Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia speaks onstage at #BoFVOICES at Soho Farmhouse on November 28, 2023 in Chipping Norton, England. Gebbia announced on his social media Aug. 23 that he had been selected to lead the Trump administration's new design push. John Phillips/Getty Images for BoF
Airbnb co-founder and DOGE associate to head new federal design office
Joe Gebbia has been working on modernizing retirement processes at the Office of Personnel Management as part of his work with the Department of Government Efficiency.
Airbnb co-founder and Department of Government Efficiency associate Joe Gebbia announced that he had been selected as the government’s first chief design officer on Saturday, charged with implementing Trump’s “America by Design” initiative set in motion via executive order last week.
“My directive is to update today’s government services to be as satisfying to use as the Apple Store: beautifully designed, great user experience, run on modern software,” he said on X. “An experience that projects a level of excellence for our nation, and makes life less complicated for everyday Americans.”
Gebbia, a former Democratic donor, joined DOGE in February and has been working on modernizing federal retirement processes at the Office of Personnel Management, an effort that predates Trump 2.0.
Now, Gebbia will report to the White House chief of staff as he coordinates across agencies, implements solutions and recruits talent — an imperative that comes after the administration has shed and laid off many of the government’s top design and tech talent. The order directs improvements to physical and digital government spaces.
Similarly to DOGE, a new National Design Studio set up in the executive order will house a “temporary organization” that can bring on volunteers. Agencies are also directed to produce results by July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the pre-set end date for the temporary organization within DOGE.
New websites for the National Design Studio and America by Design push may offer a hint of what’s to come.
“The USA stands for freedom, independence, and dreams, yet to those who live here, the government is known for being slow, hard to use, and often stuck in the past,” the America by Design website reads. “We've been conditioned to accept that mediocre in government is normal. It's not normal. It's time to upgrade, and fix the nation's digital potholes.”
That website points to government interactions like paying off student loans, renewing a passport, applying for a green card and filing taxes as examples of experiences that can be improved.
Some of those are areas that government teams have been working to improve already, including government tech teams that were recently dismantled by this administration. The now-shuttered 18F team, for example, had worked on the IRS’ free tax filing system, Direct File, which this administration appears to be ending.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.