Hi Jennifer (coming from the Slack). I’m not disagreeing w/ your statements, but I think you’re generalizing from a subset, and thus your conclusion is, well, debatable. (This is not to say I unequivocally agree with the opposing side: of course, “designing” at a startup dedicated to “disrupting the online luxury tie purchasing model” doesn’t change jack, and is one step above Glengarry Glen Ross.) But I can point you to Kolko’s “Wicked Problems”, Ezio Manzini’s “Design, When Everybody Designs”, 18F, US Digital Services, Open Oakland, or a lot more examples — mostly not-for-profits or public bodies — where design (that is, user research leading to solving real problems for real people) is changing things, and changing them for the better. Remember, everything is designed — there is no “well, this bill/IVR system/storefront/DMV is just naturally like this — so for every crap experience, there was design, which could be better, which makes the world a bit better. For most SF startups which want to scale and be “Uber for X”, sure, you’re not wrong. You just have to look outside that culture.