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Rachel Kobetz

Chief Design OfficerPayPal

San Francisco, CA

Member Since June 2022

Skills

Design Strategy
Experience Design
Executive Leadership

About

Rachel Kobetz is a Chief Design executive with proven expertise driving the vision, strategy, and implementation of customer experiences and organizational transformation for Fortune 100 companies. She shapes product cultures that connect people and make technology more human. Rachel has recognized experience in design leadership and operations, building world-class organizations that integrate human-centered design to drive product and service innovation. As Senior Vice President and Global Head of Design for Expedia Group, Rachel is helping lead a cultural transformation to become a design-led company and power global travel for everyone, everywhere. A senior design leader with entrepreneurial energy, she guides with vision and drives new standards of excellence at scale through influence, leadership, and recognized expertise — driving experience strategy and customer-centric innovation, establishing customer experience as competitive advantage, defining new ways of working through business agility, and bringing holistic thinking and cohesion across the Expedia Group travel ecosystem. Prior to joining Expedia Group, Rachel was Head of Design at Bank of America, where she led the company’s Experience Design organization, driving the end-to-end transformation of core product and service experiences, raising the impact of Design as strategic asset, and spearheading customer-centric culture change and innovation. Previously, Rachel was Head of Studio, New Product UX at Amazon's Human-Centered Design Group, where she led a team of designers, technologists, and researchers defining Amazon's next big thing. At Amazon, she worked across a spectrum of spaces blending hardware, software, services, and brand experiences. Prior to Amazon, Rachel was Senior Director of UX at Samsung’s Mobile Innovation Lab, where she led a multi-disciplinary group responsible for end-to-end experiences for flagship devices and early product/service concepts. There she helped lead the team evolution from incubation lab to advanced product org — championing UX excellence and delivering elegant consumer experiences that gained top-level visibility across the global org and industry. Rachel is passionate about the integration of user-centered innovation, technical insight, and systems thinking into a design-driven product development process and see this as the best way to create meaningful products that resonate with customers and improve their lives.

Published content

15 tips for preparing for a team collaboration

expert panel

Preparing adequately for a team collaboration and brainstorming session is essential to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the session is productive.  Collaboration and brainstorming are critical components of many successful projects. However, they can be challenging to execute effectively. Below, a panel of Fast Company Executive Board members offers some tips to help you prepare for a team collaboration and brainstorming session that can lead to more successful outcomes. Whether you're working on a project with colleagues or leading a team, these tips can help you get the most out of your collaboration and brainstorming sessions.

13 design trends that benefit companies in today's marketplace 

expert panel

Implement these latest innovations to help your company thrive. Whether it's utilizing a bold color statement in a rebranding campaign or coming up with an innovative human-centered design that serves current and prospective clients much better, there's a lot for companies to be excited about and engaged in the upcoming years. As the competition continues to escalate, company business leaders and their creative teams need to stay ahead of the forecast so they can be one step ahead in the global market. We asked 13 leading experts from Fast Company Executive Board to share their thoughts on some of the biggest design trends on the rise and why they're so essential.

13 'hacks' to bridge the communication gap at work

expert panel

Here's how department leaders are breaking the conversation barriers to improve their team relationships. To encourage ongoing dialogue, and inspire an employee's enthusiasm about their contribution to the job, a leader must be relatable, humble, and willing to show up to support their team on a daily basis.  Revealing a sense of humanity and their commitment to staff in the workplace also demonstrates their openness to receive feedback. This, in turn, empowers employees to stay engaged when given a voice—to brainstorm collective solutions that make the organization even better. Below, 13 Fast Company Executive Board members share their best practices to spark some safe, transparent, and meaningful discussions in the office.

15 ways to gauge a prospective client's buying behavior

expert panel

Consumer psychology 101: Apply these engagement strategies to your sales funnel process. Keeping your fingers on the pulse of what's going on inside the mind of today's consumers, in real-time, doesn't have to be a hit-or-miss situation. If you utilize the proper tools and techniques available, you'll be able to quickly identify ways to elevate the customer's journey and exceed their satisfaction.  Once you've discovered what is working, or how to make the necessary tweaks in their experience with your products or services, you'll also be on track to gaining their long-term loyalty, trust, and support when it comes to advocating for your brand. Below are 15 methods that Fast Company Executive Board members are implementing in their business practices to engage with prospects and gather key information, which leads to sales.

Company details

PayPal

Company bio

PayPal has remained at the forefront of the digital payment revolution for more than 20 years. By leveraging technology to make financial services and commerce more convenient, affordable, and secure, the PayPal platform is empowering hundreds of millions of consumers and merchants in more than 200 markets to join and thrive in the global economy.

Industry

Technology

Area of focus

E-Commerce Platforms
Payments

Company size

10,001 plus