Matthew Carlson // Future Farming: Designing Start-ups in a Big Company

Join us Tuesday, October 20th at 5:30 PM for a talk with Matthew Carlson, Director of Product Design for Aqua at Adobe, an internal start-up focused on creativity tools for kids. With a career spanning Adobe, Twitter, and Meta, Matthew specializes in building and scaling internal start-ups within large organizations, creating products that explore new opportunities while navigating complex systems. His work sits at the intersection of product design, creativity, and emerging technologies, with a focus on empowering the next generation of creators.

In this talk, Matthew will explore how innovation takes root inside large organizations, where ideas grow toward opportunity much like plants toward sunlight. He will share practical insights on identifying promising ideas, nurturing them into impactful products, and building the conditions for them to thrive. Drawing on real-world examples, he will discuss how designers can act as “gardeners” within organizations, cultivating ideas, collaborating across teams, and protecting early-stage concepts long enough for them to take hold.

Attendees will leave with practical ways to spark new ideas, grow them into something meaningful, and bring others along in the process.

This event is free and open to the public.

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​Design Field Notes is a lecture series where we invite the public to the UC Berkeley campus for conversations with designers, makers and artists who are contributing to shaping the future through design.

If you require accommodation for a disability for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about campus mobility access features in order to fully participate in this event, please contact Jacobs Institute staff at jacobsinstitute@berkeley.edu with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days in advance of the event.