Jun 30, 2020
Bill Burnett is an Adjunct Professor in Mechanical Engineering and the Executive Director of the design programs at Stanford. He received his Bachelors of Science and Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering – Product Design at Stanford and has worked in industry and academia ever since. He directs the undergraduate and graduate program in design and teaches classes at the d.school. In addition, he has worked in startups and Fortune 100 companies, including seven years at Apple designing award-winning notebook computers and a number of years in the toy industry designing Star Wars toys. He advises several startup technology companies started by his students.
Bill is also the co-founder of the Life Design lab and co-author of Designing Your Life, a book that captures the lessons from 13 years of teaching the Stanford class of the same name, and Designing Your Work Life, a book that helps you reimagine your job. Both books are based on design thinking and positive psychology and attempt to help people answer the age-old question, “What do I want to be when I grow up?”