Jake Knapp has left GV, a corporate venturing subsidiary of internet and technology conglomerate GV, where he was a design partner, to pursue full-time writing.
Knapp had been a design partner at GV for five years, having spent the previous five as a designer at its then parent company, Google. He was responsible for the creation of design problem-solving process Design Sprint, and wrote a book on the subject in 2016.
Prior to Google, Knapp had been a designer at sunglasses manufacturer Oakley from 1999 before taking up a similar role at software provider Microsoft two years later.
In a Medium post, Knapp explained: “Over the last decade at Google and GV, I have had an absurdly great opportunity to experiment with my design sprint process and work alongside super cool startups. My colleagues are some of my closest friends. I cannot lie, walking away is painful.
“But I am not giving up this line of work altogether. I love running workshops and sprints. Honestly, I gather a lot of energy from it, so I cannot give it up. I will still advise startups on the side – but I am putting writing first, rather than squeezing it in on the sides.”
– Photo of Jake Knapp courtesy of Twitter