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- If there is one thing
I would wanna redesign,

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first thing that comes
to mind is Penn Station

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'cause it's an atrocity (laughs).

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My name's Ian Spalter,

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I'm the Head of Design at Instagram.

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One of the reasons why I joined the team

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was to work with Kevin
and Mike, who have exited,

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but they built something really incredible

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and, I think, not just the product,

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but the people on the team,

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and they're connected by a
shared set of values and beliefs

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and I think that's something
that I think will continue.

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I've also had experiences
working at companies

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where the founders have
left, like YouTube,

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I've worked there as well.

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And that's also a company
that's continued to thrive

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and have its own unique culture,

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and the product has only continued

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to have impact on the world

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and people love it and love using it.

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So I think there is a track record

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of that still being able to happen.

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So I'm hopeful that it'll
continue to happen at Instagram.

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My proudest accomplishment at Instagram

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is the team that I've
been able to build there.

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Sure, there are lots of
great ideas of product

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and good work,

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but you can't do a great product

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without a great group of people,

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and that is by far the
thing I'm most proud of.

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I think when you have a
diverse group of people

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making the product,

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it only improves the
quality of that, right?

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So each individual person

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brings their own personal experience

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to their design process.

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So if you're able to put those
different people together,

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you're gonna get a better result.

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When we think about the emergence

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of the smartphone, right?

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It's particularly post iPhone.

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That's a, probably it's
like a 12 year period

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and for some people that
may sound like a long time,

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but I think it's a really short time

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when you think about human history

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or even modern human history.

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So it's not uncommon for culture

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to need time to catch up to technology.

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And so I feel like we're at a time

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where we're starting to consider,

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what are the things that we
need to change culturally

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to make better use of the technology

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that's had such an impact
on the entire world?

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I think it's important to balance out

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how often you use technology.

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You know, it's not just phones,

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but there's lots of
information come at us now

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and creating time and space

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to not be just in a consumption mode.

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We've also started to build tools

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that help you keep track of
what you're doing on Instagram

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or how often you're using it.

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And that's also a trend that you're seeing

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other companies take it in, as well,

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to kind of give people the
tools they need to understand

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how often they're actually
using these devices

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and how often they're using
particular types of software,

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and then it's up to them

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how they wanna change
their behavior or not.

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For myself, I believe in timeboxing.

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I think, if there was a task
that you're putting off,

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like giving yourself a block of time

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and constraining it helps you focus,

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because it's like I have to get this done

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and I've got 20 minutes to
put in on something like that.

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I think that's really helpful.

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And then also trying to set up your days

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so there is the minimal
amount of contact shifting.

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So that your mind can be,

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whether it's on a particular domain

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or a certain type of activity

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so you can kind of get into a flow.

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(gentle music)