old,

like I think I took in high school,

like the three D drafting with the drafting arm stuff before AutoCAD was out.

~ but that ability to visualize it in three D and communicate it in two

D is is really powerful. I I'm always wary of perfect.

~ anyone who thinks they're perfect.

Any product that is perfect, nothing is perfect.

And actually it's the imperfection that delivers innovation.

it's the grit in the oyster that creates the pearl.

And so we need to be permanently uncomfortable.

We need to be surrounding ourselves with people who are different to ourselves,

that challenge the status quo,

~ that look at the world differently.

And that might be cultural, it might be,

you know, where their life experiences have taken them,

what their career has done. but you know,

you just you know, I can walk into some businesses and they tend to

be in the service industry, lawyers and bankers,

and you just think, it's a sort of it's a sausage machine.

This is a little sausage on the in front of a computer next to the next sausage,

and you know, and they're churning out,

you know, the same stuff. Well,

that just wouldn't work for us.

And

I'm so proud of the like furious diversity inside this organization.

And actually, you if you look too hard for the perfect of anything,

you're going to pay a premium because you're competing against the rest

of the the world of employers who who are desperate to find the perfect employee.

Whereas if you're prepared to spend a bit more time and look beyond that

and invite people who maybe don't fit but have something a little bit different.

Different about them and their their C V isn't the way you thought and

it it isn't chat GBT and it's got some left of field odd things in it that make

you go, Ooh, God, that's a bit ooh,

that's a bit different. Different.

Ooh, interesting. And maybe they come in and maybe they can't sit

up perfectly and give you a firm handshake and look you straight in the eye.

But they there's something about them that's just interesting.

Others will overlook them. They might n may not see that.

They're too they're they're too they're not prepared to take a risk on anyone.

~ unless they're perfect. And if you can back somebody who maybe isn't obvious

and maybe is a little bit different,

then they will thank you for it.

They will be more committed and they're probably better value.

And so I'm I am odd.

And lots of people at Brompton are odd.

We're all a bit fricking weird.

Great. Come on board. And ~ but together I think that diversity

in thinking and approach delivers a a far better outcome.

But you know, we have our challenges too.

We're not perfect. Perfect. I I'd never like to suggest that.

It's this endless obsession with not taking risk.

You won't take risk on anyone that isn't the perfect C V because if it goes wrong,

but the C V said they were perfect.

You know, we forget it. And it's it's it's this whole business about risk.

~ so it is the same thing repeated.

This theme of taking risk. And you know,

when you're up against it, innovation comes in thick and fast.

And I'm sorry to say, during war,

innovation comes in fast. I mean,

look at what's happening tragically in Ukraine.

But the speed of innovation with drone technology,

drone innovation, because they need it and they're not spending ages mulling things

over. They're freaking getting in there and trying it.

It's life and death stuff. And the same in the Second World War.

You know, gosh. So

Bring a bit of that risk into the business.

Allow people to make mistakes.

Try stuff. Recruit people who are a little bit different and see what they might

bring rather than just the absolute perfect individual.

You know what you're gonna get.

But it's not gonna take you that big step forward.

Yeah, and it it's I'll I'll I'll s like I'll do doodles like this just

a simple one for a display boot but like simple line work drawing.

Sometimes I'll get there and once you know,

I think throughout your career you get better and better at seeing things

in your head.

and once you've got it there, I might go from line work straight to three

D and and bang something out really quickly just because I've got

it really clearly in my in my head.

~ I I think that's that's perfectly fine from a from a design standpoint.

The the one thing that I see though when I see mostly CAD and renders

and not much on the sketching side is my my business acumen brain is going,

that's cost, because that's time.

Because if you need to iterate in three D

I'm gonna you're gonna need another two,

three weeks to do a new concept.

Whereas if you truly learn how to sketch,

you can throw down the next one in an hour and a half.

And it'll be you know, in a Photoshop real semi realistic render,

we can evaluate the concept and then make the investment of you know,

weeks to three D. ~ that's that's the the crutch I see on the the three

D bias over over two D. But yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, the collaboration when you can sketch is is just so much higher frequency.

too and I I'd be breaking it into two lanes.

I mean, like, you know, again,

there's design and then there's consultant design,

right? So ~ and you you you know,

so so a big part of that is really managing those relationships.

And I and I learned early on ~ from some some we're really great,

wonderful people how to how to engage and hone that skill over the years.

And it it certainly was not without ~ some some some pretty significant breakdowns,

but that's how you learn. You know,

you you because you know there's ~

Expectations that are set. ~ and you know,

you realize that the the designer really sees things.

The those that that have the gift and the ability really see it early on.

You have a conversation, it's like,

~ I just visualized that. Yeah,

the the challenge is not everybody else in the room is seeing the same thing,

right? And so the the the the opportunity is really to to bring everyone along

in a way and and over the years those

Those approaches have changed,

you know, whether or not it was early sketching and post-its or quick

CAD modeling or AI generated renditions today,

you know, of a of a nugget of an idea.

I mean, that the the job is really to bring people along and

the breakdowns happen when there's a miscommunication.

And those miscommunications can happen in terms of people's expectations.

And so managing expectations along the way in consultant design

is absolutely critical.

Meaning even from the initial engagement,

understanding what that what that expectation is.

Where where do you want where do you want this to go?

You know, the question is always asked then,

well, what does it cost? And that's a very difficult question

to answer sometimes when you're building something where you don't know what it is.

On the personal side, I've been sort of reflective on ~ strategies that we'll take

that ~

you know, that may be a bit fresher,

a bit different in terms of how how we organize our our team and

how we present ourselves. So I think ~ I think that's always a healthy thing

to sort of look at those ~ look at how you approach things and and mix

it up a little bit. I I mean I mean personally I feel like I'm in a

I'm in a good space. You know,

I'm I'm starting to approach sixty years old and sort of thinking about the next

phases there and I think taking a more of a measured look at things long term

and so you know really thinking strongly about you know how we how

we move our business in into the next five years,

you know, and ~ paying putting some more attention into that as well.

But it it's been very difficult for twenty twenty five because the house

was on fire, right? I mean so I mean I use that in a

in a little bit over dramatized term.

I mean, we're we're fortunate to have the business that we had and we've done fine.

~ but I could see better potential and and with that potential,

I'd like to spend some more effort working on the business and

and its growth potential to to get through some of this this challenge.

Yeah, you can't have a podcast without bringing up AI,

~ especially now. And

I mean, I feel I feel fortunate,

you know, members of our team have taken on the responsibility of just being more

proactive, of following it. And boy,

that's it's just it's changes so often.

I mean, it reminds me of the dot com days.

and you know, there's just it just ~ you just you just have to be mindful

of the the tools that are out there and testing and trying and you have

to be also mindful of not being just chasing shiny objects.

I mean, there's still a core business.

This our business

model is not one that is based on a a trend.

Our business model's been around for many,

many years in terms of so so really just being mindful of

of just knowledgeable about the tools is key,

but it's not necessarily changing it in its entirety.

Really the most important part is really being in a mode.

It's like it's like d a boxer being in a ring,

right? You know, you're in the ring,

so stuff's gonna happen. You could get hit.

And but you're you're always in you're you're in that right pose.

You're in that right position.

~ it's not like you're angry, this is just this is just business and

you should just expect things to always be fluid and stuff to happen

and just you know, maintain the idea that I'm in the ring,

you know, this is what I'm gonna be doing,

and I'm not stepping out of the ring unless something really massive happens,

but that's my job to be in the ring.

All of them are working in or around physical products.

All of them are linked below. If any of these moments resonated,

the full episodes go much, much deeper.

Thank you for listening.

Thanks for listening to Why Design.

If this episode gave you some new ideas,

share it with someone in your team who'd find it useful.

And follow the show so you don't miss what's next.

And if you're building a product team or looking for your next challenge

in design or engineering, that's exactly what we do at Kodu.

We help companies hire smarter and faster,

and help great talent find work that actually fits.

I'm Chris White, connect with me on LinkedIn and let's keep raising

the bar for design leadership.

Until next time.

Stay curious, stay creative and keep asking why design.