David Gilman

For fifteen years I've led design and product teams at R/GA, Amazon, Google, and now Capital One. The work has always been about the same thing: keeping a group of smart, anxious people pointed at the right problem.

Five years ago I started riding ambulances as a volunteer EMT. I expected it to be an escape from the office. Instead it became the clearest mirror of it I've ever found.

An ambulance crew has no roadmap, no quarterly planning, and no slack channel. What it has is a protocol, a chain of command, and a culture that treats panic as the most dangerous thing in the room.