Airbnb’s Iain Roberts on Designing HR as a Strategic Service Function

Iain Roberts, Global Head of Employee Experience at Airbnb, discusses experimenting in HR in 2025, the design-thinking reshaping organizational structures, and why CEO Brian Chesky’s ‘Founder Mode’ is much misinterpreted. Iain covers innovative approach to flexible work, cross-functional alignment, and treating employee programs as evolving products requiring continuous refinement.

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HR Heretics is a podcast from Turpentine.

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LINK/S:

Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/

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REFERENCE/S:

NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang says that IT will ‘become the HR of AI agents’:

https://fortune.com/2025/01/09/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huangt-take-over-hr-ai-agents/

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KEEP UP WITH IAIN, NOLAN + KELLI ON LINKEDIN

Iain: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertsiain/

Kelli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellidragovich/Nolan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nolan-church/

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Intro

(00:13) From Designer to HR Leader: Iain's Journey

(01:15) "Everything Needs to Be Designed" Philosophy

(03:09) Designing Systems of People and Structures

(04:47) Bringing Design Thinking to HR at Airbnb

(08:03) Airbnb's One Roadmap Approach: 7,000 People, One Focus

(07:21) Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Culture & Innovation

(10:26) Tactically Transforming an HR Team with Design Thinking

(11:47) Treating HR as Products and Services

(13:14) The Future of HR Product Management

(14:36) Sponsor: Metaview

(16:30) Founder Mode: Misinterpretations and Brian Chesky's Approach

(23:00) Airbnb's Shift to a Single Product Roadmap

(26:54) Design-Led Culture and Attention to Detail at Airbnb

(28:48) Prototyping & Iterating with Human Experiences: Challenges

(30:50) Airbnb's Gathering Strategy and Flexible Work Philosophy

(33:48) Airbnb's Contrarian Stance on Remote Work (Live & Work Anywhere)

(39:45) Wrap