WHY DESIGN?
byChris Whyte | Kodu
ArtsDesignBusinessCareersTechnology
Why Design is a podcast exploring the stories behind hardware and physical product development. Hosted by Chris Whyte, founder of Kodu, the show dives into the journeys of founders, senior design leaders, and engineers shaping people and planet-friendly products. Formerly "The Design Journeys Podcast", each episode uncovers pivotal career moments, lessons learned, and behind-the-scenes insights from industry experts. Whether you’re a designer, engineer, or simply curious about how great hardware products come to life, Why Design offers real stories, actionable advice, and inspiration for anyone passionate about design and innovation. Join us as we listen, learn, and connect through th...
Episodes(40 episodes)
Season 5 - Episode 8
What Building the Production Machine Teaches You About the Design | Matt Batchelor
What does it actually take to get something you designed onto a supermarket shelf at scale?In this episode of Why Design, Matt Batchelor shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that the best design does not stop at the render. It runs all the way through the material choice, the tooling, the supply chain, and the factory floor and the designer should know all of it.Rather than staying in the comfortable upstream of concept and CAD, Matt and his co-founder Nick Paget built Instrument into a studio that also...
Published: Apr 29, 2026Duration: 1h 7m 29s
Season 5 - Episode 7
Why Getting Into John Lewis Still Wasn't Enough | Phil Staunton
What does it actually cost to build a hardware brand from inside a design agency?In this episode of Why Design, Phil Staunton shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that product design is only as good as the honesty you bring to it.Not just the honesty with clients about what their product needs, but with yourself about what you do not know yet.Rather than staying comfortable in the consultancy model, Phil chose to put his own money into a consumer pushchair brand, take it to John...
Published: Apr 22, 2026Duration: 1h 22m 34s
Season 5 - Episode 6
Why the best hardware careers look like wrong turns from the outside | Felicity Boyce
What do you do when the work you're best at starts to feel like the problem?In this episode of Why Design, Felicity Boyce shares the belief that sits at the heart of her work: that understanding how something is made, at factory scale, under pressure, with the wrong release agent and a cycle time that doesn't add up, is more valuable than any theory you carry out of university.As Head of Material Innovation at Koroyd, she leads the development of the tubular core technology that is now inside helmets and body protection products...
Published: Apr 16, 2026Duration: 1h 8m 32s
Season 5 - Episode 5
Why the Softest Fruit is the Hardest Engineering Problem, And Robotics’ Potential | Sid Shaikh
What does it take to solve a problem nobody else is willing to attempt, in a country 10,000 miles away, with a 15-person team and an active fundraise running in the background?In this episode of Why Design, Sid Shaikh shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that the hardest engineering problems are the right ones to go after, and that the difference between a startup that scales and one that stalls is almost always about whether the team is solving the actual bottleneck or just the comfortable one.Rather than staying...
Published: Apr 8, 2026Duration: 1h 8m 22s
Season 5 - Episode 4
Why Half the Country Can't Access Clean Energy, And What’s Changing | Rob Hallifax
What if the biggest gap in the clean energy transition isn't technology or politics, but simply who the products were designed for?In this episode of Why Design, Rob Hallifax shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that half the country has been left behind by clean energy, and that the right physical product can change that. Rob is co-founder of Windfall Energy, a company building a compact home battery specifically for renters and flat-dwellers, the people for whom solar panels, heat pumps and big home batteries have never been a realistic option.<...
Published: Apr 1, 2026Duration: 1h 6m 23s
Season 5 - Episode 3
Why Nobody Fixed This $12 Billion Surgical Problem, Until Now | Liz McGloughlin
What does it take to redesign a surgical instrument that nobody has touched in sixty years?In this episode of Why Design?, Liz McGloughlin shares the belief that sits at the heart of her work: that hardware problems worth solving are the ones nobody has bothered to solve yet, and that the best place to find them is not a trend report but an operating room.Rather than following a conventional route into medical devices through engineering alone, Liz brought a clinical lens to a design problem, co-founding Tympany Medical after watching surgeons work around...
Published: Mar 25, 2026Duration: 59m 59s
Season 5 - Episode 2
Why the Worst Thing You Can Do Is Be the Designer Everyone Wants You to Be | Dan Salisbury, Automata
What does it take to walk into a deep tech startup as the only industrial designer... Earn the trust of thirty engineers, and... Build a design identity so thoroughly baked into the product that no one can ever cost-optimise it out? In this episode of Why Design, Dan Salisbury shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that design isn't a layer you apply at the end, it's the structure you build from the inside, or it's nothing at all. Rather than staying in consultancy, Dan chose to go in-house...
Published: Mar 18, 2026Duration: 1h 6m 54s
Season 5 - Episode 1
Why Fertility Treatment Is Broken (And What Needs to Change) | Tess Cosad on Building Béa Fertility
What if the most important fertility treatment of the last decade wasn’t invented in a clinic, but built from scratch, during a lockdown, by someone who had never worked in medicine? In this episode of Why Design, Tess Cosad shares the belief that sits at the heart of Béa Fertility: that compassionate, clinical-grade care should be available to everyone, not just those who can afford a private clinic, survive a two-year waiting list, or live near the right postcode. Rather than accepting the gap between DIY conception and IVF, Tess chose to fill it...
Published: Mar 11, 2026Duration: 1h 3m 54s
Season 4 - Episode 10
From Folding Bikes to Electric Aircraft: The Design Philosophy of Mark Sanders
What connects a folding bicycle, a kitchen tool, and an electric ultralight aircraft? For Mark Sanders, the answer isn’t the category, it’s the thinking. In this episode of Why Design, Mark joins host Chris Whyte to reflect on a career that spans more than four decades of designing, engineering, and inventing across radically different industries. From his early work as a mechanical engineer at Rolls-Royce, to retraining at the Royal College of Art, to licensing over 100 commercialised products, Mark’s work is united by a clear philosophy: elegance through simplicity. This is a c...
Published: Jan 28, 2026Duration: 1h 14m 47s
Season 4 - Episode 9
The Quiet Discipline Behind Long-Lasting Design Businesses with Paul Metaxatos
In an industry that often celebrates rapid growth, visibility, and bold ambition, there’s a quieter reality that rarely gets attention: The design businesses that last aren’t built through speed. They’re built through discipline. Through showing up consistently. Through making careful decisions when shortcuts are tempting. Through taking responsibility for outcomes, not just ideas. In this episode of Why Design, Paul Metaxatos, Principal and Owner of Motiv Design, joins host Chris Whyte to unpack what it actually takes to build a consultancy that endures, not just c...
Published: Jan 21, 2026Duration: 1h 9m 47s
Season 4 - Episode 8
Why Design Should Take Over the World: A Conversation with Tylan Tschopp
What if design wasn’t just a function… but a way of thinking about the world?In this episode of Why Design, Tylan Tschopp shares a belief that sits at the heart of his career: that design, when combined with engineering rigour and ownership, has the power to shape better products, better teams, and ultimately, better outcomes for people.Rather than choosing between design or engineering, Tylan chose the space in between. That decision led him to roles defined by responsibility, momentum and scale where success wasn’t measured by aesthetics alone, but by execution, standa...
Published: Jan 14, 2026Duration: 1h 3m 10s
Season 4 - Episode 7
How Paul Marshall Built Rapid Fluidics into a Global Microfluidics Partner Through Curiosity and Good Engineering
What connects offshore engineering, inkjet printers, molecular diagnostics and a small workshop in a church in Newcastle? For Paul Marshall, it’s all part of the same journey: a lifelong fascination with how things work, and a belief that good engineering can solve meaningful problems. Paul is the co-founder of Rapid Fluidics, a UK consultancy and prototyping company specialising in microfluidic cartridges. What began as a part-time side project; evenings, weekends and two 3D printers in a rented room has grown into a profitable, globally recognised business serving life sciences startups, research labs and multinational phar...
Published: Dec 17, 2025Duration: 1h 2m 32s
Season 4 - Episode 6
Leading with Purpose: How Will Butler-Adams Scaled Brompton into a Global Icon
What happens when you mix engineering instinct, a folding bike prototype built by an eccentric inventor, and a chance conversation with a stranger on a London bus? For Will Butler-Adams, it became the start of a 20-year journey transforming Brompton from a tiny, chaotic workshop into one of Britain’s most recognisable global brands. Today, Brompton bikes are commonplace in cities across the world. But when Will joined in 2002, the company had “a stock turn of one… tons and tons of racking pallets… and squeezed in the edges where people actually adding value.” In this episod...
Published: Dec 10, 2025Duration: 1h 14m 1s
Season 4 - Episode 5
Designing Play: How Rémi Bigot Built Bitpong and a Creative Hardware Studio in Berlin
What do furniture exhibitions, glowing tables, and digital design have in common? For Rémi, founder of Diplik, they’re all stops on a creative journey that ultimately led to Bitpong; a tech-enhanced, interactive ping-pong table that feels equal parts sport, art installation, and arcade. From early ambitions in car design to studying industrial design in northern France, to guest lecturing and building his own hardware studio in Berlin, Rémi’s story is a reminder that creative careers rarely move in straight lines. Bitpong didn’t emerge from a sudden idea. It came from years of e...
Published: Dec 3, 2025Duration: 58m 1s
Season 4 - Episode 4
How FutureWave’s Joachim Blends Engineering, Intuition & Innovation Across Mobility, Tech & Robotics
What connects electric bikes, mobility systems, high-end wellbeing devices and robotics? For Joachim, it’s the same mission: design technology that feels intuitive, human, and full of possibility. With a career spanning Brussels, Copenhagen and London, and now as co-founder of FutureWave, Joachim has spent the past six years building a 25-strong design and engineering studio working across mobility, consumer tech and deep electronics. From shaping early concepts for startup disruptors to helping global brands reimagine their five-to-ten-year vision, his work sits at the intersection of creativity, engineering, and intuition. In this episode of Why...
Published: Nov 26, 2025Duration: 59m 49s
Season 4 - Episode 3
Designing at Scale: How Rich Thrush Turned Curiosity into a Career Across Brands
What connects toy blasters, beauty tools, and musical instruments? For Rich Thrush, it’s all part of the same mission: to make products people love to use. With a career spanning Hasbro, Motorola, Helen of Troy, and now Guitar Center, Rich has led design and innovation teams across some of the world’s most recognisable brands. From developing Braun’s non-contact thermometer to Revlon’s One-Step Volumizer, his work has shaped how millions interact with everyday products. In this episode of Why Design, Rich joins host Chris Whyte to unpack the art and strategy...
Published: Nov 19, 2025Duration: 1h 10m 44s
Season 4 - Episode 2
Dr Vicky Lofthouse: Why Context Matters More Than ‘Less Plastic’ in Sustainable Design
When it comes to sustainability, good intentions aren’t enough. For Dr Vicky Lofthouse, sustainability isn’t a checkbox or a materials swap, it’s a mindset shift. As a designer, educator and now founder of En-Able Sustainability, she’s spent over two decades helping companies move past the buzzwords and into the messy, meaningful reality of sustainable product design. In this episode of Why Design, Vicky joins Chris Whyte to explore what sustainability really looks like in practice; from balancing carbon impact with commercial constraints to understanding why context matters more than any sing...
Published: Nov 12, 2025Duration: 1h 1m 19s
Season 4 - Episode 1
From BBC to Newlane: How Dom Cotton Built What Everyone Said Was Impossible
What makes someone leave a 20-year BBC career to build a helmet everyone said couldn’t exist? For Dom Cotton, it wasn’t a midlife pivot, it was a mission. After years spent covering stories about courage and competition, he decided to live one.Seven years, countless prototypes, and a steep learning curve later, Dom co-founded Newlane; the company behind the world’s first safety-certified, foldable commuter helmet.In this episode of Why Design, he shares how curiosity, persistence, and a touch of naivety helped him turn rejection into progress and an idea into reality.D...
Published: Nov 5, 2025Duration: 57m 9s
Season 3 - Episode 10
Why the World Needs Designers Now More Than Ever With Dan Harden, CEO of Whipsaw
“The world needs design more now than ever.” Most designers want to make beautiful things. Dan Harden wants to make meaningful ones. From building dangerous go-karts as a kid to designing more than 1,000 products (and winning 350+ awards), Dan’s career has been a masterclass in lasting impact. As CEO and founder of Whipsaw, Dan has shaped the modern design landscape while staying grounded in what truly matters: solving real problems for real people. In this episode of Why Design, Dan shares how he turned a passion for sketching and making into a globally...
Published: Sep 24, 2025Duration: 1h 28m 17s
Season 3 - Episode 9
From Brain Surgery to Breakthrough: How Kenny Perkins Built the First E-Bike Helmet for Kids
“You have to be a certain kind of crazy to be a founder, especially in physical products.” Most people want to build something. Kenny Perkins actually did. After nearly dying in a car accident his senior year, Kenny clawed his way into the design world; starting at Fossil, shifting to helmets, and eventually co-founding Osmo, the first kids’ helmet to meet the e-bike safety standard. In this episode of Why Design, Kenny shares the journey from rebuilding a Mustang with his dad at 15 to building Impact Lab, a startup studio funding its own co...
Published: Sep 17, 2025Duration: 1h 10m 18s