Making sense of the world through design, with Georg Petschnigg, Head of Product Design, The New York Times

SEASON 3, EPISODE 4

MAKING SENSE OF THE WORLD THROUGH DESIGN, WITH GEORG PETSCHNIGG, HEAD OF PRODUCT DESIGN, THE NEW YORK TIMES

How does the 171-year-old Gray Lady stay so innovative? Design, technology, and storytelling. Georg Petschnigg, Head of Product Design at The New York Times, shares how his team collaborates with editors, journalists, and experts across the organization to design user experiences that make the most of readers' time and help them understand the world. From unraveling complex topics like the pandemic and elections to creating utility, delight, and moments of clarity across The Times’s vast product ecosystem, Georg reveals the design cues that signify the tone of a story and the dynamic elements used to convey unfolding events. He explains how new formats are being used to enrich reporting and storytelling at The Times. And, he shares his perspective on ongoing efforts to elevate human reporting alongside generative AI and its potential to enhance news accessibility and comprehension. With decades of digital product and business experience, Georg is uniquely positioned to understand where tech has been and where it’s going – giving a rare yet fascinating look at the intersection of design, technology, and news.

“One of the big challenges is being able to share the breadth of the reporting, the breadth of the experience that The New York Times provides, and bringing it all together into a compelling, cohesive, unified user experience. It's a huge challenge, but it's really exciting.”

Georg PetschniggHead of Product Design, The New York Times

The crucial role of design in making news a seamless, utility-driven product
How The Times’s Product Design team works with journalists and editors to experiment with new product and feature formats like live blogs, vertical videos, interactive data visualizations, annotated documents, and more
How The New York Times intentionally designs its suite of products – including the NYT News and Audio apps, Cooking, and Games – for discovery and utility, not just “stickiness”
How The Times as a product organization and newsroom operate across multiple time horizons – from live breaking news to multi-year product development roadmaps

How responsible innovation with AI can increase accessibility and open up the news to wider and untapped audiences
How the relationship between social media and journalism is evolving, and why social feeds capture just facets of the human experience
Ways in which The New York Times is thinking about and designing for a new generation of news consumers who are more accustomed to algorithmic feeds than editorial curation by humans

MAKING SENSE OF THE WORLD THROUGH DESIGN, WITH GEORG PETSCHNIGG, HEAD OF PRODUCT DESIGN, THE NEW YORK TIMES

MAKING SENSE OF THE WORLD THROUGH DESIGN, WITH GEORG PETSCHNIGG, HEAD OF PRODUCT DESIGN, THE NEW YORK TIMES

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