The most impactful design teams are supported by technical expertise, creative ingenuity — and diverse perspectives.
That’s why the design team at security and AI operations company Rubrik partners closely with the company’s product management and engineering teams. According to VP and Chief of Design Oded Klimer, this empowers every team member to stretch their abilities and challenge the “why” behind each feature they create, therefore driving the company’s mission: “to secure and accelerate the world's AI transformation.”
“When your design decisions affect how quickly a company gets back on its feet after an attack, those diverse perspectives aren’t a nice-to-have — they’re how we get it right,” Klimer said.
At Sysco LABS, the innovation arm of foodservice provider Sysco, Director of User Experience and Research Anna Hofmanova and her teammates take a similar approach to inclusion during the product development process. While the design, research and product teams work together to frame problems, the engineering team determines which solutions can scale across platforms, brands and experiences, which is especially critical when working with AI.
“AI can dramatically accelerate how quickly teams move from an idea to something tangible, but speed makes shared context, intentional decision-making and cross-functional alignment more important, not less,” Hofmanova said.
Read on to learn more about what it’s like to work on the design team at Rubrik and Sysco LABS, including how both teams include different perspectives in the design process.
Rubrik, a security and AI operations company, leads at the intersection of data protection, cyber resilience and enterprise AI acceleration.
What’s it like to work on the design team at Rubrik?
Working at Rubrik, specifically on the design team, is high-velocity, deeply innovative and genuinely empowering. We design for the organizations the world depends on, helping them stay resilient against cyberattacks, so the craft here protects real institutions when it matters most. Our team has secured more than 30 patents, and regardless of your level, you’re trusted to own your work and drive real industry impact. We embrace AI to automate technical tasks so our team can focus on their creative “superpowers.” We encourage people to bring their authentic selves to work and give them constant opportunities to learn and reinvent themselves. Our retention is fantastic. Many of our current managers and senior individual contributors started here early in their careers and grew into leadership.
“Our team has secured more than 30 patents, and regardless of your level, you’re trusted to own your work and drive real industry impact.”
How does your team bring different perspectives into the design process?
At Rubrik, design doesn’t just execute — we have a true seat at the table. Our entire design organization, which includes product design, UX research, UX writing, tech pubs and design systems, are involved at the earliest stages of ideation. By partnering closely with product management and engineering, we empower every team member to step outside their immediate scope and challenge the “why” behind a feature, not just solve for the “how.” When your design decisions affect how quickly a company gets back on its feet after an attack, those diverse perspectives aren’t a nice-to-have — they’re how we get it right. That fusion is a key reason customers choose Rubrik, and it’s what has earned us industry recognition like the Red Dot and iF Design Awards.
What should candidates know about belonging, feedback or inclusion on your design team?
Feedback is a gift, and active listening is in our DNA. Even at more than 60 people, we operate like a tight-knit family where everyone is encouraged to voice their perspectives, especially when they challenge the status quo. We hold weekly all-design syncs where every level and function shares thoughts openly. Inclusion also starts with how we build our team. We hire based on actual work and outcomes rather than formal education or past industry experience. We’ve built a vibrantly diverse team from all walks of life, all united by the belief that the work we do matters.
Sysco LABS is the innovation arm of foodservice provider Sysco. Its teams develop e-commerce solutions that help the company’s customers browse products and place orders, track orders in real time and gain insight into their accounts.
What’s it like to work on the design team at Sysco LABS?
What makes designing at Sysco interesting is the complexity of the ecosystem around us. Our customers interact with Sysco in so many different ways, from our e-commerce and mobile experiences to their sales consultant, deliveries, invoices and even the relationship they have with their driver. Behind those interactions is an enormous operational network that our digital experiences have to work within and connect to. There are digital experiences, physical operations and human relationships all working together to create one Sysco experience.
A big part of our job is orchestration. We think about how those touchpoints connect and how the experience stays coherent across platforms, channels, brands and users, especially at Sysco’s scale.
That means our designers have to think well beyond screens and features. We’re designing journeys, systems and relationships between experiences, and increasingly exploring how AI can connect them in ways that weren’t possible before.
How does your team bring different perspectives into the design process?
We’re very intentional about bringing the right perspectives into the work. Research sits within our team and is embedded throughout our process, helping us understand the people, behaviors and environments behind the experiences we design across the many industries Sysco serves.
Design, research and product work together to frame problems and regularly use workshops to bring in business stakeholders and engineering, challenge assumptions and build shared understanding before converging on a direction. Engineering helps us think beyond what works for one use case to what can scale across platforms, brands and experiences.
I think this becomes even more important as we integrate AI into the software development lifecycle. AI can dramatically accelerate how quickly teams move from an idea to something tangible, but speed makes shared context, intentional decision-making and cross-functional alignment more important, not less.
And collaboration doesn’t mean designing by committee. Design has a responsibility to synthesize those perspectives and protect the integrity of the experience. We’re deliberate about what we include, but equally critical about what we don’t.
“We’re deliberate about what we include, but equally critical about what we don’t.”
What should candidates know about belonging, feedback or inclusion on your design team?
For me, belonging on a design team is less about everyone feeling the same and more about creating an environment where people can do their best thinking. We hire people with different experiences, strengths and perspectives because we expect those differences to improve the work.
That requires a culture where ideas can be challenged without people feeling personally challenged. Feedback on our team is direct, frequent and grounded in the problem we’re trying to solve. Seniority doesn’t make an idea right, and consensus isn’t always the goal. We want people to ask hard questions, surface risks, change their minds when the evidence changes and respectfully push back, including on me.
As a leader, my job is to create clarity around the standards and outcomes we expect, then give people room to exercise their own judgment. The strongest teams aren’t ones where everyone thinks alike. They’re ones where people trust each other enough to disagree, learn from one another and still move forward together.
