What's on Your Mind?

Google is quietly rolling out a redesign of the logos for its Workspace apps, including Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive. They now look like they’ve been run through a watercolor filter. Each new logo in the suite—which began showing up on May 18 on the web, Android, and iOS—is softer and rounder than its predecessor. What really stands out, though: Every single icon has been given some sort of color gradient. Gmail now smoothly transitions through Google’s brand palette of primary colors and green; Google Meet and Google Chat have lost the full palette in favor of yellow and green aura schemes, respectively; and Google Docs has gone from a flat blue to a…

When’s the last time you thought about pepper? Designers working in the consumer packaged goods category have reimagined many a pantry staple over the past several years, including olive oil, tinned fish, and even chili crisp, but pepper has remained as forgotten as it is ubiquitous. A playfully chunky new brand is giving the category design intentionality, functionality, and visual appeal—and could point to where food brand design is headed. Michael Laniak Michael Laniak, a former line cook, launched Milly on May 12 as a result of his failed attempt to source pepper in the same way he could olive oil or sea salt. Milly sells only whole peppercorns—black, white…

Building versus buying capabilities in-house or deciding whether to outsource them is a strategic decision. And it’s not a decision all executives think about the same way. So much depends on your company’s goals and strengths. It’s important to have a structured way to think about this decision, though, so when you need to incorporate a capability, you know how to make the decision. We asked our Fast Company Impact Council members how they decide when to build capabilities in-house versus outsourcing or partnering. It was a popular question, and we had to limit the responses—to just 27! There is wisdom in these words that you can apply to your situations. 1. PARTNER …

Teaching undergraduates gives you a different perspective on things. For many, they see their life already laid out: An analyst position at a prestigious bank or consulting firm after graduation, then graduate school and a string of impressive jobs at important institutions. Then family, travel, and maybe a board seat or two. We all know that life is messier than that, but that’s the type of thing you really have to learn for yourself. The management professor Henry Mintzberg once observed that we expect management to be like a conductor with an orchestra, with the leader on a pedestal directing each movement with expert precision. “But,” he argues, “management i…

Robotaxis are multiplying across American cities. But are consumers actually ready to trust them? Zoox CEO Aicha Evans discusses the company’s strategy as an Amazon subsidiary, its intensifying rivalry with Waymo, and why a new partnership with Uber could be the key to getting autonomous rides from novelty to scale. Evans also reveals why she recruits what she calls an “invisible army of rebels” inside Zoox. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company, Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders …

Most teams have a decision-making problem that no one can quite put their finger on. Meetings multiply. Decisions get relitigated endlessly. The choices that eventually emerge are often so cautious they accomplish almost nothing. The problem isn’t personal. Teams full of talented people routinely get stuck because they were never given a shared language for making choices under uncertainty. When conditions get murky, that gap becomes expensive. High-performing teams, by contrast, build their decision-making toolkit deliberately. They move from endless discussion to concrete proposals. They know the difference between a real objection and ordinary discomfort wi…

There’s a saying I’ve found myself sharing in coaching conversations with senior leaders lately. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. It’s my response to a significant pattern playing out right now across every sector I work in, and that’s constant busyness masquerading as leadership. We know from the Microsoft Work Trend Index 2025 that 80% of employees and leaders lack sufficient time or energy to do their work. Meetings are ad hoc and continue after hours. Some 52% of leaders say their work feels chaotic and fragmented. These leaders are facing the biggest shifts or inflection points their businesses have possibly ever experienced. For many, this is da…

American cities are choking on traffic. From Los Angeles to Chicago, Atlanta to Boston, gridlock is miserable for everyone. New York City’s Congestion Relief Zone offers a data-rich blueprint for cities willing to treat transportation as a system, rather than focusing on one form of travel at a time. Launched in January 2025, the program charges most drivers entering Manhattan’s core business district during peak hours. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) first comprehensive evaluation report, released in January 2026, shows clear success across mobility, environment, revenue, and equity metrics. The haters are flummoxed. More movement Deconges…

After months of anticipation, Elon Musk’s SpaceX finally made its S-1 financial filing and business prospectus public for all to see. The document, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), makes an ambitious case to investors that Space Exploration Technologies Corp.—yes, that’s the official name—is poised to build a future for humanity that will include cities on the moon and other planets. But perhaps unexpectedly, the prospectus also offers a fascinating autopsy of one of the internet’s most legendary brands. Buried within the revenue and profit figures for SpaceX’s rocket and satellite businesses is a by-the-numbers look into the spectacula…

Airport lounges have spent decades promising travelers the same thing: a quieter place to sit and wait. But a new concept opening next week inside Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport is betting that modern travelers, especially millennials who grew up gaming, want something far more immersive for their layover. Portal Lounge, a new tech-forward independent lounge concept from Gameway founders Jordan and Emma Walbridge, officially opens at MSP on May 28. The lounge combines gaming, chef-driven food and drinks, immersive design, and interactive technology in an attempt to reimagine what travelers actually want from airport downtime. The opening represents a…

More than 30 states across the country have had at least one case of someone sick with Salmonella so far in 2026. Many of those cases are believed to be caused by contact with outdoor poultry, like ducks and chickens. But separately, there’s also been a wave of food recalls for Salmonella contamination, tied to milk powder used in snack seasoning. Salmonella isn’t an uncommon bacteria; each year, the U.S. sees some 1.35 million Salmonella infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most of those stem from food. If it seems like Salmonella is becoming more common, though, there are a few reasons why—related to how we detect…

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. I’m Mark Sullivan, a senior writer at Fast Company, covering emerging tech, AI, and tech policy. This week, I’m focusing on the research and product approach behind Google’s array of new AI products and features, announced this week. I also look at a major recruiting coup at Anthropic, and at some new numbers about small business’s adoption of artificial intelligence. Sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. And if you have comments on this issue and/or ideas for future ones, drop me a line at sullivan@fastcompany.com, and follo…

For years, Claire’s was a rite of passage for mall-going millennials who wanted to buy glittery accessories and butterfly hair clips, and also get their ears pierced. Now the iconic fashion accessories and jewelry retailer is set to expand well beyond the mall. Earlier this week, Ames Watson and Centric Brands announced a licensing partnership that will bring Claire’s to more than 7,000 new retail locations across North America. Currently, Claire’s operates more than 900 locations, many of which are in malls. But Claire’s is set to diversify more. Centric Brands will help expand Claire’s presence into new categories and across major retail partners, including…

Earnings are in for two of the largest retailers, and they paint two very different pictures. Walmart, which has seen success in an economy where consumers are cutting back on spending and turning to budget retailers, now seems to be in a downturn, having just announced layoffs as it stocks falls. Meanwhile, Target, which was struggling a year ago amid a cost-of-living crisis and rising tariffs, and following consumer boycotts over a DEI rollback, seems to have hit reverse—with sales and stock price in an upswing. What’s happening with these two retailers? Here’s what to know. Walmart looks at impact of soaring gas prices On Thursday, Walmart reported s…

In an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that every job will feel the effects of AI—including bankers. “I think [AI will] reduce some of our jobs down the road,” Dimon told Bloomberg’s Haslinda Amin. “I think we’ll be hiring more AI people and probably less bankers in certain categories.” Dimon said that AI will cause reductions and downsizing at the company, but he said, “that’s been happening my whole life.” As AI changes jobs, the billionaire CEO said JPMorgan will retrain and redeploy employees, and in some cases, offer early retirement. Dimon also said that society needs to “get prepared” for how AI will change the workforce.…

There’s no doubt that AI has accelerated product marketing. Your copy is getting drafted faster, your personas are cleaner, and your positioning frameworks are getting shipped before your coffee is even cold. But speed has made many teams less disciplined, not more insightful. Too much AI-assisted product marketing sounds polished but lacks grounding in reality. It borrows the language of strategy without doing the strategic work required. You get neat messaging frameworks, confident claims, and copy that sounds familiar in the worst way: “built for modern teams,” “streamline workflows,” “unlock efficiency at scale.” It reads fine. It just doesn’t mean much. T…