The tech industry’s recognition of design and its importance is so prevalent nowadays that it’s practically atmospheric. It wasn’t always so. Silicon Valley, with the exception of some pioneering companies, has always treated design as relatively important. But it’s over the past decade that it has gone from relative to singular importance. This change has unfolded partly behind the scenes in reshuffled org charts, but also in plain view: Applications have started to feel less like a chore and more like an interactive experience. Anyone can verify this on their own with a time-lapse study of the Internet Archive

At Amplify, we’ve made a habit of backing founders who prioritize design and user experience. Prioritizing great design, however, is the first step in a much longer journey to building effective design organizations, an art in its own right.

This brings me to Joshua Goldenberg. We thought, who better to help founders scale their design function than someone who’s done it not once but three times at Palantir, Slack and then most recently, Loom. Since Loom, he’s taken on advisory roles at a range of notable organizations, traversing both company stage and industry.

As the newest member of the Amplify Build Team, he’ll embed with companies to guide founders through every aspect of the design lifecycle: product and brand strategy, making design ICs successful, organization planning and design leadership, hiring and retention and best practices for tying design into other functions of the business.

Our team has been hoping to bring Joshua into the Amplify fold for years now. We now get to make it official. Welcome, Joshua!

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