Zillow Hires Design Chief From Nike as It Refocuses on Core Business

Zillow has named Nike executive Jenny Arden as the real estate platform's first-ever Chief Design Officer.

Arden's new role places her in charge of a range of product design, research, and user experience responsibilities. Chiefly she will focus on supporting the development of innovative new products, fostering a customer-focused culture and ultimately solving user pain points.

"This is an opportunity to not only foster design excellence and customer-centric thinking at a great company, but also tackle one of the fundamental needs in life - finding a home," Arden stated in a LinkedIn post. "Whether it's growing into new spaces or finding comfort and security in the familiar, home is the brilliant intersection of emotion and utility. And if you've tried to buy a home recently you probably know it's not so easy. I can't wait to reimagine that experience and help people unlock life's next chapter."

Arden joins Zillow from Nike, where she oversaw the product strategy and experience for Nike.com, the Nike App, Nike Training Club, Nike Running Club, SNKRS as the VP of Digital Design. Before that, she served as the Head of Consumer at Lyft, GM of Transportation at Airbnb, and Design Lead for Google's self-driving car unit, now called Waymo.

"Jenny has an impressive track record of building and designing transformative customer-facing products that provide intuitive and connected experiences," said Zillow Group COO Jeremy Wacksman. "We're excited for her to join as CDO to help build Zillow 2.0 and help people unlock life's next chapter."

Zillow is looking to rebound from the collapse of its iBuying automated homebuying service, which led the company to lay off 25% of its staff and accept a $304 million inventory write-down in Q3 2021. The company expects to take an additional $240 million to $265 million of losses to be recognized in Q4 due to its iBuying segment.

Arden's arrival comes as the company turns back to its core platform for growth. Her new role will be critical as Zillow refines its platform and looks for new products that it can monetize after the iBuying meltdown.