Podcasts about harvard innovation lab

In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we speak with product leader and angel investor Phil Green about product-centered entrepreneurship and what it takes to truly create value for customers. Since 2020, Phil has been the senior advisor for B2B and technology at Harvard Innovation Labs. Before the i-lab, Phil spent over 30 years working at various startups as a CEO, COO, CTO, and a product manager. The conversation explores:  Some of the most exciting products and services Phil has seen come out of Harvard's entrepreneurial community What it takes to create a solid MVP (minimum viable product) Why Phil teaches “minimum valuable process,” not just “MVP” The different types of challenges teams face in large, distributed organizations versus smaller startups when it comes to lean thinking How to focus on lean and agile principles rather than rituals to move fast while staying responsive to customers and market demands Learn more about lean thinking and practice at lean.org

On today's episode of Architectette we feature Maya Sharfi. Maya is the founder of Build Yourself Workshop where she helps women in design, technology, and innovation rise and subsequently thrive in senior roles. Her clients have landed executive positions, launched innovative initiatives, and achieved salary increases. She also helps companies make their organizations better places for women to flourish. Maya was a former Harvard Innovation Lab resident and was featured as a 40 Under 40 honoree by Impact Design Hub. She loves graphic nonfiction, the color yellow, and reading to her daughter.We talk about:- Maya's start in landscape architecture, the realization of her coaching expertise, and how she established her business with a focus on elevating women in architecture - Maya's framework for career advancement which is focused on her 5-step framework which helps women position themselves for a future principal or partner role - Asking for a promotion, making it rain, signs it's time to leave a company, skills for networking, imposter syndrome, and self-advocacy____Thank you to our sponsors:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Arcol⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a collaborative building design tool built for modern teams. Arcol streamlines your design process by keeping your model, data and presentations in sync enabling your team to work together seamlessly.- Website:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Arcol.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/arcol-tech⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Twitter/ X:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://x.com/ArcolTech⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Layer⁠⁠⁠⁠ is the workflow platform for buildings, empowering teams to capture field data & photos, connect it to their drawings & models, and create beautiful deliverables & reports.Use Layer to build your own workflow to generate Room Data Sheets from Revit, manage your CA processes such as RFIs or Punch lists, conduct field surveys and much more. The best thing is, it's all connected directly to Revit so you'll never have to copy and paste data between windows again.- Website:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://layer.team/architectette⁠⁠⁠⁠____Links: Everything You Want to Know About Becoming a Principal Guide: ⁠https://www.buildyourselfworkshop.com/architectette⁠LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayasharfi/⁠____Connect with Architectette:- Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠ www.architectette.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Learn more)- Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠ @architectette⁠⁠⁠⁠ (See more)- Newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠ www.architectette.com/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Behind the Scenes Content)- LinkedIn:⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Architectette Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠ Page and/or⁠⁠⁠⁠ Caitlin Brady⁠⁠⁠⁠Support Architectette:- Leave us a rating and review!-⁠⁠⁠⁠ Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠Music by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ AlexGrohl⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Episode 375 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Becca Xiong, Managing Director of Programs & Engagement at Harvard Innovation Labs. Becca is a serial entrepreneur with the rare experience of having success in both consumer and B2B products. She was a Co-Founder of an early social networking startup called Going.com which was acquired by AOL and then she went with her fellow Co-Founder, Roy Rodenstein to start SocMetrics, a social insights platform for marketers that was also acquired. This combination of experiences makes Becca the perfect leader for the Harvard i-lab where 1 in 9 students across all of the schools under the Harvard umbrella are a member of the i-lab. Since its founding in 2011, the i-lab has supported over 6,000 ventures that have gone on to raise over $8B in funding including unicorns like WHOOP, Shield AI, Mark43, Lightmatter, and others. Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:34 The Most Common Startup Mistakes 04:40 The Importance of Storytelling for Startups 06:31 Becca's Background Story 09:26 Early Career and Startup Experiences 13:28 The Story of Going.com 27:00 Building Socmetrics: A Social Insights Platform 30:34 Difference Between Building B2B & Consumer Products 32:52 Transitioning from Startups to Supporting Entrepreneurs 36:05 The Harvard i-lab: Fostering Innovation and Entrepreneurship 40:46 How the Harvard i-lab Supports Student Entrepreneurs 43:55 Alumni from the Harvard i-lab 45:10 Using ChatGPT for Customer Research 47:05 Startup Pitch Advice 51:15 Fundraising Advice 53:34 Book Recommendation for Founders

In this episode of Mick Unplugged, we dive into the dynamic world of work, technology, and culture with the visionary Josh Drean. Join host Mick Hunt as he uncovers Josh's journey from building a startup out of the Harvard Innovation Labs to pioneering sentiment analysis and exploring how emerging technologies like AI can revolutionize the workplace. Together, they explore how companies can harness AI and other technologies to enhance employee experience, culture, and productivity. With a focus on thriving at work, they discuss the modern workforce's demand for purpose, respect, and autonomy. Whether you're curious about the Work3 Institute, the future of AI in the workplace, or learning how to unlock your team's full potential, this episode is packed with insights to inspire change and innovation in your organization. Tune in for a conversation that's as deep as it is engaging, with practical tips and visionary ideas to help shape the future of work. Takeaways: Understanding the true value of culture: It's not just policies but a felt experience that empowers and motivates employees. The synergy of AI and humanity: How balancing technological advances with human-centric approaches can revolutionize workplace productivity and satisfaction. The future demands adaptability: Traditional work models are becoming obsolete, and businesses must evolve to meet modern expectations of transparency, autonomy, and purpose. Sound Bites: "Leaders don't lead businesses, they lead their culture. And it’s the culture that truly drives success." "The future belongs to those who combine AI and humanity to create a dynamic workplace solution." "When Great Resignation 2.0 hits, companies not focusing on employee experience today might be left behind tomorrow." Quote by Mick: "Motivation gets an employee to sign on the dotted line; inspiration is what brings them back day after day." Connect & Discover Josh LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshdrean/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshdrean/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joshdrean Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=josh+drean Books and Articles: Employment is Dead: How Disruptive Technology is Revolutionizing the Way We Work FOLLOW MICK ON:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mickunplugged/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mickunplugged/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mickunplugged Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickhunt/Website: https://www.mickhuntofficial.com Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mick-unplugged/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, I'm excited! I have a repeat guest on the podcast, Tamsen Webster. Tamsen was here the last time she wrote her first book, Find Your Red Thread, and today she is here to talk about her newest book, Say What they Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change.You know when everything is smooth sailing and you are enjoying an easy, breezy ride for a while? I know those times, and 2025 is not one of them for me. I am in a period of significant change professionally, so I was excited to talk with Tamsen about her book.The idea of saying what people cannot unhear resonates with me because I want to get my point across strong enough that it gets buy-in and is a good use of my time. As a resident intranpreneur in corporate and entrepreneur outside of corporate, idea buy-in and making friends with change management is crucial.During my conversation with Tamsen, we chatted about:What is the ding for Tamsen?The importance of giving our audience a reason to believe.Why is story the foundation for understanding?Tamsen gives an overview of what a persuasion proverb is and how to use them.What if someone cannot hear our story or refuses to listen? Then what?Her doctoral studies at NYU. She almost gave me the academic bug!Here is more about Tamsen:Part message designer, part English-to-English translator, and now part doctoral student, Tamsen Webster helps leaders craft their case for large-scale change. A sought-after speaker and consultant, she's spent more than 25 years developing the field and practice of persuasive message design, with a particular focus on the principles and processes that build buy-in that lasts.In addition to her work in and for major organizations such as Harvard Medical School, Fidelity Investments, and Klaviyo, she built and delivers the message design curriculum for Elemental Impact, a leading investor in impact startups. She's a judge and mentor for the Harvard Innovation Labs and a professional advisor at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. She's also spent over 10 years as the Idea Strategist for one of only nine legacy-level TEDx events and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar in 2022. She's the author of two best-selling books, Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible, and Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change which was named one of the top 10 management books of the year by Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper.Tamsen was a reluctant marathoner… twice; is a champion ballroom dancer (in her mind); and learned everything she knows about messages, people, and change as a Weight Watchers leader. True story.She lives in Boston with her husband, two sons, and her two brindle Greyhounds, Hazel and Walnut.If Brave Women at Work has made an impact on you, please share it with a friend or colleague. And your ratings and reviews help the show continue to gain traction and grow. Thank you again!Also, if you haven't yet downloaded my freebies from my website, check them out at www.bravewomenatwork.com.

Segment 1 with Josh Drean starts at 0:00.Since COVID 19, we have seen a drastic redefinition of how people define work and employment - and a redefinition of how they want to make a living.  As my first guest says in the title of his book – Is employment dead?Josh Drean is cofounder of the Work3 Institute. He is also a Web3 and Workforce Advisor at the Harvard Innovation Labs and cofounder of DreanMedia. Josh is an HR transformation expert who connects emerging technologies with workplace strategies. His work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company, and MIT Technology Review, and his YouTube channel has garnered millions of views. His new book declares "Employment is Dead". Segment 2 with Mijntje Luckerath starts at 20:22.What is the role of a board of directors and do most of them lack a moral compass?Mijntje Lückerath-Rovers is a full Professor in Corporate Governance at TIAS Business School, Tilburg University, the Netherlands. She holds a PhD in financial economics and is also a labour and organisational psychologist.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-small-business-radio-show--3306444/support.

When we have information to give, the communication doesn't start and end with just one email, announcement, or conversation. Effective communication is more than just the info you deliver, or the words you say. It requires empathy. This is a note for anyone needing to communicate strategic shifts, return-to-work policies, performance expectations, or even layoffs.Tamsen Webster and I discuss why her work is driven by her desire to only do things once! How the risk of change belongs with the person or organization asking for it, how to understand the why behind how people approach change, and the first step in building buy-in that most people skip. She shares why leveraging pain is almost always guaranteed to fail long-term and how it's almost always possible to find common ground (and if it's not, to have a way to identify those differences clearly and without judgment). To access the episode transcript, please search for the episode title at www.TheEmpathyEdge.comKey Takeaways:Every decision has a story. Every action or change we decide on has won the argument even if it is only internal.It is important to understand the story, the heart of the message, surrounding the conversations about change.Pain is the ally of quick action, but a brain in pain is not a rational brain. Once rationality is resumed, those decisions are often reconsidered.If people don't understand what you're saying it doesn't matter how powerful or important what you are saying is. "Anchor the outcome of the change in something that you fully acknowledge and you share with the person that you're talking to." — Tamsen Webster Episode References:Tamsen Website: Why Great Stories Are Empathy MachinesDia Bondi: How to Ask Like An AuctioneerSarah R. Moore: It's Possible to Parent AND Lead without Punishment- the Brain Science Behind ItFrom Our Partner:SparkEffect partners with organizations to unlock the full potential of their greatest asset: their people. Through their tailored assessments and expert coaching at every level, SparkEffect helps organizations manage change, sustain growth, and chart a path to a brighter future.Go to sparkeffect.com/edge now and download your complimentary Professional and Organizational Alignment Review today.About Tamsen Webster, Message Designer and Author, Say What They Can't UnhearPart message designer, part English-to-English translator, part magpie, Tamsen Webster helps leaders craft their case for large-scale change. In addition to her work in and for major organizations such as Harvard Medical School, Fidelity Investments, and Klaviyo, she's a judge and mentor for the Harvard Innovation Labs, a professional advisor at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, and has spent over 10 years as the Idea Strategist for one of only nine legacy-level TEDx events in the world. She was named to the Thinkers50 Radar in 2022 and is the author of two books, Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible and Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change. She lives in Boston with her husband, two sons, and two brindle Greyhounds, Hazel and Walnut.Connect with Tamsen: Website: messagedesigninstitute.comBook: Say What They Can't UnhearLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tamsenwebsterFREE RESOURCE: The Compact Case, designed to help people apply the principles of Say What They Can't Unhear to their own case for change. thecompactcase.com.Connect with Maria:Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.comLearn more about Maria and her work: Red-Slice.comHire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-RossTake my LinkedIn Learning Course! Leading with EmpathyLinkedIn: Maria RossInstagram: @redslicemariaX: @redsliceFacebook: Red SliceThreads: @redslicemariaWe would love to get your thoughts on the show! Please click https://bit.ly/edge-feedback to take this 5-minute survey, thanks!

In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with with Deborah Perry Piscione and Josh Drean about their book, EMPLOYMENT IS DEAD: How Disruptive Technologies are Revolutionizing the Way We Work. Deborah Perry Piscione is co-founder of the Work3 Institute, an AI + web3 advisory firm, a  Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and  innovation + future of work thought leader.  Deborah is the author of multiple books, including the New York TImes bestseller Secrets of Silicon Valley and serves as a LinkedIn Learning instructor on innovation and risk-taking.  Deborah's work has been covered in The Economist, New York Times and Wall Street Journal and is the subject of a GSB Stanford University Case Study on “...Finding Opportunity”. She was previously a staffer in the U.S. Congress and The White House, and served as an on-air commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. Josh Drean is a co-founder of the Work3 Institute, web3 + Workforce Advisor at the Harvard Innovation Labs, and an HR Transformation expert who marries emerging technologies with workplace strategies. Josh's work has been featured in HBR, Forbes, Fast Company, and MIT Technology and his YouTube channel has garnered millions of views. He earned his undergraduate degree in I/O psychology and a masters degree at Harvard University, where he incubated and sold an HR Tech startup. Check out all of the podcasts in the HCI Podcast Network!

Josh Drean is a Co-Founder of the Work3 Institute, Web3 and Workforce Advisor at the Harvard Innovation Labs, and a human resources transformation expert. He has written a book called Employment is Dead. Josh's work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company, and MIT Technology Review.Josh's Youtube channel has garnered millions of views. He received an undergraduate degree in psychology from Brigham Young University and a Master's degree in Business Administration and Management from Harvard University, where he incubated and sold an HR tech startup.Follow To Dine For:Official Website: ToDineForTV.comFacebook: Facebook.com/ToDineForTVInstagram: @ToDineForTVTwitter: @KateSullivanTVEmail: ToDineForTV@gmail.com Thank You to our Sponsors!American National InsuranceWairau River WinesFollow Our Guest:Official Site: JoshDrean.comInstagram: @JoshDreanLinkedIn: Josh DreanFollow The Restaurant:Official Website: Carmelina's BostonFacebook: Carmelina'sInstagram: @CarmelinasNorthEnd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if we've been asking the wrong question about technology all along? Not “What can it do for us?” but “What is it doing to us?” In my recent WhoWhatWhy podcast we talk with Chris Colbert, former managing director of the Harvard Innovation Labs, to explore a provocative idea: that technology as we know it may be dead — and that's exactly what humanity needs to thrive. Drawing from his new book, Technology is Dead: The Path to a More Human Future, Colbert talks to me about how our obsession with innovation and productivity has eroded our connections, amplified our vulnerabilities, and left us more isolated than ever. 

Forget quiet quitting – the ENTIRE employment system is on life support!

In Technology is Dead: The Path to a More Human Future, former managing director of the Harvard Innovation Labs, author, and global speaker, Chris Colbert, writes an insightful and thought-provoking book centered around humanity's dependance on technology and how we as a society can use that to produce positive outcomes for us rather than unintended, Read More

In this episode, I am talking with the amazing Tamsen Webster.   Part message designer, part English-to-English translator, part magpie, Tamsen helps leaders craft their case for large-scale change. In addition to her work in and for major organizations such as Harvard Medical School, Fidelity Investments, and Klaviyo, she's a judge and mentor for the Harvard Innovation Labs, a professional advisor at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, and has spent over 10 years as the Idea Strategist for one of only nine legacy-level TEDx events in the world.    She was named to the Thinkers50 Radar in 2022 and is the author of two books, Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible and Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change.    Tamsen was one of my first guests on The Big Talk, way back in Episode 21. I will never forget her graciousness and clarity. She added so much value and vulnerability for our community, and I am super excited to welcome her back today!    In this episode, we'll explore: What happened when she overcame a 17-year struggle with a panic disorder How her new book Say What They Can't Unhear addresses gaps in advice about creating lasting transformational change Why she believes transformational change doesn't have to be a struggle and the way you can achieve it Her current favorites: Book: The Notebooks of Lazarus Long, Speaker: Sally Hogshead, and Podcast: Taboo Science More from Tamsen Webster   Her first appearance on The Big Talk podcast in Episode 21 Her free gift to our listeners, The Compact Case Her new book, Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change Website: https://tamsenwebster.com/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TamsenWebster/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamsenwebster  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tamsenwebster/  More from Tricia    Join my Free Transformational Masterclass for Speakers  Explore my content and follow me on YouTube Follow me on Instagram  Connect with me on Facebook  Connect with me on LinkedIn  Visit my website at TriciaBrouk.com 

Say What They Can't Unhear with Tamsen Webster In this episode, host Nola Simon interviews Tamsen Webster about her new book "Say What They Can't Unhear" and discusses effective messaging strategies for driving change. Key topics covered: Tamsen's background as a message designer and "English to English translator" The importance of understanding deep beliefs when trying to inspire change How to find common ground and build on existing beliefs rather than challenging them The "smart, capable, and good" approach to empathy in communication Why the "deepest beliefs are hardest to shift" and how to work with that principle Challenges with return-to-office mandates and aligning messaging with employee experiences The concept of "recognizable truths" that resonate with audiences How to present change in a way that doesn't conflict with people's existing worldviews The role of cognitive empathy in understanding others' perspectives Why messages need to pass both logical and emotional checks to be effective Tamsen shares insights from her experience as a Weight Watchers leader and how those lessons apply to organizational change. She emphasizes the importance of starting with where people already are and finding ways to align change with their existing goals and beliefs. The conversation explores why many change initiatives fail and how leaders can improve their approach by truly understanding their audience's perspective. Tamsen's book "Say What They Can't Unhear" provides a framework for creating more effective and resonant messaging. Learn more about Tamsen Webster: Part message designer, part English-to-English translator, part magpie, Tamsen Webster helps leaders craft their case for large-scale change. In addition to her work in and for major organizations such as Harvard Medical School, Fidelity Investments, and Klaviyo, she's a judge and mentor for the Harvard Innovation Labs, a professional advisor at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, and has spent over 10 years as the Idea Strategist for one of only nine legacy-level TEDx events in the world. She was named to the Thinkers50 Radar in 2022 and is the author of two books, Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible and Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change. She lives in Boston with her husband, two sons, and two brindle Greyhounds, Hazel and Walnut. Tamsen Webster - Message Designer, Author, Keynote Business Speaker www.messagedesigninstitute.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamsenwebster

Tune in to this CX Pulse Check as we uncover the vital role of communication in driving customer experience transformation. Tamsen Webster, founder of the Message Design Institute, sits down with Jeannie Walters to reveal how communication missteps often hinder change, drawing insights from Tamsen's latest book. Through examples across industries, they highlight proactive messaging strategies that build trust, even amid challenges like credit card fraud, and explore how acknowledging customers' past interactions can lead to a more connected and resilient experience.The discussion also covers balancing communication frequency to avoid alert fatigue and illustrates how vague communications, like hidden banking fees, can frustrate customers. Discover how aligning employee and customer experiences—starting with frontline involvement—can make change implementation smoother and align with organizational values. Wrapping up with the power of a customer-centered culture in crisis management, this episode promises actionable insights to elevate your communication strategy in customer experience.About Tamsen Webster, MA, MBA, Founder at the Message Design Institute:Part message designer, part English-to-English translator, part magpie, Tamsen Webster helps leaders craft their case for large-scale change. In addition to her work in and for major organizations such as Harvard Medical School, Fidelity Investments, and Klaviyo, she's a judge and mentor for the Harvard Innovation Labs, a professional advisor at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, and has spent over 10 years as the Idea Strategist for one of only nine legacy-level TEDx events in the world. She was named to the Thinkers50 Radar in 2022 and is the author of two books, Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible and Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change. She lives in Boston with her husband, two sons, and two brindle Greyhounds, Hazel and Walnut.Follow Tamsen on...LinkedInX/TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTubeArticles Mentioned:i2c Inc. and PYMNTS Survey Reveals Consumer Expectations for How Banks Respond to Credit Card Fraud (Business Wire)How The Vitamin Shoppe builds flexible customer experiences (CX Dive)How Businesses Can Cultivate a Customer-Centric Culture During Natural Disasters (socPub)Attributes—not skills—determine whether you ‘cut it' or not (McKinsey & Company)Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie on LinkedIn! www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/)

Patience and parenting don't seem to go together - one minute you have it, the next you don't. Whether it's patience for your child or your partner, we all want more of it.  Lynn and Justin have the perfect guest to help us get our patience back! Today we talk with Dr. Jenny Woo, Harvard-trained researcher/educator, teacher of emotional intelligence and mom of three, who provides the guidance we're looking for.   In our Parenting Story of the Day, Alana Smith shares a highly relatable story about how a simple trip to the store turned into a toddler juggling act and a true test of her patience.  Dr. Jenny Woo / IG / FB / YT / X / Li  Mother of three, Dr. Jenny Woo is a Harvard-trained educator, EQ researcher, founder/CEO of Mind Brain Emotion (incubated out of Harvard Innovation Labs) and creator of award-winning card games and mental health tools to help children and adults build emotional intelligence and communication skills. Teachers, psychologists, parents, and teens have used her product line in more than 50 countries.  In addition to her MEd from Harvard, MBA from UC Berkeley, and PhD from UC Irvine, she also spent several years as a Montessori school director and seven years as a human capital consultant at Deloitte and executive coach at Cisco Systems. Dr. Woo is a keynote and TEDx speaker and an author who teaches Emotional Intelligence and Management Fundamentals at the University of California-Irvine.  Alana Smith  Alana is a nurse anesthetist, author and boy mom who shares her takes on all things motherhood and marriage at Holy Moly Motherhood on Facebook and Instagram. Her books on preparing kids for surgery can be found here. StrollerCoaster: A Parenting Podcast is created by Munchkin Inc., the most loved baby lifestyle brand in the world.  You can also watch this podcast on YouTube and reach us at podcast@munchkin.com.  You can find all your favorite Munchkin products – including the Milkmakers Lactation Cookie Bites featured in this episode – at https://www.munchkin.com   Use the code StrollerCoaster for 15% off regular-price items!  Follow Munchkin on Instagram / Facebook / Pinterest  

How does identity shape marketing strategies? Today, I am diving into this question with marketing expert Tamsen Webster. A message designer and strategist with over 25 years of experience, Tamsen shares insights from her upcoming book, explaining how deeply identity influences consumer behavior and decision-making. Instead of relying on fear-based tactics, she explains why we need to shift our approach so we can better align our marketing efforts with consumers' sense of self. Plus, we also explore the role of empathy in marketing, personal branding, and the transformative power of writing. Tune into this episode if you're ready for fresh insights on personal identity and personal branding strategies.Learn more about Tamsen:Part message designer, part English-to-English translator, part magpie, Tamsen Webster helps leaders craft their case for large-scale change. In addition to her work in and for major organizations such as Harvard Medical School, Fidelity Investments, and Klaviyo, she's a judge and mentor for the Harvard Innovation Labs, a professional advisor at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, and has spent over 10 years as the Idea Strategist for one of only nine legacy-level TEDx events in the world. She was named to the Thinkers50 Radar in 2022 and is the author of two books, Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible and Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change. She lives in Boston with her husband, two sons, and two brindle Greyhounds, Hazel and Walnut.Tamsen's Links:https://tamsenwebster.com/little-change-book/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamsenwebster/Connect with Veronica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vromney/If you're serious about advancing your career in marketing and you're looking for some personal insights into how then I invite you to schedule a free Pathway to Promotion call with me: https://pathwaycall.com/If you found value in today's episode, I would appreciate it if you could leave a rating and review.

In this episode of the self-employed life, I had the great pleasure of speaking with the author of Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change and a third time repeating guest, Tamsen Webster. In this episode, we discuss the importance of having a change in thinking, as well as how to make change possible. Tamsen shares valuable insight on the most effective ways to maximize change. Her insights include how to bridge the gaps, how to view clients, and much more.  Part message designer, part English-to-English translator, part magpie, Tamsen Webster helps leaders craft their case for large-scale change. In addition to her work in and for major organizations such as Harvard Medical School, Fidelity Investments, and Klaviyo, she's a judge and mentor for the Harvard Innovation Labs, a professional advisor at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, and has spent over 10 years as the Idea Strategist for one of only nine legacy- level TEDx events in the world. She was named to the Thinkers50 Radar in 2022 and is the author of two books, Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible and Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change. She lives in Boston with her husband, two sons, and two brindle Greyhounds, Hazel and Walnut.  Guest Contact – Book - Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change The Compact Case - free resource to help you implement the principles of the book Contact Jeffrey – SelfEmployedNewsletter.com JeffreyShaw.com Books by Jeffrey Shaw Business Coaching for Entrepreneurs Watch my TEDx LincolnSquare video and please share! Valuable Resources – The Self-Employed Business Institute You know you're really good at what you do. You're talented, you have a skill set. The problem is you're probably in a field where there is no business education. This is common amongst self-employed people! And, there's no business education out there for us! You also know that being self-employed is unique and you need better strategies, coaching, support, and accountability. The Self-Employed Business Institute, a five-month online education is exactly what you need. Check it out! Take The Self-Employed Assessment! Ever feel like you're all over the place? Or frustrated it seems like you have everything you need for your business success but it's somehow not coming together? Take this short quiz to discover the biggest hidden gap that's keeping you from having a thriving Self-Employed Ecosystem. You'll find out what part of your business needs attention and you'll also get a few laser-focused insights to help you start closing that gap. Have Your Website Brand Message Reviewed! Is your website speaking the right LINGO of your ideal customers? Having reviewed hundreds of websites, I can tell you 98% of websites are not. Fill out the simple LINGO Review application and I'll take a look at your website. I'll email you a few suggestions to improve your brand message to attract more of your ideal customers. Fill out the application today and let's get your business speaking the right LINGO! Host Jeffrey Shaw is a Small Business Consultant, Brand Management Consultant, Business Coach for Entrepreneurs, Keynote Speaker, TEDx Speaker and author of LINGO and The Self Employed Life (May 2021). Supporting self-employed business owners with business and personal development strategies they need to create sustainable success.

Here are the show notes based on the transcript: Say What They Can't Unhear with Tamsen Webster In this episode, host Nola Simon interviews Tamsen Webster about her new book "Say What They Can't Unhear" and discusses effective messaging strategies for driving change. Key topics covered: Tamsen's background as a message designer and "English to English translator" The importance of understanding deep beliefs when trying to inspire change How to find common ground and build on existing beliefs rather than challenging them The "smart, capable, and good" approach to empathy in communication Why the "deepest beliefs are hardest to shift" and how to work with that principle Challenges with return-to-office mandates and aligning messaging with employee experiences The concept of "recognizable truths" that resonate with audiences How to present change in a way that doesn't conflict with people's existing worldviews The role of cognitive empathy in understanding others' perspectives Why messages need to pass both logical and emotional checks to be effective Tamsen shares insights from her experience as a Weight Watchers leader and how those lessons apply to organizational change. She emphasizes the importance of starting with where people already are and finding ways to align change with their existing goals and beliefs. The conversation explores why many change initiatives fail and how leaders can improve their approach by truly understanding their audience's perspective. Tamsen's book "Say What They Can't Unhear" provides a framework for creating more effective and resonant messaging. Learn more about Tamsen Webster: Part message designer, part English-to-English translator, part magpie, Tamsen Webster helps leaders craft their case for large-scale change. In addition to her work in and for major organizations such as Harvard Medical School, Fidelity Investments, and Klaviyo, she's a judge and mentor for the Harvard Innovation Labs, a professional advisor at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, and has spent over 10 years as the Idea Strategist for one of only nine legacy-level TEDx events in the world. She was named to the Thinkers50 Radar in 2022 and is the author of two books, Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible and Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change. She lives in Boston with her husband, two sons, and two brindle Greyhounds, Hazel and Walnut. Tamsen Webster - Message Designer, Author, Keynote Business Speaker www.messagedesigninstitute.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamsenwebster      

Message Master, Tamsen Webster shares powerful ways to communicate and say what they can't unhear. Messager Master, Tamsen Webster discusses the pivotal role of effective messaging in achieving transformational change. She explores the dichotomy of messaging from recent political conventions, and the importance of framing messages positively. Tamsen delves into the science behind persuasion, the necessity of aligning with shared values, and the broader implications of these principles in both personal and professional spheres. The conversation emphasizes the potential of strategic communication to foster meaningful and sustainable change, urging listeners to adopt a more thoughtful and empathetic approach to messaging.BIOPart message designer, part English-to-English translator, part magpie, Tamsen Webster helps leaders craft their case for large-scale change. A sought-after speaker and consultant, she's spent more than 25 years developing the field and practice of persuasive message design, with a particular focus on the principles and processes that build buy-in that lasts.In addition to her work in and for major organizations such as Harvard Medical School, Fidelity Investments, and Klaviyo, she built and delivers the message design curriculum for Elemental Excelerator, a leading investor in impact startups. She's a judge and mentor for the Harvard Innovation Labs and a professional advisor at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. She's also spent over 10 years as the Idea Strategist for one of only nine legacy-level TEDx events and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar in 2022. She published her first book, Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible, in 2021. Her next book, Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change is available in bookstores everywhere in October 2024.Tamsen was a reluctant marathoner… twice; is a champion ballroom dancer (in her mind); and learned everything she knows about messages, people, and change as a Weight Watchers leader. True story.She lives in Boston with her husband, two sons, and her two brindle Greyhounds, Hazel and Walnut.CHAPTERS00:09:04 How to use Tamsen's book and possible resistance to it.00:14:00 Have we lost optimism bias?00:20:34 It's about change communications00:27:00 Mindset and ego00:33:45 Finding common ground00:39:42 Primal beliefs and squandering human potential00:47:39 Stories in messaging00:53:02 People are not willing to go back into the machine00:56:16 Benefits of adult learningLINKSJer Clifton - Primal World BeliefsTamsen Webster's WebsiteThe Ladder of Inference - Chris Argyris and Donald SchoenFind Your Red Thread by Tamsen WebsterSay What They Can't Unhear - by Tamsen WebsterHarvard Innovation LabsThe Martin Trust Centre for MIT EntrepreneurshipIMAGE CREDITS (see images on Youtube video)Book graphics - Amazon.caOther Images and Graphics - CanvaHarvard Innovation Labs logo - Harvard...

This week we are talking about creating transformational change with Tamsen Webster. Part message designer, part English-to-English translator, part magpie, Tamsen Webster helps leaders craft their case for large-scale change. In addition to her work in and for major organizations such as Harvard Medical School, Fidelity Investments, and Klaviyo, she's a judge and mentor for the Harvard Innovation Labs, a professional advisor at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, and has spent over 10 years as the Idea Strategist for one of only nine legacy-level TEDx events in the world. She was named to the Thinkers50 Radar in 2022 and is the author of two books, Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible and Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change. She lives in Boston with her husband, two sons, and two brindle Greyhounds, Hazel and Walnut. Tamsen has made the Compact Case available to listeners. This tool is designed to help people apply the principles of Say What They Can't Unhear to their own case for change. You can access this resource at ⁠thecompactcase.com⁠.  I hope you love the episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dr-greg-wells/support

Tamsen Webster was one of my very first guests when this podcast launched in 2015. She's been busy over the past nine years — including writing two books. The latest is Say What They Can't Unhear. We discussed how you can do just that on this week's episode of the On Brand podcast. About Tamsen Webster Part message designer, part English-to-English translator, part magpie, Tamsen Webster helps leaders craft their case for large-scale change. In addition to her work in and for major organizations such as Harvard Medical School, Fidelity Investments, and Klaviyo, she's a judge and mentor for the Harvard Innovation Labs, a professional advisor at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, and has spent over 10 years as the Idea Strategist for one of only nine legacy-level TEDx events in the world. She was named to the Thinkers50 Radar in 2022 and is the author of two books, Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible and Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change. She lives in Boston with her husband, two sons, and two brindle Greyhounds, Hazel and Walnut. From the Show Feel like going back in time? Here's Tamsen's first appearance on the On Brand podcast back in 2015! What brand has made Tamsen smile recently? Diane von Furstenberg, of course! In addition to this classic Tamsen smile, she also gave a shoutout to Jones Road Beauty. Founder Bobbi Brown is trying to “change the way women interact with their own faces. There's a red thread of preserving the strength and beauty of what's already present.” Connect with Tamsen on her website and on LinkedIn, learn more about the Message Design Institute, and check out her book, Say What They Can't Unhear. As We Wrap … Listen and subscribe at  Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon/Audible, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn, iHeart, YouTube, and RSS. Rate and review the show—If you like what you're hearing, be sure to head over to Apple Podcasts and click the 5-star button to rate the show. And, if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review to help others find the show. Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you'd like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show. On Brand is a part of the Marketing Podcast Network. Until next week, I'll see you on the Internet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Paul from the ParkerGale Ops team as he unpacks the concept of “product-market fit” with special guest, Rob Snyder – multiple-time startup founder and Fellow at Harvard Innovation Labs. Paul and Rob explore the origins of the PMF concept, what it means, and why it's both an essential and confusing concept for PE-backed tech companies. Learn about the importance of building a shareable case study, the pain cave you inevitably enter while trying to connect with your customers, and how to use the concepts of demand versus supply to shorten your search for product-market fit.  

Girls That Create host Erin Prather Stafford welcomes Dr. Jenny Woo to the show. Dr. Woo is a Harvard-trained educator and Emotional Intelligence researcher. She teaches at the University of California-Irvine and is the founder/CEO of Mind Brain Emotion. Incubated out of Harvard Innovation Lab, Dr. Woo created a series of award-winning card games and mental health tools to help kids and adults build essential human skills, such as emotional intelligence, social skills, empathy, and communication skills. Her product line has been used in workplaces, schools, and homes in more than 50 countries. For more information about Mind Brain Emotion and its cards, visit mindbrainemotion.com Erin Prather Stafford launched Girls That Create to support the parents and caregivers of creative girls while encouraging greater female representation across the arts. For more information, go to girlsthatcreate.com and follow and connect on Instagram,  Pinterest, and YouTube.   WordofMomRadio.com 

Today's guest is Dr. Tony Wagner, a globally recognized expert in education, creativity, and learning. Dr. Wagner was at Harvard for over 20 years and he's published seven books about education. In today's episode, Dr. Wagner provides profound insights into the U.S. educational system today. This is a wide-ranging conversation about teaching and about what schools can do differently to foster deep learning and creativity in students. Dr. Wagner is a Senior Research Fellow at the Learning Policy Institute. While at Harvard, he was an Expert in Residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab and the founder and co-director, for more than a decade, of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Before that, he spent 12 years as a high school teacher and an elementary school principal. He's written seven books and countless articles about his research. Dr. Wagner is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. Copyright (c) 2024 Keith Sawyer Chapters (0:00) Welcome (1:32) Dr. Tony Wagner Introduction (3:14) Reimagining Education (8:48) A Ribbon for Axemanship (14:11) Less is More (19:16) Learning How to Think (26:08) Intrinsic Motivation (35:20) Harvard's Change Leadership Lab (41:54) Harvard's Innovation Lab (46:20) Curiosity (54:29) Learning to See (1:00:15) Advice for the Listener (1:02:22) Closer For further information: Dr. Wagner's web site: www.tonywagner.com Books mentioned in this episode: Keith Sawyer, 2019, The Creative Classroom: Innovative Teaching for 21st-Century Learners By Tony Wagner: 2020, Learning By Heart: An Unconventional Education 2012, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World 2008, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need—and What We Can Do About It. Music by license from SoundStripe: "Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ "Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ "What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

IN EPISODE 182: If we want our change efforts to work for us, not against us, then we need a better message. In Episode 182, Tamsen Webster shows us how to craft the case for change by understanding the needs of our audience, building coalitions and common ground with others, and getting clear on our own priorities and principles. Change is constant, but results often vary - but after listening to Tamsen, you'll find a winning message that gets lasting results. ABOUT TAMESEN WEBSTER: Tamsen Webster is keynote speaker and message strategist who helps leaders craft their case for large-scale change.  She's a judge and mentor for the Harvard Innovation Labs, a professional advisor at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, and spent over 10 years as the Idea Strategist for one of only nine legacy-level TEDx events in the world. In 2022, Tamsen  was named to the Thinkers50 Radar and is the author of two books, Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible and Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change.

Adrian Gill, the founder and CEO of Ad Hoc Industries and the former creative director of the Harvard Innovation Labs, joins host Nikita Roy to explore the transformative impact of AI, especially image generation tools, on the creative design industry.Gill brings a wealth of knowledge in creative direction, strategy, and brand management from his career, which includes serving as the Vice President for PUMA's $1.8B Global Footwear Division. His expertise spans across industries, from leading a global brand campaign for Barbados Tourism featuring Rihanna to producing innovative film content for VMware to simplify software virtualization.In this episode, Adrian and Nikita explore: How to enhance design workflows and speed up the ideation process with AI.How AI tools to discover innovative design solutions and expand creative boundaries.The role of AI in visual storytelling and its synergy with human creativity.Ethical considerations and responsible AI practices in design.Strategies for designers and creatives to remain competitive in an AI-driven landscape. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Content Briefly, we've interviewed Hannah Geise, Senior Content Manager at BentoBox, and discussed the impact of technology on restaurant management and marketing, as well as her journey through various roles in the food and hospitality industry, and more.************************Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:31 Hannah Geise's background.02:42 Hannah's experience at Harvard Innovation Labs.03:12 What is BentoBox about?04:55 Who is the primary buyer BentoBox serves?05:46 Hannah Geise's journey through the hospitality industry.06:55 What is included in BentoBox's content strategy?10:15 BentoBox's onboarding process for new customers.11:18 How BentoBox incorporates E-A-T in its content process.13:25 What community outreach looks like for BentoBox.14:11 Embracing restaurant technology and SEO strategies post-pandemic.18:25 BentoBox's content planning process. 20:19 Using feedback from the marketing team to inform content creation.21:27 The key metrics that BentoBox measures.24:01 BentoBox's internal team dynamics and task prioritization process. 25:16 Hannah's typical workday routine.30:32 Personal success skills and techniques.32:25 Learn more about Hannah Geise and BentoBox and get in touch.33:04 Outro.************************Useful Links:Website: https://getbento.com/Hannah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahgeise/************************Stay Tuned:► Website: https://www.superpath.co/► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@superpath► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/superpath/► Twitter: https://twitter.com/superpathco************************Don't forget to leave us a five-star review and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Want to be happier, calmer, wiser? Do you long to feel more deeply connected to your children, parents, and partner? On this week's show, Dr. Jenny Woo shares how she channeled a young immigrant's desire for a sense of belonging and identity into a booming company offering 11 EQ-focused card games that she developed at the world-famous Harvard Innovation Labs at Harvard University. In this interactive show, we pull cards from Dr. Woo's decks to uncover prompts that help us learn to be better at asking for help, manage feelings of threat, and reframe the stories of our childhood to better serve us as adults. Bonus! We get into the power of intergenerational conversations, how to talk to ourselves kindly, and why aging offers a more open-hearted ability to see ourselves as works in progress. SHOW NOTES + TRANSCRIPT acertainagepod.com FOLLOW A CERTAIN AGE: Instagram Facebook LinkedIn GET INBOX INSPO: Sign up for our newsletter AGE BOLDLY We share new episodes, giveaways, links we love, and midlife resources

https://WGAN.info/VSI --- -- Is there an easier, faster and more affordable virtual staging solution? -- When you shoot empty homes would you like to wow your real estate agent clients? -- Would you like to see a demo of virtual staging in less than 10 seconds? Stay tuned ... On WGAN-TV Live at 5 (5 pm ET) on Thursday, March 21, 2024, my guest will be Virtual Staging AI Co-Founder and CEO Michael Bonacina. Our show topic: ✓ WGAN-TV | Intro to Virtual Staging of Real Estate Photos powered by Virtual Staging AI (VSI) Michael will show us how to: ✓ virtually stage - in 10 seconds - using AI powered by Virtual Staging AI ✓ virtually declutter a space - in 10 seconds - using AI powered by Virtual Staging AI ✓ use different virtual staging furniture options Among the questions that I will ask Michael about the "world's first virtual staging algorithm powered by artificial intelligence" are: ✓ Why should a photographer offer virtual staging? ✓ Why a photographer that is presently outsourcing virtual staging should try Virtual Staging AI? ✓ What are the benefits of virtual staging from a real estate agent's perspective? ✓ What are suggested pricing strategies for real estate photographers to charge real estate agents? ✓ Why should virtual staging be included in a real estate photographer's bundles? ✓ Should virtual staging - and virtual decluttering - be offered as an Add On (or no charge)? ✓ How does virtual staging differentiate a real estate photographer? ✓ What does "Decluttering Included" mean? ✓ What does "Unlimited Revisions" mean? ✓ How did Virtual Staging AI get started? ✓ How many clients does Virtual Staging AI have? ✓ How to get the best virtual staging results with Virtual Staging AI? ✓ Talk about: "World's first virtual staging algorithm powered by artificial intelligence." ✓ Talk about: "Developed at Harvard Innovation Labs." Special Offer for We Get Around Network Standard Members ✓ Receive the free use of Virtual Staging AI (VSI) Standard Plan for 12 months ✓ WGAN Standard Member? Receive VSI Benefit (To receive the password, please Private Message @DanSmigrod) ✓ Virtual Staging AI Standard Plan includes: -- 25 photos per month -- Unlimited renders -- All room types and styles -- Decluttering included -- No watermark -- 10 seconds turnaround -- Image storage forever According to the Virtual Staging AI Website ✓ Increased Buyer Interest - Virtual staging has a positive impact on 83% of buyers. ✓ Get Higher Offers - Homes with virtual staging sell on average for 25% more. ✓ Sell Faster - Staging homes sell 73% faster than their non-staged counterparts. ✓ Stand Out From the Competition - Convince more homeowners by using the latest technology

Dr. Mark Allen is co-founder of 1000xAI, a leader in AI training and consulting. With degrees in Applied Physics and Medicine, and experience founding and leading groundbreaking technology companies, Dr. Allen's career is defined by his passion to leverage science and technology to elevate humanity. A mentor to emerging leaders at YPO, Stanford StartX and Harvard Innovation Labs, Dr. Allen's legacy extends beyond his ventures, inspiring change-makers to leverage AI for the betterment of society. Connect with Mark: https://1000xai.com/ I would really appreciate it if you left a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes!  It takes only a minute and I love reading the reviews! Join my newsletter: https://sendfox.com/Naeem Interested in sponsoring the podcast?  Email support@naeemmahmood.com Connect with Naeem:

Kassi served as the inaugural meditation advisor at Harvard Innovation Labs. She is a teacher, author, elder millennial divorcee... and mom! She's also taught at Columbia, Soho House, and Wanderlust, and been featured in The New York Times, Women's Health, Create & Cultivate, Yoga Journal, and more. She is the author of May Cause Love (HarperOne) and host of the Big Energy podcast. She holds masters degrees from Columbia and Harvard. https://kassiunderwood.com/###Your hosts of Are You Waiting for Permission? are Meridith Grundei and Joseph Bennett. They're friends, co-hosts, actors, improvisers, and coaches. She lives in NYC and coaches actors, business professionals, and presenters to fully engage with their audience, and themselves. She also mentors young actors and directors. He lives in San Miguel de Allende, México, and coaches artists and other creative beings about the beautiful business of art — and life. You can find Meridith: Meridith Grundei the performer artist gal. Or if you are looking to be a more confident and credible speaker, please reach out to Meridith here at Meridith Grundei CoachingYou can find Joseph at Joseph Bennett the artist/coach extraordinaire*Special thanks to Amy Shelley and Gary Grundei of high fiction for letting us use their music for the Are You Waiting for Permission? podcast.And... while the podcast is free, it's not cheap. We'd be thrilled to have your support on PATREON

We've met future of work visionaries recently like Gary Bolles, Dr. John Boudreau, Mark McCrindle, and Josh Bersin. All have shared unique perspectives on how AI is redefining the employee experience. Today's guest belongs on that Mt. Rushmore of future of work luminaries.Josh Drean is Co-founder & Director of Employee Experience at The Work3 Institute, AI + Work Advisor at the Harvard Innovation Labs, and Co-author of Employment is Dead (Harvard Business Review Press, 2024)His work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company, and The Economist and he has made appearances on The Today Show, NBC, and FOX Business. He speaks internationally to bring work tech insights to digital-first leaders who value human-centric work experiences.Listen and learn...How AI is changing our relationship with workWork 3... vs. work 1 and work 2How the metaverse is enabling a global talent marketplaceWhat RTW is doing to the relationship between employees and employersWhy "employment is dead"... but we'll soon enjoy work more as a result"There are two camps... those who are embracing AI... and those who will become obsolete."Why employee surveillance is the wrong approachWhy "passion is future-proof"References in this episode...Josh Bersin on AI and the Future of WorkGary Bolles on AI and the Future of WorkJames Lawton from Zebra on AI and the Future of WorkAI Snake Oil by Princeton Professor Arvind NarayananJosh Drean on YouTube

In this episode of Rebels With A Heart, join us on an exploration of transformative leadership in the ever-evolving landscape of work.Our distinguished guests, industry leaders who embody the spirit of rebellion with a compassionate heart, share insights on navigating the complexities of the modern workforce.Panelists:Erica Keswin, Human Workplace Expert and WSJ Best Selling AuthorJosh Drean, Co-Founder & Director of AI, Work3 InstituteSamara Jaffe, Co-Founder & GM, TransformBIOSErica Keswin is a bestselling author, internationally sought after speaker, and workplace strategist. Her first two bestselling books, Bring Your Human to Work: 10 Surefire Ways to Design a Workplace That's Good for People, Great for Business, and Just Might Change the World (McGraw Hill 2018), and Rituals Roadmap: The Human Way to Transform Everyday Routines Into Workplace Magic (McGraw Hill 2021), were widely discussed in media outlets like Good Morning America, MSNBC, and Live with Kelly and Ryan, and both debuted as Wall Street Journal bestsellers. Her third book, The Retention Revolution: 7 Surprising (and Very Human!) Ways to Keep Employees Connected to Your Company, was published September 2023 by McGraw Hill and is an action-packed guide for leaders in this new world of work. She's also the founder of the Spaghetti Project, a roving ritual devoted to sharing the science and stories of relationships at work. Erica lives in New York City with her husband Jeff, three children, and her labradoodle Cruiser.Josh Drean is a leading authority in the realm of HR, AI, and web3, uniquely positioned to help organizations marry emerging technologies with workforce strategies. As the Co-founder of the Work3 Institute, his focus is on leveraging AI to drive transformative change in the workplace. Concurrently, he serves as a Workforce Advisor at the Harvard Innovation Labs and is the co-author of the seminal book, Employment is Dead: How Decentralization Will Radically Change Our Relationship with Work (Harvard Business Review Press, 2024).An international speaker, Josh demystifies AI and web3 trends and translates them into actionable strategies for digital-first leaders. His overarching mission is to enable organizations to harness the full potential of AI, ensuring both ethical compliance and business innovationSamara Jaffe is a bridge builder, thoughtful connector, and the Co-Founder & GM of Transform. Transform sits at the forefront of the movement shaping the future of people-driven leadership and is the ecosystem that connects people-driven leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors to influence strategy, ignite innovation, and shape the future of work. Samara is also an advisor and board member.Samara excels at building a compelling strategic vision, developing solutions to a wide range of business challenges and turning vision into business growth.Follow Erica on LI → https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericakeswin/Follow Josh on LI → https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshdrean/Follow Samara on LI → https://www.linkedin.com/in/samarajaffe/

Lindsey Christensen is back as the Marketing Lead at thoughtbot! She's joined by guests Jordyn Bonds, the Director of Product Strategy at thoughtbot, and Ashley Sheble, a founder currently participating in thoughtbot's eight-week startup incubator, to discuss the multifaceted journey of entrepreneurship. thoughtbot's Incubator Program aims to help founders like Ashley turn an idea into a viable product. They're currently at the stage of validating assumptions about the problem space and target market. Jordyn introduces a new concept: a project roadmap visualization that includes an "emotions workstream." This is designed to help founders anticipate and navigate the emotional rollercoaster often associated with the early stages of startup development. Ashley finds the roadmap valuable, especially as it challenges her to examine her ideas from multiple perspectives. She appreciates the one-on-one support from the Incubator team, which complements her own expertise. She also speaks to the liberating aspect of acknowledging emotions in the startup journey, which is especially pertinent for female founders who often face additional challenges like lack of funding. Jordyn emphasizes the importance of early and continuous customer engagement for product validation and innovation. She encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to talk to potential customers as soon as possible to iterate and learn from these interactions. Jordan and Ashley stress that embracing the logical and emotional aspects of entrepreneurship leads to more effective and grounded decision-making. Follow Ashley Sheble on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-sheble/). Follow thoughtbot on X (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Become a Sponsor (https://thoughtbot.com/sponsorship) of Giant Robots! Transcript: LINDSEY: All right, we are live. So, thank you for joining us today. So, we've got a new founder that's going through thoughtbot's startup incubator. And we're going to be checking in with her as she goes through the program, learning what she learns, learning about the process. Quick reminder: thoughtbot is a development and design company. We help founders and existing companies create, launch, and improve amazing products and their teams. And one way we do that is through our startup incubator. The incubator is an eight-week program. And our second session just kicked off, which we're going to be talking about a whole lot today. So, I'm excited to introduce you to the founder that's going through that process, as well as our fearless leader of the incubator program, Jordyn, I myself, Lindsey Christensen. I'm the Marketing Lead here at thoughtbot. I'll be asking lots of questions. But if you also have questions, please enter them in the chat, and we'll get to those as well. Before we get to Ashley, I'm going to start off with Jordyn. For those who may not be familiar with you, can you tell us who you are and what you're doing? JORDYN: I am Jordyn Bonds. And I am the Director of Product Strategy on thoughtbot's, Ignite team, which is the team that is kind of experimenting with this incubator, shall we say. And I am a two-time startup founder myself. I've worked at other early-stage startups as initial head of product. Long ago, I spent ten years as a software engineer. So, that's my distant background. And I live in Boston. LINDSEY: Oh, we got our first comment. Someone says, "Thanks for sharing your experience." Thank you. Welcome. Love that. Keep the comments and questions coming. Okay. And now for our latest guest of honor. Ashley, can you introduce yourself to the audience? A little bit about you and maybe even about your journey to bring you here today. ASHLEY: Yeah, absolutely. So, hi, everybody. My name is Ashley Sheble. I'm currently based in Houston, Texas. I have about 15 years of experience in sales and operations roles. And I have two kids. I've got one who started third grade yesterday and one who started her senior year of high school yesterday, which is crazy. Time really flies by. But the reason why that's relevant for this conversation is because I have attended so many college tours over the past few years and started learning about just how expensive higher education has become. I had no idea that a public four-year in-state school could cost $100,000 plus for just four years. And then, you start looking at out-of-state and private schools, and that number doubles, which is crazy to me. So, after I got through that initial sticker shock, I was like, how is this possible? Like, now I understand why the student debt crisis is happening. And became really passionate about learning more about it and trying to figure out ways that I could help. Because obviously, the solutions and tools we have today to help people prepare for the education they or their children or family members need or want just aren't working. So, became really excited about that and working with thoughtbot as their second founder to explore this further. LINDSEY: Amazing. So, Ashley, fighting the good fight. Student debt, I know, a topic near and dear to many people who are dealing with this. You mentioned your kid's journey to college is what started the idea. Let's dig into that a little bit more. How are you approaching the challenge, the problems that you see? Or maybe, like, how long it's been that you've been kind of playing around with this idea. ASHLEY: Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm in a graduate school program and have used this as an opportunity to really explore different ways to attack problems. I became really interested in innovation and entrepreneurship at grad school and began just doing research, learning about ways to solve really big, complex problems, and found that technology could really be an interesting way to approach the student debt problem differently than what's been done before. It's an industry that has largely lacked innovation, and have been working with professors and experts just to think about ways to apply technology to this really complicated problem to provide a more simple solution for people who just want to pay for school. LINDSEY: And this is your first time being a founder. Is that right? ASHLEY: It is. So, thank goodness for thoughtbot being my partner here because I'm not a technical person, meaning I don't develop software. I'm not a software designer, and knew that that was going to be a critical piece of developing a solution. And so, I'm grateful for the opportunity to work with Jordyn and her team. LINDSEY: Have you, like, always thought you would, at some point, start your own thing? You know, have you always been entrepreneurial? ASHLEY: Yeah, I think so. I can tell you my first business started in third grade. I launched my babysitting venture and marketed my services all over the neighborhood and church, and wherever would allow me to hang up a flyer, and had a pretty steady book of business, if you will. And in hindsight, I really cannot believe that parents allowed a 10-year-old to babysit their kids. You know, maybe in the '90s there were fewer questions–definitely less legal restrictions around age. LINDSEY: The '90s were wild. ASHLEY: The '90s were wild, yeah. Maybe I just seemed mature and responsible. I don't know. I don't know. LINDSEY: Amazing. All right. Jordyn, so Ashley submitted for the thoughtbot incubator. What stood out to you in that application? And why did she seem like, you know, the right fit to go through the program? JORDYN: Yeah, Ashley's application was just totally...it had that combination of prepared, done her homework, done the work to present the story well, but also clearly had a passion and a connection to the problem space. It wasn't just, like, a purely academic exercise for her, and just came prepared–really gave thoughtful answers in the application. There's a number of interviews that happened during the application process. She showed up with bells on and asked really good questions, which is something we always look for from founders as well. And she just knocked it out of the park. ASHLEY: Thank you. LINDSEY: And why was maybe where she is in her business or product journey a good fit for the incubator? JORDYN: Great question. So, we sit at a really special moment, which is usually founders are coming to us, well, hopefully, founders are coming to us pre-product. So, they have not built a thing yet. They're basically at that moment where they've identified an opportunity. They've given it lots of thought, done a ton of research, maybe started talking to people about it. But they're not sure how to take an idea, an opportunity, and what happens between that moment and innovation, actually a plan for a product, a strategic plan for product, and the ability to execute on that. There's a big gap there in understanding, especially for first-time founders. It certainly was a gap for me as a [laughs] first-time founder. That's the ideal candidate for us. That said, we do have folks coming to the incubator who are interested in executing, like, a strategic pivot. Maybe they've found that the first thing they did was just, like, a market flop, and they basically want to do the programming. They're sort of starting over. Maybe they have a little bit...they're basically like, "Hey, we disqualified one idea. [laughs] We would like to come up with some other options." Those folks are also a good fit. And that is exactly the moment that Ashley is at. She's done a lot of great research so far–has a really interesting idea, interesting take on an interesting problem, but could really benefit from the programming of turning that into technical innovation. LINDSEY: Which leads me back to you, Ashley. Can you tell us a little bit about your pre-thoughtbot research, like, both, like, how you approached it and maybe even some things that you learned that have helped you with your early direction? ASHLEY: Yeah, absolutely. So, initially, just did a lot of industry research, just general population research, and then became a little bit more focused on solving problems for families in the U.S. right now. So, narrowing down that market scope. And then, our focus right now is drilling into: how can we serve parents, students at each phase of their journey as parents or students, making sure that we are adding value as we're creating a service to help attack saving for college in a really effective way that is easy to do and is also going to help somebody be financially prepared to pay for a really expensive price tag without having to rely on student loans? And so, we're doing a lot of focused research right now, building on what I did in grad school with professors and mentors and experts there, but being more focused and intentional around understanding each phase of the customer journey. So, whether you're a new parent, maybe a parent of kids that are a little older, or a parent of kids that are about to go to college or in college, how are we providing value at each stage of that journey? And so, we're really focusing in with customer interviews, understanding the pain points, and understanding what value is lacking as we think about building something that people want and like to use. LINDSEY: In that early research, is there anything you learned or, like, positive signals you got as you were talking to people where it gave you a motivation to keep going, like, there is a good idea here to follow? ASHLEY: Yeah, there have been some ideas that we're finding are just absolutely terrible, and they're just not going to work, which is good to know now before we spend a lot of time chasing something that's not going to be helpful. And also really finding some interesting patterns among conversations. We're digging in a little more where, initially, we thought, oh, nobody cares about that, or, oh, that's not a big deal. That's not a pain point, but actually, it is. So, Jordyn, with her experience as a founder in prior experiences she's been able to use what she learned that maybe went well or didn't go as well as she had hoped and apply that learning to what we're doing together on this particular project. And so, that's super valuable, helps me avoid some rookie mistakes, and definitely prevents us from wasting a lot of time and resources that probably would have been wasted otherwise. LINDSEY: Jordyn, can you tell me a little bit more about the kickoff, where we are? Because this is early, early days, where, you know, maybe a week in. You know, what does that initial kickoff with the founder look like? What are you doing? JORDYN: Yeah. So, the first few days are really spent...we as a team on the thoughtbot side need to get to the place where we know everything the founder knows to date. So, it's very intense, a lot of, like, resource sharing, research sharing, conversations, a lot of elliptical conversations where Ashley will tell us something, we'll all go off and do some digging and some research, and come back and be like, ask her some questions, where she's like, [laughs] "If you recall, I said that to you," you know. But, basically, it's one of those sort of processes where you don't know what you don't know. You start to understand. You come back, you ask questions, you dig. And the process is really about figuring out: where are the holes? So, Ashley has done a ton of really great work. She is but one person who has had divided attention. So, there are some places where we have some assumptions, all of us as individuals, and Ashley, specifically as a founder, has some assumptions about this problem space that we haven't validated yet. We haven't validated or invalidated. That's really what we're looking for. It's like, is this hunch correct, incorrect? How do we know? So, we're really in those first few days are listening for those assumptions, for those untested assumptions. There's a ton of stuff in there where she's just like, I know the answer to this already. Here's what I know, and here's how I know it. Great, cool, validated, got it. But there's this other set of things that really then becomes the focus of the subsequent weeks of work. And often, we find what those assumptions center around are early adopter market characteristics. There's the big vision, right? Which we don't doubt. Basically like, we do not disagree that paying for college is a huge problem. The student debt crisis is huge. There's a million ways to go about addressing that problem. How are we going to, from where we are right now, lay a pathway where we build value upon value? We find something valuable to give the market where it is right now, where we are right now, and then we build from that. And so, you know, there's assumptions about who needs this, who wants this, who's struggling to pay for college, who's having no problem at all paying for college. But what we're trying to do is sort of zoom in on that group of folks, very tiny, specific group of folks who are having this problem the most acutely in a way that we are best situated to address. That's the magic we're trying to do. So, it's really those early days are about listening to what Ashley knows, going out into the market, doing some research, follow-up research, but then really trying to come up with an early adopter hypothesis. And then immediately, as quickly as possible, interviewing as many of those people as we can so that we can validate or invalidate the assumptions we have about them. So, that's really the phase that we just started. Like, today and yesterday, we just started interviewing. We have our first sort of hypothesis about...Ashley mentioned the journey of, like, beginning of child's life. Maybe, as a parent, I have aspirations for this child to go to college. Where do I start saving? You know, that end of the journey all the way to I am actively paying for a college education right now. Where in that journey are the pain points? And can we focus specifically on a particular group of people at a particular moment in that journey in order to provide maximum value right now and then expand from there? So, we're doing a bunch of interviewing. I had a customer persona interview right before coming to this. You immediately start learning. There's just no substitute for it. The thing I tell founders constantly and I just sound like an absolute broken record, but you got to talk to people. You got to start talking to them now. You got to keep talking to them. You got to think hard and creatively about what you're hearing and who they are. And that's really the work that we're doing together right now. LINDSEY: Exciting. [crosstalk 15:04] Ashley, I was going to say how is this kickoff then for you? ASHLEY: Really good. One thing Lindsey and team have brought to the table, especially thinking about me working as a solo founder, is just around the fact that everybody has different perspectives. And we all have different expertise and different experiences that we're bringing to the table. So, the way that I've been thinking about a problem could be 180 from the way Jordyn's thinking about it or some other folks on our team. And it's really interesting to have to really test a lot of these assumptions. I'm like, oh yeah, everybody thinks this way. Oh yeah, everybody does this. And it turns out I'm the only one, or maybe only a couple of us in the group are aligning with that perspective. And so, it has been so valuable as a solo founder to have a team of people researching the same problem from a different perspective. So, I just wanted to add that. LINDSEY: No, that's a great one. And that is sometimes challenging, I think, for the founders. I don't know if you're finding this when you're just getting started. But as you go through the process, things that you have maybe held to be true or facts you end up finding out are assumptions, or maybe assumptions that are false. Which also reminds me of Jordyn: you were telling me something very interesting that you're doing during this incubator, which is founder emotions mapping. JORDYN: [laughs] Yeah. LINDSEY: What is this? JORDYN: Yeah, we've got this project roadmap visualization. It's a Gantt chart. Y'all, it is a Gantt chart. And it basically just lays out, broadly speaking, what we're going to do together on what timeline. It helps us, together, visualize where we're going, where we are, and what we need to do in between so that we don't lose sight of that. And this time, it was the first time that we added...we had this sort of insight that we should add an emotions workstream [laughs] because so much of the early stage is just an emotional rollercoaster because you are learning so much so fast. And if you're lucky and you immediately go into innovation, delivery, learning more, scaling, right? It's this very fast loop. And it's not just that you're learning stuff about your market really quickly. You're learning stuff about yourself and about the work. The learning curve is just really steep. And we had realized that you end up going through this cycle of emotions that's pretty predictable [chuckles], and that's great, right? We want founders to know that their emotions...not only are their emotions, like, totally valid, we wanted to welcome them in a little bit more than we have in the past. So, we added this little emotions work stream that was basically just like, hey, first week, first few days of kickoff, you're going to feel like a million bucks. You're like, yes, I know some stuff. I finally got a team working on this with me. To the moon, right? Like, you got this, like, very optimistic, exuberant kind [laughs] of attitude. Immediately, you start hearing perspectives you hadn't heard before in your problem space. You start uncovering contrary evidence. We start talking to people. Immediately, you start to learn things that you didn't know you didn't know, right? So, up until this moment, you've just had some blinders on, and you're like, the path is clear, and it is amazing. I'm just going to motor my way to success. And our process is about really taking those blinders off and figuring out what is actually around me on this road? Are there words of attackers coming at me from the sides? Like, I need to know those things, right? But what happens is you start to know what you don't know. And so, there's this dip. You start off very optimistic, and then you have a week or two of declining mood where you're mortified. You learn that you had some assumptions that are not valid. There's some other risks and things lying out there in the market. It's truly mortifying. Maybe you learn about a competitor you didn't know about because you just weren't searching the right words, or whatever it is, right? That moment a lot of founders are just like, the moment I discovered my first real competitor, and I had, like, a panic attack, right? That happened to me. But then you start to make a plan around those things, okay, cool. Like, maybe we need to differentiate ourselves. Maybe there is some more information we need to figure out about how to go after this, et cetera. And you start that slow climb of dealing with the new information that you have, right? And filling in those gaps [inaudible 19:22]. Then you start to climb out of the hole, right? You're like, okay, we got a plan. I got a team. We're doing the work. Awesome. You learn new, really exciting things. And then you end up back on that, like, high where you're like, this is so awesome. We have the best idea. And now we know everything there is to know. But no, no, you've just reached a new plateau [laughs]. And there are more things to be learned and more things...So, it's this really predictable cycle, and that's fine. That's good. You wouldn't be here if you didn't care about the problem space, right? If you weren't passionate about it. And so, we really wanted to actually call that out this time and make space for it and put it on the map. Hey, we might be feeling this way right now, just heads up. That's okay. We're going to be feeling really great in a week. And then, the week after that, we're going to be feeling [laughs] like garbage again. It's okay. Because knowing that really makes you feel. And it took me a long time as a first-time founder to realize that, like, my moment-to-moment emotional experience is...I need to make space for it. It is what it is. But it is not the story of my business. And it's a thing you just kind of have to learn after going through a bunch of those cycles. But, like, part of what we're trying to do with the incubator is help founders not fall in those potholes, not make the rookie mistakes, as Ashley put it. And one of those rookie mistakes is thinking that the first time you identify a direct competitor, everything that you've been working toward for the last year is useless, and you should quit, and everyone thinks you're a fool, and, like, whatever crazy narrative you [laughs] have going on in your mind [laughs]. We're kind of here to be like, it's okay. This is to be expected: onward and upward. The hard work continues. So yeah, it's very fun. At some point, we will publish a little version of this visualization with our little cycle of feelings on the bottom. But it reminds us to make space for them in the conversation when we are doing those check-ins. Like, here we are on this roadmap, and here's where our feelings may or may not be. ASHLEY: Her recap for day one is spot on. I left that conversation; I walked out of my office and told my husband, I said, "Listen, we're going to solve the student debt crisis. We're going to." And he was like, "Really? Okay." And I was like, "Yeah, we are." And then, like, two days later, I was like, "No, we are not going to be effective at this." And then, the next day, I was like, "No, I fixed it. We fixed it. It's fine." So, being able to reference that chart is really helpful and validating for me as a person to be like: I should be feeling like this; yes, I do. Perfect, you know, I'm right on track. And I think, too, as a founder, and especially as a female founder, you are expected to just keep it together. Maybe that's a self-imposed belief. But when you think about the fact that female CEOs only have about 2% of the venture capital funding, it's like, you know, why would I ever raise a red flag for myself by letting my emotions be part of the conversation or letting my emotions even have a place in the business I'm building? And so, for her to say, "Listen, no, that's a really important part of this journey; we need to talk about it and make space for it," is really liberating. And I think, too, just when you think about what has happened with the pandemic and all the awareness around mental health and behavioral health, and making sure that we're making time for managing emotions has been more important than ever. We see the research that if you don't manage those emotions, they're going to manage you. So, find a productive way to do it. Work with your team and find support in a way that works for you or a productive way to just kind of get some stress out without having to just internalize everything because that never works out. So, it's been really great to have her be able to bring that as part of our conversation and our project plan and make sure that it's a relevant piece. LINDSEY: Very well said. And I'm so glad you did bring up that point about being women founders, and, you know, having more of a, you know, an uphill battle and feeling that emotions are a sign of weakness or a sign that you don't know what you're doing. We have more impostor syndrome because of these outside factors like lack of funding, you know, lack of support. So, it's really great for you to share that and hopefully inspire others. In fact, we got a comment: "Ashley, your drive and ambition to solve a huge issue in our country is so inspiring." Thank you -- ASHLEY: Oh, thank you. LINDSEY: For adding that comment, folks who are following along. So, it sounds like, for you, the emotion mapping is a positive experience, where it's helping you kind of ground yourself as, even these early days, some assumptions are being challenged, or you're seeing some challenges in the business idea. ASHLEY: Oh yeah, absolutely. Circling back to the thoughtbot team, couldn't do this without them in a really tactical and effective way. Because they have the experience and the skills that I don't have, and us working together on this same problem has been incredible. LINDSEY: How did you come to get connected with the incubator and thoughtbot and submitting that application? ASHLEY: Yeah. So, I'm part of the Harvard Innovation Lab, which is the innovation program at Harvard for all the students. And somebody was talking about this incubator program, and there are a lot of incubator programs out there. And so, initially, I thought, oh okay, well, this will be just, like, all the others and probably not what I'm looking for. But I did some research and looked at the website and read more about the program and thought, oh my gosh, this is exactly what I've been looking for and didn't know existed because it is that one-on-one support, and most incubator or accelerator programs you're one of many companies going through the process. And so, the feedback I have from others who have gone through similar paths is it's great, and it's nice to have a cohort. But at the same time, you're largely figuring things out for yourself, which I was doing anyway. So, I was like, well, what value is that going to bring? This is a one-on-one experience. There's a team dedicated to working on this solution, problem, et cetera with me. And I'm just so thankful that there are software developers and designers that are interested in helping me tackle this challenge also. So, that was really exciting to have other people also excited about the same problem but able to bring different skill sets to the table to actually bring this to life. LINDSEY: Oh, that's great. Thanks for sharing. All right, so nearing the end of our chat here. Jordyn, what is next? I think we're going to check back in in a couple of weeks. What might those weeks include? JORDYN: Well, as I mentioned, we really began customer interviewing...I say customer, and this is really...often, it means a lot of things. It means interviewing people who might be users, people who might be customers, people who might be partners in what we're building. And we are just going to learn so much so quickly. We're going to invalidate a lot of things. We're going to come up with new ideas. So like, we will be different humans with a different perspective on the world in two weeks, which is really exciting. But really, so this effort is really about learning how to have your audience lead you. And it isn't about just listening to your audience. So, when they say like, "Make the button blue," you're like, "Okay, blue button, you got it." It's like actually hearing about their lives and their pain points and then innovating. They're not software developers, your audience typically, so they aren't solving this problem themselves. It's up to you to translate what you're hearing into something innovative. I think a standard metaphor here or example–I guess it's more like a case study—is, like, the famous Ford quote that, like, if he had pulled people and asked them what they wanted, they would have said faster horses, not a car, right? So, it's like, you got to look at the landscape, look at what's possible, maybe new things are possible technically, right? And so, we can solve this problem better, a problem that we know humans have, which is paying for college, or, in Ford's case, getting from point A to point B quickly. So, it's really our job to listen and let what we're hearing from the audience be our guide, but not just, like, sort of take dictation, right? And that's where the skill and having done this lots of times comes in. So, that's what we're going to be doing in the next two weeks. We're going to be listening very closely, iterating on the questions that we're asking and who we're asking them to. And out of that will emerge the strategically sound innovation path, and it never fails to work. I cannot stress enough that if you talk to [laughs] people and you listen to them, opportunities become very clear. So, if any of you out there are nursing an idea that you've been nursing for a while, and you're like, I'm not ready to talk to people about it; I need to think about it longer, nope. Talk to people about it today, please. Will you screw that conversation up? Yep. But the sooner you have it, the sooner you'll screw it up and learn from it. The longer you wait, the more your assumptions build, and then it gets very tense and very wrong. And you could really think yourself off into, like, a very weird place. So, I encourage you all to do your research; talk to people about what you're thinking, what you're working on, the people for whom it matters. And that is what we are going to be doing for the next two weeks, and then is what Ashley is going to be doing for the rest of the life of this company because you never stop. It's not a thing. You don't do, like, a customer research sprint, and then you stop. If you stop doing that, you stop innovating, and then other people in the market overtake you. Sorry, I feel passionate about this issue [laughs]. LINDSEY: No, that's good. That's a quick pitch at the end here for everyone to apply to the next session incubator. Start getting the idea and the research you've been doing together. This could be you. So, hope you'll join us again in two weeks as we catch up. And yeah, as Jordyn said, things are going to be...there'll be so many insights in that amount of time. I almost started laughing after I asked, like, what will happen in two weeks? Because I know it's going to be so different, you know, day to day you all are doing so much work, learning so much. So, I'm really excited to learn about that. So, stay tuned with us here in two weeks. We'll also be posting updates to the thoughtbot blog: thoughtbot.com/blog. And just really looking forward to following along with your journey, Ashley. Thank you so much for joining and sharing today. ASHLEY: Yeah, thank you for having me. LINDSEY: Jordyn, thank you as always. JORDYN: Of course. LINDSEY: And thank you, audience. Everyone have a fantastic day. Did you know thoughtbot has a referral program? If you introduce us to someone looking for a design or development partner, we will compensate you if they decide to work with us. More info on our website at tbot.io/referral. Or you can email us at referrals@thoughtbot.com with any questions. Special Guests: Ashley Sheble and Jordyn Bonds.

Special Guest: Josh Drean: Co-founder & Director of Employee Experience at The Work3 Institute Josh Drean is Co-founder & Director of Employee Experience at The Work3 Institute, Web3 Advisor at the Harvard Innovation Labs, and Co-author of Employment is Dead (Harvard Business Review Press, 2024) He is an HR Transformation and Metaverse expert who marries web3 technologies with workplace strategies. As Co-founder of The Work3 Institute, a research, and consulting agency focused on human-centric digital transformation, Josh's aim is to help companies thrive in the rapidly changing world of work. Josh's work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company, and The Economist. Josh earned his undergraduate degree in I/O psychology and a masters degree at Harvard University, where he incubated and sold an HR Tech startup pioneering sentiment analysis in real-time. To understand the impact of the Metaverse on the future of work, look no further than the current pains of the distributed workforce and observe the solutions a virtual world of work will provide. Realizing these possibilities will require an entirely new mentality. It's not about the antiquated concepts of employee engagement or even designing a better employee experience, that's like adding Ford Mustang car parts around a Model T chassis. The fundamental structure of work is outdated. We are clogging Industrial Age systems with Information Age speeds. The Metaverse and web3 technologies have the power to drive work forward new levels of productivity and growth by offering individual contributors greater ownership, flexibility, and agency over their work. Join us as we discuss how the current pains of employees are driving forward a new model for work that allows greater ownership, flexibility, and ownership over their work. The future of work is decentralization. Host: Jo Dodds

This episode features Tyler Samstag who jointly is the director of Remake Learning and also leads transformED, an initiative at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit that supports schools in starting, scaling, and sustaining transformational change. During our podcast Tyler discusses the mission of Remake Learning and also provides information about the Moonshot Grants and the Tugboat Grant and much more. Their work encourages educators to think radically, dream big, and inspire a better future.   Tyler started his career as a special education teacher in New York City, implementing research-based literacy interventions in both traditional and alternative academic settings. Later, while living in Boston, Tyler completed an internship with the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), a nonprofit education R&D organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals through Universal Design for Learning and was a member of the IDEO Bits + Blocks LAB at the Harvard Innovation Lab, a program to develop new ventures around the technologies inspired by Bitcoin and blockchain. Interested in applications of human-centered design in education and nonprofit sectors, Tyler has facilitated an array of interactive workshops on design thinking and rapid prototyping at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and MIT.  Tyler is a Pittsburgh Public School graduate, an AmeriCorps alum, holds a master's degree from Teachers College, Columbia University in English Education, and graduated from the Mind, Brain, and Education program at Harvard University, where he was an Urban Scholars Fellow.  For additional information about Remake Learning as well as the Tugboats and Lighthouses report visit https://www.remakelearning.org. 

IN THIS EPISODE: In this episode our host, Denise Silber, is joined by Jenny Woo, alumna of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and founder/CEO of Mind Brain Emotion, a company that was born at the renowned Harvard Innovation Lab. Together they discuss how Jenny Woo designed and built her company to not only generate income but also, and amazingly so, to solve many of the pain points she identified in her own  life and in the business world. How did Jenny Woo achieve what seems to be impossible? What does it mean for you? Incredible as it sounds, Jenny Woo created her business and evergreen product line, while completing her PhD.  By identifying a major 21st century market need, and through an astute use of Kickstarter, she was able to simultaneously raise the necessary cash and get all the  market feedback she needed to launch.  And there's much more to learn from this episode,  whether you are seeking to rethink your current venture or  to come up with a new one. This  episode will provide you with the inspiration and knowledge to build a profitable business that aligns with your values and, most importantly, allows you to thrive.Tune in and embark on a transformative journey towards a more fulfilling business and life. GUEST BIO: Dr. Jenny Woo, the Founder/CEO of Mind Brain Emotion , is an alumna of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is the creator of award-winning card games and mental health tools to help children and adults build emotional intelligence and social mastery. Her bestselling games, 52 Essential Conversations and 52 Essential Coping Skills for families, schools, and workplaces, have been featured by The Harvard Gazette, Business Insider, and Forbes. She is passionate about helping people realize their potential from classroom to boardroom. She has worked as a School Director, Cognitive Science Researcher, MBA Career Coach, Management Consultant, and HR professional in Talent & Succession Planning.  

https://youtu.be/I33UCcYWPIk Emma Giles is the Co-Founder and COO of SoWork, a fast-growing startup on a mission to move the world of work from the Earth to the Cloud by building virtual spaces. We discuss the future of virtual work, tips on working remotely across different time zones, and what it's like to work in a virtual office.  --- Put Your Remote Team In Your Pocket With Emma Giles In this episode, my guest is Emma Giles, the Cofounder and COO of SoWork with a mission to move the world of work by building virtual spaces that impart teams to crush it from anywhere in the world. Emma, welcome to the show. Steve, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. This is going to be our first episode, metaverse-related. I'm already looking into this because there are lots of things you told me on our pre-call but let's start from the beginning. You graduated as a neuroscientist. How does a neuroscientist become a COO of a metaverse startup? How does that even happen? One of the things I realized when I was deep in my PhD Computational Neuroscience was I was between Harvard and MIT. When I started, I realized there are amazing resources. While I'm at school at these amazing places with these amazing minds, I should take advantage of what's here. One of the places I wanted to take advantage of was the Harvard Innovation Labs, which is a place where students go to get support in starting their ventures. I didn't have a venture but I wanted to hang out and immerse myself in that as one of the many resources that the school offered. When I got there, I realized I am not a specialist. I'm a generalist very deep in a PhD program. Being around that opened my eyes to what got me excited. I woke up and I realized I'm deep in a specialist field. I need to back myself out and lean into my more generalist tendencies. From there, I was lit up by everything that was going on. I have a million ideas and ways that I can make the world better. I found a way to borrow from my background. I had a psychology background and then more of a computational neuroscience background. I use that in my leadership style and communication. I was able to lean more into my generalist tendencies by starting to run startups. I haven't looked back since. You went from a science background. You've discovered that you have this generalist inclination and then you made this cautious switch, which sounds pretty unique. I've not seen people be aware of that but maybe that's because you're a neuroscientist. You are seeing your thinking and tendencies. That's pretty cool. Tell me a little bit about how you came upon this whole concept. You said that the startup didn't begin in this direction and you had a couple of pivots. What happened? How did you find this metaverse positioning that SoWork is pursuing? Like many young companies, we pivoted. We started in one space, learned a lot, realized it maybe wasn't a big market and tried something else. This company that we're working on, the product we're building called SoWork, is from two pivots. We started in the education space. I used to work at Khan Academy and created content for nursing and medical students. At first, I was like, "This process is brutal. I could create software to make it easier, better and faster." I then realized I'm solving the wrong problem. There's too much content out there. How could I think about helping people navigate content, not contributing to content proliferation? How could I make it easier for learners, whether students or others, to take advantage of the content in a way that worked for them? We then moved into, "Let's flip the problem on its head 180 degrees and build recommendation algorithms." You can tell my slant came from computational neuroscience because I had a bit of a recommendation bent. I said, "Let's build recommendation algorithms that consume the content that's out there and try to tell students, 'This is maybe an order you can try to move in one piece o...

Cullen Schwarz, the founder of DoneGood, began his journey in politics. After realizing lasting change couldn't come from policies but rather from the power of consumer spending, his idea for DoneGood was born. He shares his experience with struggling to get an idea off the ground, an entrepreneur's journey, and the shocking statistics surrounding modern-day slavery. ‌ About DoneGood: DoneGood is the shopping site where every purchase you make does good for people and the planet. On www.DoneGood.com you can find thousands of products from 100+ brands—and know that the DoneGood team has vetted every brand to make sure they're paying good wages, empowering communities, and using highly eco-friendly practices. Join the movement to make the world a better place by investing in DoneGood company through Search Engine.

Embark on a compelling journey as bestselling author, Abigail Hing Wen, known for her acclaimed Loveboat, Taipei series, and renowned writer, IW Gregorio, a practicing urologist turned masked avenging YA writer, candidly discuss demystifying mental health in their novels and personal lives. From navigating neurodiversity to depicting characters grappling with learning differences, cultural struggles, and mental health challenges, these two literary powerhouses share their unique perspectives in a frank and enlightening conversation on this vital topic.  ========================================== This episode is sponsored by Mind Brain Parenting. Do you want to be happier and wiser? Born at the world-famous Harvard Innovation Labs, Mind Brain Emotion's award-winning skills-building card games are here to help! These cleverly simple and practical cards boost emotional intelligence, stress management, and critical thinking skills – perfect for homes, schools, and workplaces.  I have their 52 Essential Relationship Skills cards, and I've used it at home and in my therapy practice. We are giving away a free deck to our listeners! Go to http://mindbrainemotion.com/eq to enter, watch how we use the deck, and take the free EQ (and Coping) assessments today! ========================================== Full bios: Abigail Hing Wen is a filmmaker and the New York Times best selling author of novel of Loveboat, Taipei, a Barnes and Noble YA Book Club Pick which has been adapted to the screen, starring Ashley Liao (Hunger Games) and Ross Butler (Shazam, Thirteen Reasons Why). The companion novels, Loveboat Reunion and Loveboat Forever (forthcoming November 2023) follows the gang and their community through new coming of age journeys.  In her works, Abigail explores neurodiverse characters struggling to navigate learning, social and cultural differences as well as characters in high pressure situations struggling with mental health issues. "With a knack for trying and succeeding at new things," according to Forbes, Abigail has been described by Pop Culturist as “one of the voices of her generation.”  Abigail holds degrees from Harvard, Columbia and Vermont College of Fine Arts and lives with her husband and two children in the San Francisco Bay Area. To learn more about Filmmaker & New York Times bestselling author of Loveboat, Taipei, In post-production with Lionsgate: Loveboat Reunion out now Loveboat Forever coming November 2023! Serendipity short story anthology out from MacMillan Sign-up for direct updates at www.abigailhingwen.com             Twitter | Instagram | TikTok IW Gregorio is a practicing urologist by day, masked avenging YA writer by night. She is the author of the Schneider Award-winning This Is My Brain in Love (an Amazon Best Book), and the Lambda Literary Finalist None of the Above. She is a founding member of We Need Diverse books and, as an ally, a proud board member of interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth. To Purchase IW's books! ======================================== To get our FREE resource: 3 Ways to Reduce Burnout & Boost Well-being, visit colorofsuccesspodcast.com to sign up for our mailing list!   Ways you can support the show for FREE: Share our content Join our communities on streaming platforms and social media to give your suggestions on guests and reflection questions: Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts YouTube Instagram LinkedIn Facebook Twitter  

Today's guest is Dr. Jenny Woo, Founder and CEO of Mind Brain Emotion, a company that creates cleverly simple and immediately actionable skills-building games and tools to help people become happier, calmer, and wiser.As a former president of the Women in Leadership Club at Haas, Jenny shares her journey from a little girl moving to the US to be reunited with her parents, to a female consultant working with global companies, to a mother entrepreneur-student juggling family, PhD, and startup.Jenny is passionate about helping people reach their potential - from classrooms to boardrooms. She has worked as a human capital consultant at Deloitte, a Talent & Strategy Manager at Cisco, a Montessori school director, a cognitive science researcher, and a lecturer in Emotional Intelligence.Having taught in grade schools and colleges, she saw a lack of resources and opportunities to help students develop what we call "soft skills" in the real world. This is how she started her company which was incubated out of Harvard Innovation Labs. She developed and launched the 52 Essential card series which is used in 50+ countries in homes, schools, and workplaces.Episode Quotes:Advice for people who want to pursue an MBAYou have to be crystal clear in terms of what you want to get out of it and what are your purposes. What are your passions?On why she decided to go into a Ph.D. programSometimes the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. And I wanted to really become an expert, in this case, in emotional intelligence, helping kids, and even adults, develop what we call soft skills in the real world. The biggest barrier she sees in undergraduate and graduate students and how to overcome itI see this need to feel prepared and somehow never feeling quite prepared enough and needing to be doing other things in order to pursue what ultimately we are interested in. I think that also is related to the imposter syndrome, why should I do this? Who am I to do this? What would people say? And would I fail? Those little negative voices in our head. Honestly, just do it. Just start. We can start baby steps. You don't have to get it all right. But even one little habit you implement, one little hour you spend will make a difference.In order to live your next thing or the thing that you've been putting off and on your wish list, is to not go into this all-or-nothing mentality. Show Links:LinkedIn ProfileMind Brain Emotion52 Essential Life Skills52 Essential Critical Thinking Skills52 Essential Coping SkillsSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

This episode is about working for fun, love, and legacy. Peter Gladstone is the Co-founder of Mass Hole Donuts, bakers of gourmet donut holes that celebrate the people, traditions, and spirit of Boston and Massachusetts. After 20 years in consumer marketing with companies like Gillette, P&G, and the Boston Beer Company (aka, Sam Adams), Peter retired and is now building Mass Holes because, he says, it's fun, and he wants to contribute to the culture of his hometown. When he's not establishing his Boston institutions, he is a Senior Advisor at the Harvard Innovation Labs where he advises consumer-facing ventures. Peter and I (Paul, host of show and writer of notes) were classmates at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. That is where I developed my appreciation for his creative mind and wacky and wicked good sense of humor. We talk about the difference between working to pay your bills and working on a passion project, the role of humor in the corporate world, how he and his team survived pandemic, and how he defines success now that he has “enough.”  ✍

We record our remote interviews with Riverside. Try it out here and use code PRODUCTLED for 15% off! -- Every startup struggles with growth somehow, but it doesn't always have to be so difficult. In this week's episode, we talk to Anuj Adhiya, an esteemed growth advisor for more than 100 startups. His previous roles in Sophya, The Predictive Index, and Growth Hackers means he has extensive experience in perfecting the approaches to growing a successful company. Tune in as we dive into the importance of identifying assumptions and setting goals – the right way. By taking a look at the current landscape of product-led growth and analyzing the DNA of successful startups, Anuj shares his invaluable expertise on how you can reimagine growth for your company. Show Notes [1:05] Anuj's Passion For Growth [5:00] How To Give Users a Wow Moment [8:20] Delivering on Your Promises [12:30] What Startups Need to Focus On [15:30] How You Could Be Setting Goals Wrong [19:35] PLG Approaches for New Startups [21:20] The Importance of Identifying Assumptions [22:57] A Must-Try Exercise for All Stage Companies [25:35] What Can We Learn From Successful Growth Stories [27:32] Where Marketing Teams Can Learn From [31:10] Making Data-Driven Decisions as an Organization [33:39] How the Product-Led World Is Changing About Anuj Adhiya Anuj Adhiya is the author of 'Growth Hacking for Dummies' (Wiley & Sons, April '20). As a renowned startup mentor, educator, and growth advisor, Anuj is committed to helping companies. As a Growth Mentor at Seedstars and Marketing Specialist at Harvard Innovation Labs, he helps startups uncover their best growth opportunities and solve early growth challenges. Before this he was the Category Growth Lead at The Predictive Index where he owned the site that successfully launched the talent optimization category. He was also the Director of Engagement and Analytics at GrowthHackers where he grew the world's largest growth community working directly with Sean Ellis, the godfather of growth hacking. Profile Anuj on Twitter Anuj on LinkedIn Growth Hacking for Dummies

Follow me to see #HeadsTalk Podcast Audiograms every Monday on LinkedIn. Episode Title:-

Web3. The Metaverse. Decentralization. You might have heard these terms thrown around by big tech companies like Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook or your 17 year old “crypto bro” nephew, but what does this new tech mean for the future of work? Is it a viable solution for some of the HR problems we are grappling with today? With me to discuss the challenges and opportunities that these technologies present is my good friend Josh Drean. Josh is a web3 advisor at the Harvard Innovation Labs and Co-founder of DreanMedia, a web3 media agency. Josh is an HR Transformation and Metaverse expert who marries web3 technologies with workplace strategies. He hosts webinars in both the HR tech and web3 space and speaks internationally to bring market insights to digital-first leaders. In this episode we discuss how emerging AI could potentially take over key HR functions, how “going digital” can lead work to be more human, ironically, and the privacy and security risks to be aware of should these technologies persist. Regardless of emerging web3 tech and the metaverse, we are tasked with designing employee experiences that offer rich human interactions and purpose-driven work that brings out the best in our people. If these technologies help us get there, then let's keep learning and growing together. Thanks, as always, for joining us on these discussions. Connect with Josh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshdrean/ DreanMedia: https://dreanmedia.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/socialresponsibilityatwork/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/socialresponsibilityatwork/support

Join Dr. Jeffrey Gladden and Max Newlon, the President of BrainCo USA. Max has a Master's from Harvard Graduate School of Education and years of clinical trial experience at Beth Israel Deaconess and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He was the lead coordinator for a $1 million IARPA study on cognitive enhancement and has leadership development industry experience. He is also the President of BrainCo, which grew out of the Harvard Innovation Lab. BrainCo develops cognitive training technology products and applies this expertise in machine learning, design, and neuroscience to create innovative cognitive-based applications. FocusCalm is one of the company's verticals that uses neurofeedback to help users train and optimize their brains. In this episode, you get to learn more about optimizing your life by gaining control of your brain using FocusCalm. Max advocates that your brain is always capable of change and is within your control. Are you interested in optimizing your life, learning about brain modulation, brain reprogramming, and improving the quality of your life? Listen to hear more about shifting your mindset to understand you can change your brain, learn to observe and be aware of your mental state, and deepen your mindfulness.  Listen to this episode to learn about making a hundred, the new thirty, and living beyond 120!    Show notes:    Steve starts out by disclosing Dr. Gladden's current location. (0:28)  Dr. Gladden tells us that brain modulation and brain programming are important for health, longevity, performance, and improving the quality of life. (1:12)  Dr. Gladden reiterates that the fundamental issue with all health and all health optimization is the brain or a function of brain programming and re-programming. (2:07)  Dr. Gladden questions Max about why he decided to focus on the brain. (3:35)  Max recounts an experience he had with his teacher calling his parents in the first grade. (5:02)  Dr. Gladden confirms that what Max is doing now has been a lifelong passion for him. (7:02)  Max explains that many team members have a deep artificial intelligence learning background. (9:25)  Max reveals that the best way to understand the brain is to allow the data to tell us what is happening. (11:15)  Dr. Gladden shares that he agrees with Max that we need to respond in the face of danger. (14:24)  Dr. Gladden points out that some people struggle to meditate. (16:30)  Max refers to studies showing that the more people practice, the better their scores. (18:08)  Max discloses that he likes to know what his brain is like when doing one activity compared to another. (19:55)  Max clarifies that they don't have any data yet to show how the headband helps with a concussion but can definitely help with stress. (22:12)  Dr. Gladden defines the flow state as where people report being most satisfied with their lives. (24:09)  Dr. Gladden communicates that if you can modulate your mind to match the activity, you go into the flow state. (26:18)  Dr. Gladden asks Max about the next big thing he is working on. (28:27)  Max advocates that you can change your brain and that you are not stuck with what you have. (30:32)  Max explains that they have not done any studies on depression. (33:18)                        Visit our website, www.gladdenlongevitypodcast.com, for more information on this episode and other episodes as well.  Follow us on social media!  Instagram: @gladdenlongevitypodcast  Twitter: @GLPodcast_  Facebook: @GladdenLongevityPodcast      For more information on our practice or how to become a client, visit: www.gladdenlongevity.com Call us: 972-310-8916 Or email us: info@gladdenlongevity.com        To learn more about Max and the work he does, check out the following:  Website: https://brainco.tech   |  https://focuscalm.com  Email:  general@brainco.tech |  support@focuscalm.com  Telephone number: (617) 945-2166  IG: @focus_calm   FB: @braincotech | @FocusCalmNeuroWellness  Twitter: @BrainCo_Tech | @focuscalm  LinkedIn: FocusCalm https://www.linkedin.com/company/75526385/admin/        Discount /Affiliate Link:  Longevity10 (10% off of the headband and lifetime subscription)  Link: https://focuscalm.com/discount/Longevity10   

Jordyn Bonds is the Director of Product Strategy at thoughtbot. Jordyn helps companies validate new product opportunities and reach that first key milestone, from validating an early adopter market to creating a pitch deck to building a prototype, proof of concept, or an MVP launch. Chad talks to Jordyn about what a Director of Product Strategy does, how Jordyn's career has evolved (She got to build madonna.com for the Confessions on the Dance Floor release and tour!!), and finding practices that keep you motivated and inspired to be working towards long-term, large goals. Follow Jordyn on Twitter (https://twitter.com/skybondsor) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/skybondsor/). Follow thoughtbot on Twitter (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Become a Sponsor (https://thoughtbot.com/sponsorship) of Giant Robots! Transcript: CHAD: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Chad Pytel. And with me today is Jordyn Bonds, the Director of Product Strategy at thoughtbot. Jordyn helps companies validate new product opportunities and reach that first key milestone, from validating an early adopter market to creating a pitch deck to building a prototype, proof of concept, or an MVP launch. Jordyn, thank you for joining me not only on this podcast but at thoughtbot. JORDYN: Thank you. It's wonderful to be here. CHAD: You joined us in September of this year. And it's been really fun to watch...well, let me say it's always fun to watch people come into the company and begin to digest everything that's there, begin to, like, okay, I can see how this is working, and then to start to make your mark on things. And so thank you for everything you've done so far. And I look forward to seeing everything in the future too. JORDYN: I look forward to it too. It's been a super interesting experience. I think thoughtbot has a really unique culture, and it's been really fun to get on-boarded into it. CHAD: Cool. I'd love to talk a little bit more about that in a bit. But you have joined us as the Director of Product Strategy, which is actually a new position for us in the Ignite team, which is the team that focuses on those early-stage ideas, products, companies. Obviously, if we added the position, we thought it was important. We don't take those things lightly. What led you and made you perfect for that position? JORDYN: [laughs] I think taking something from a nascent notion, whatever that is, an idea for a product or newly identified market opportunity to that first concrete thing out in the world is a really special phase of the work of new product launches. And it is, over the course of my career, just the thing I have really zeroed in on professionally over time. That's kind of my wheelhouse. And so I think that's thing number one. But what makes it special is that I like to think of it like it's almost like the first few seconds of the existence of the universe after the Big Bang... CHAD: [laughs] JORDYN: where you are inventing the ground rules of the thing you are building as you are building it. And that is a very...it's just a really special time. And some people love it, and some people despise it. There's a lot of chaos and uncertainty, and you have to move forward despite all of that chaos and uncertainty. And some of us love the; I don't know, there's just this feeling that anything is possible, a sort of sense of newness and really paving the road while you're hacking through the jungle, and I just love that. And I feel like I want to help other companies love that phase too. [laughs] It's like a weird thing to say. I'm almost like an evangelist for that time. But I'm an evangelist for it because I feel like it's really important to make sure that you're tying the mission and vision of the business; you're weaving it into what it is you're doing in the product ASAP. Do it early. Make sure you're thinking about this stuff from the jump. And if I can be an evangelist for that kind of thinking and the processes that make it possible, it's just a really exciting thing for me to be able to do. CHAD: That's really cool. You saying that made me think about this sense that I have that oftentimes when you're faced with that period of time where everything is possible, and you're literally defining what the product and the business is going to be, maybe there are more than two buckets. But I think, generally, people fall into one of two buckets. There are the people who look at that and say, "Okay, here's what we're not going to do." And they're really good at saying no to things and narrowing down from that. Another group of people who maybe even really struggle with all of the possibility, and their reaction is to say "Yes," to everything. JORDYN: Right. Yep. CHAD: And you can probably say judged by the way that I introduced the concept which one I think is better. JORDYN: [laughs] CHAD: But that's the two buckets I see. Do you see that too? JORDYN: Oh, absolutely. And I will say partly why I am so enthusiastic about this phase is that I was a bucket number two person and worked very hard to become a bucket number one person because that's the mindset you have to get in. But it's a real delicate balance. It's not always clear; you have to be open to things changing. But saying no is way more important than saying yes in the sense that, you know, I think the phrase people like to use in startup land is you can't boil the ocean, and that is true. So it's much easier...the path is much easier and clearer if you start small. But if you're an entrepreneur, by nature, that's going to feel really uncomfortable to you because what you see out in the world is possibility and probably endless possibility, right? CHAD: Right. JORDYN: So the notion that you are going to squeeze yourself into the tiniest space to start when you see the giant opportunity. And PS, everyone is asking you to articulate that giant opportunity. You need to be able to tell that story so that you can recruit people to your cause. But at the same time, you need to be ruthlessly focused in the here and now on the small things, like, the constrained things you're going to do, for now, all the things you're going to say no to for now while keeping your eyes on this larger, expansive prize. It is just a really...it's an art; it is a hard thing to do. CHAD: How did you shift your mindset? JORDYN: Through failure. CHAD: [laughs] JORDYN: It was through painfully failing at doing this. [laughs] I made every textbook mistake, some of them fairly recently. [laughs] So there's a lot of folks out there who their first venture, their first foray into this world, was a success, and that's wonderful for them. That's great. But their advice is sort of suspect for me and for a lot of founders because it's like, well, you didn't... [laughs] maybe it was skill, maybe it was luck; it was probably a combination of both. Like, good for you that you did this. But if you've started a business, launched a product one time, and it was wildly successful, how are you in a position to teach me who might be on failure number two, or three, or whatever, how I need to change in order to be successful, what needs to change in order for me to be successful? Like, you're not going to be that useful to me. And so I find I'm in a much better position to help other people not fall into the same potholes that I did because I fell into them. I can look at folks and say, "I know what you're thinking. I know you've got your eyes on this large market opportunity. And you can see the mass market future ten years from now for this thing that you're building, that's great. But you have to start with the narrowest of early adopters." And you have to start with a pain point that is, quote, "hair on fire" is another phrase people like to use, like, just some pain point that people have that is just so painful for people right now that they are willing to pay someone to fix it. You got to focus on that despite this large, open-ended opportunity that's in the future. I can only really give that advice to folks credibly because I have done the opposite so many times that I can both empathize with where they're at in that impulse to boil the ocean, but I can also tell them how one way of disabusing yourself of that mindset. So I think back to actually...so I have an older sister. She was really terrible at math when we were younger. [laughs] And she was the best math teacher for me because it didn't come easy for her. Going to someone who's a math genius to help teach you what greater than or less than is is [laughs] not going to help you because it's self-evident to them. Like, how are they going to break that down for you? My sister was a great math teacher for me because her understanding of math was quite hard-won. So if I came to her and said, "Hey, I don't understand greater than or less than," which, PS, is truly what happened. CHAD: [laughs] JORDYN: I was like, I don't really...however, it was being explained to me did not [laughs] resonate. She was a great person to go to because she would not judge me for not understanding it, first of all, and she would have ways of breaking that down. So I'm that person for new founders, people just starting out trying to come up with a new product or explore a new opportunity. I have learned all the painful lessons on their behalf. So it's not like I'm coming to them with advice; that's just boilerplate advice I have read somewhere, and I'm now repeating to them. No, I have painfully learned these lessons. [laughs] Let me help you avoid that. CHAD: And you said it earlier...you used the phrase like not now or not yet. And I think that's a great way of just slightly...no doesn't mean no forever. [laughs] It just means not right now, not yet. Now's not the right time. JORDYN: Exactly. CHAD: And I think that's a healthy way of reframing it. You're trying to strike that balance between the opportunity and the future and what you're doing today to make the product successful and get it out the door. JORDYN: And you can do a lot of work around those bright, shiny, attractive future possibilities that make it feel...you can basically say, "Not yet, and here's what will have to happen for it to become now." You can kind of nurture those opportunities over time, and what will be the criteria to make them something you want to pursue now. It can kind of sate your desire to pursue them if you nurture the plan over time. So it's not like you just say, "Not yet," you say, "Not yet, and here's the evolving set of things that will tell us it's the right time." And having that shared alignment on the team around what those things are but keeping your eyes on them, actively monitoring the situation to be on the lookout when now is the time can satisfy your urge to be working toward that. I think that's what's really hard for founders who really have their eyes on this big opportunity is you can sometimes feel like you're not making any progress toward it because the progress is so incremental. So finding those practices that feed that thing for you, that keep you motivated and inspired to be working toward that long-term large goal, finding those ways to keep at it, to see the progress, keep refining why it is you're doing what you're doing and how it is you're getting there, can make you feel like you're pursuing and even when you're not [laughs] if that makes any sense. I just acknowledge that people need to do something. Just telling yourself or your team not yet is sometimes not enough because you're in it for that big vision, right? CHAD: Right. Yeah, that's great. One of the things that stood out to me when we first met was the variety of different experiences that you've held, different positions, different roles, different things you've done. You started doing web development. You've done user experience, product management, you've been CTO, you've been CEO of companies. You did product lead and VP of product. That variety of experience, I think is more than I have. [laughs] You have held those different roles. How has that evolved for you in your career? What's been driving that forward for you? JORDYN: I was always this product strategy person inside. I didn't necessarily know it. I didn't really even know. I mean, back in the early days of the web, a product mindset wasn't even really a thing, and advertising got a hold of the internet first. And so it was really about graphic design for a long time and a bunch of other things. But throughout that first decade that I spent as an engineer, as a front-end engineer, I was just constantly that annoying person on the team who was like, "Why are we building this? Who are we building it for? Why are we building this?" Because what I learned is as much as I liked to code, and I liked the puzzle of solving the problem of how to turn a design into a thing people could click on, that was really fun for me, but it was only fun for a while before I started to become really sad, disappointed that we would launch things that would be market failures in the sense of, yeah, we launched a thing, and we checked the box, but no one was using it. And I would come back and say...and I was mostly doing agency work at the time, and so there was not a lot of follow-up. We'd launch something, and then it was, like, move on to the next project. I wanted to know, was this successful? Did people use it? Are people using it? Like, how are they using it? Is it easy to use? And I wanted to answer those questions. And then, when I started to do more of that follow-up work, and then I was finding that most of the things we were launching were failures by my standards. No one cared about them. No one was using them. They were hard to use. And I wanted to make impactful things. And so I kept asking the questions, and I kept asking them earlier and earlier. This is how I ended up in user experience design. I was like, well, can we answer these questions first? Can we make a plan before we ever put pixels to screen, so to speak, [laughs] before we start building? Can we know something so that when we do build...which I had intimate understanding of how much work it is to build software. It's not nothing. It's a big investment of time and energy. And what I wanted increasingly was for that to be time and energy well spent for the entire team and for the universe. [laughs] And so that's how I ended up...I think of it as like swimming upstream in the sense that there's still a lot of waterfall process going on in software. And I was just constantly asking why and for whom earlier and earlier in the process, just so that we could make sure that what we were building was "The Right It," to quote a book title that a lot of folks [laughs] in startup land have read. Like, let's make sure it's "The Right It" before we invest a lot of time and energy, and, frankly, emotion into building something. That was really where this was coming from for me is that I think at heart, secretly or not so secretly, I'm still that engineer, that front-end engineer. And I want cool projects. I want to work on cool projects with cool people that are impactful. And I think that's true of most engineers. [laughs] No one is purely satisfied to just be given an assignment that they're supposed to execute without thinking about it. And getting into UX and then getting into product management was for me almost like a mission to make sure that by the time something got to engineering, it was a good idea. I just wanted to save engineers from terrible projects; that was my whole mission. [laughs] CHAD: Well, at thoughtbot, we have a set of core values, and one of them is fulfillment. And in the writing around that, the phrase we often use is we want to work on products that we believe deserve to exist. JORDYN: Yes. CHAD: And that doesn't just mean that they have a positive impact on the world instead of a negative impact. But we're very intentional about the words we use, so there's a double meaning to that phrase. It's having a positive impact on the world, but it also means that it's the right product. This is what we should be building that it deserves to exist. JORDYN: Yes, because you all know, we know how hard it is to make software. It's actually really hard. I think certainly building new products, you know, what a new product meant in 1920 is a very different thing than what [laughs] it means in 2022. And while it is a lot easier to bring new products into the world, like software products, internet products, it doesn't mean it's just easy. There's a lot of effort and resources that go into doing this, so let's make sure we're spending those things wisely. Is the product idea good? Does it deserve to exist, but also, have we done our homework to validate that people want this, that they're going to use it? And to the extent that you can. There are limits to the ability of any team to forecast that. But when you bring more of this experimental mindset to it as soon as possible, it's like you up the odds that you'll end up building something valuable. And like you were saying about the word deserve, the word valuable to me is very broad, valuable to users, valuable to the business, valuable to the world. Let's create things of value if we're going to go to the trouble of creating things. Mid-Roll Ad: When starting a new project, we understand that you want to make the right choices in technology, features, and investment but that you don't have all year to do extended research. In just a few weeks, thoughtbot's Discovery Sprints deliver a user-centered product journey, a clickable prototype or Proof of Concept, and key market insights from focused user research. We'll help you to identify the primary user flow, decide which framework should be used to bring it to life, and set a firm estimate on future development efforts. Maximize impact and minimize risk with a validated roadmap for your new product. Get started at: tbot.io/sprint. CHAD: Have you found any tools, or techniques, or things that work particularly well for doing that? JORDYN: Yeah, and it's probably not going to be all that satisfying. There are no shortcuts, I think, is what's challenging about this. [laughs] The tool and the process that I always start with and come back to is talking to customers and talking to users if those two people are not the same. Talk to people, not about your product idea; talk to them about their lives. Talk to them about what is difficult for them, what is easy for them, what they value, and you will seldom go wrong if you start and return to that process and truly listen. This whole thing of talking to customers and talking to users is an art in and of itself. It's not idle, you know; it's not just a thing you toss off once in a while. [laughs] It's a skill. It's an art. And that is where you begin in it. Now, that is not the whole thing. But if you're starting there or returning there, you can always do this. I talk to teams all the time who have whiffed on this step of the process, and it's fine. Like, people who are builders, especially entrepreneurs, just want to get in there and start making something, like, I get that. CHAD: Well, I think it's the combination of really wanting to move quickly and get to something really, really quickly. But I also think there is an element of fear... JORDYN: [laughs] Yes. CHAD: that causes people so that these two things combined really set people up to not do this... JORDYN: To not do this, yes. CHAD: because they're afraid of what they'll learn. And so it's much easier to just say, "Well, I know what to build. Let's build it. And you don't need to actually talk to people who might tell you something that isn't aligned with what you think the product should be." JORDYN: 100%, 100%. Getting over that fear is hard, and you probably will just have to fail really hard without getting over it. I mean, that was certainly my experience, I mean, like several times. [laughs] I tried to build things without talking to anyone about it. I also was one of these people that built something that...and I can get into the story, but I built something that was successful enough without talking to a single person about it. And it really sent me down a fool's path for a while because I thought that's how it worked. But yeah, that fear is real. But I think the thing that got me around it eventually and gets me around it now is there's the rational side of this which is, well, wouldn't you rather know sooner than later that something is not a good idea or this is not a pain point? Sure. But the more visceral, emotional thing that got me around it is good ideas are actually a dime a dozen. You'll have good ideas. You'll have ten good ideas tomorrow morning. Your one idea that you have decided to explore and build out and build a company around it won't be your only idea. It is not the only good idea. [laughs] You will have more of those. If you had 1, you'll have 10. So talking to users means you'll figure out...you'll have the opportunity to come up with more of those ideas, and one of them will be the winner. All of them are probably good ideas on some level. Having ideas isn't the problem. People are afraid of talking to customers and learning that their idea is not good, but you got to turn that on your head. You talk to customers to learn what they need, and then you'll have 20 ideas about how to solve that for them, solve that need. The real fool's path here is to get attached to your first one idea that you had to solve a problem. It's to get attached to your problem before you have validated it. That's another pitfall here. But then to think that the first thought you had and how to solve it is going to be your only good idea, nah, you have lots of good ideas; we all do. [laughs] You'll have more. So really just focusing on that pain point and listening to people and then really doing the work to generate more and more ideas. Even if you think you have a good solution now, it's always worth thinking about what other solutions might be constantly because your solution that you've come up with might have some feasibility issues. It might have other problems that you haven't seen yet. So it's always good to have more solutions in the hopper in case the one that you're pursuing right now doesn't turn out to be the right one. CHAD: This is something that I don't know the answer to, and that is I do know you didn't originally start out as a developer, and it's not what your education is in. JORDYN: [laughs] No. CHAD: But how did you get into development? JORDYN: [laughs] I was in college. This was just such a lucky, random thing. But I was in college, and I was in a band, a rock band. And this was early '98, maybe even fall '97. We were just at practice one day, and someone in the band was like, "We need a website." And this was when this was like a new thing that people did. [laughs] And everyone in the room just turned and looked at me. And I was like, "Oh, I'm making the website? Okay." CHAD: Why? Were you a tech person in their mind? JORDYN: I don't know, I guess because I seemed scrappy and capable even then. I have no idea. But I was like, all right, I'll see what I can figure out. So I wandered into the computer lab and just went to the person running the computer lab and was like, "Hey, how do I make a website?" [laughs] And this guy whose name I don't remember which is horrible, I really wish I could reach out to this guy and be like, "Hey, I have a career because of you, thank you." CHAD: [laughs] JORDYN: He was like, "Oh, cool. Here's what you do." And he basically opened up Netscape and was like, "Hey, there's like a..." there was like an editor. I don't even remember what it was called now. If you recall, there was an editor in Netscape. He was like, "Here's the basics of this. And here's a website," which was the... [laughs] What was the name of this website? All of the articles on this website were titled something like, so you want to make a webpage? Or so you want to make an interactive image replacement? Or so you want to host a website on a server? Whatever, like, that was all the articles. And that website taught me how to code, and that guy put me on a path, and I just immediately was like, this is the most fun thing ever. I was like, I love this. [laughs] And it wasn't like two months before I had built the websites for a couple of departments on campus. My mom had a recruiting business at the time. She was like, "Can you make my recruiting business website?" It was just like, off to the races, which was great. But I graduated into the dot-com bust, which meant I could not get a job doing this. It's like entry-level folks always see a recession coming first, right? CHAD: Right. JORDYN: And everyone was like, "Oh my God, you can write HTML. You're going to get a six-figure job immediately," whatever. [laughs] And I was like, that is not what's happening here. I would have a job interview at someplace, and then they'd stop calling me. And I would find out that the company went under the day after I interviewed. That was what was happening. So I couldn't get a job, a professional job doing this for a while. But I kept doing it on the side basically for my friends and family and eventually managed to get back into some professional [laughs] aboveboard real roles doing this work, but it was a struggle at first. And it was only just because I just really loved doing it, which, again, to circle back to something we talked about before, was kind of a liability for me for a while. Liking coding makes you really unthoughtful about what you're coding because you're always happy to do it, right? [laughs] CHAD: Oh, I speak from personal experience, yes. [laughs] JORDYN: Yes, right. I just wasn't thinking, is this a good idea? I was thinking great, cool; I get to code more. I love this. That was fine early on because I did get a lot of experience. And the first real job I got doing this work was at a company that was building websites for musicians, and our main client was Warner Brothers music. And so I got to build the My Chemical Romance website. CHAD: Cool. JORDYN: I got to build madonna.com for the Confessions on the Dance Floor release and tour. CHAD: That's really cool. JORDYN: Like, it was really fun. And basically, I got to build a new website every two weeks for three years which was amazing bootcamp for me. The designers there were just fantastic. I learned more than I can ever even probably understand about doing that. But partly what I learned was [laughs] this feeling of this was where that feeling began where I was like, is this the right thing? Are we building the right thing? Or is this successful? That's when I started to ask those questions: is what we're doing what people want? So anyway, it was very fun. I got into it because I was in rock bands, which is strange. I don't think people typically find lucrative careers being in rock bands. [laughs] CHAD: I talk to a lot of people over the years through our apprenticeship program, through different things where there are people out there who connect with programming like you did and like I did. The difference is that, for whatever reason, I had that experience when I was 10. [laughs] And other people just never get the opportunity to be exposed to that until later. But it's remarkable when it happens, and you get that connection where it just connects with you at a level that almost nothing has before. It's like a constant dopamine hit when you're programming. JORDYN: Oh, it is. Yeah, I used to joke that, basically, I felt like I got to play video games for a living because that's what it felt like. It was just one puzzle game after another. It just didn't feel like work. I got to go to work every day and solve what felt like really interesting problems and puzzles. And at the end, there was a thing people used or could look at. It just felt like I'd hit pay dirt. I felt so lucky to have found it. But yeah, I haven't done this since the pandemic. But for several years before that, I was a Girls Who Code instructor, and being able to pay that experience forward and help middle school, high school-aged girls who hadn't necessarily had this experience yet find themselves in coding, that was really the mission me and my co-teacher had decided that was really what we were after. We didn't care if they walked away from doing this with any hard coding skills. What we wanted them to have in their minds was I can be a programmer, and that seems like fun or possible for me. That was all we wanted. And it was so amazing to see that moment where it clicked for them where they were like, "Oh, there's like a pattern here." And yeah, see that dopamine hit thing start to set up, you know, in their brains and know that it was only going to help them. I mean, I often said to them, "Major in whatever you want in college, but get a minor in computer science; that's where your job is. [laughter] Sorry to break this to you, but this is where your job is." [laughs] CHAD: Another thing that you've done is you've advised a lot of companies through a few different organizations: Underscore VC, the Harvard Innovation Lab. What makes a good advisor as opposed to a bad advisor? JORDYN: This is a really hard question, actually, because it's not often entirely clear in the moment whether a given advisor is...if you feel a lot of rapport with someone and they're helping you out in the moment, that's great. But often, one finds that something an advisor told you that did not land at all at the time comes back later to be something that's really useful. So I want to say up front that what makes a good advisor is really idiosyncratic to the founder, and to the advisor, and to the moment they find themselves together in. So with that as a big caveat, I think what I bring to this, what I go out of my way to bring to it, is that I've been in the trenches. I know what that feels like. And I trust founders, like, my job there is to just add some perspective. I've participated in building over 30 products, so I can help them. They might be doing their first product or business, and all I'm there to do is bring a bunch of other experience for them to pick some insights from. It's not actually my job, I don't think, to pre-filter that stuff for them. I'm very practical and hands-on. They bring a problem to me, and I'm like, "Okay, here's three times I've seen that situation before. And here are three things that happened." And I basically multiply their historical experience that they can draw from; that's sort of what I bring to this. There's another thing here when I've had valuable advisors, this thing that's kind of hard to articulate. But it's like, often early on, what you need is just someone to take you seriously, just really take you seriously as a founder and a leader. I go way out of my way to make it clear that I am doing that with them and that it is my assumption 100% that they will rise to that occasion, that they will figure out who they need to be, what resources they need to bring to bear in order to be successful. And doing that, taking them seriously and taking their ideas seriously, taking their experiences seriously, and really demonstrating that I think they have what it takes and I think that they can rise to this occasion, I think is probably the most valuable thing because most people don't do that. They come to your idea looking to tear it down, and I think it's well-meaning. They want to stress test you and your idea. That's all well and good. But, I mean, I'm often advising underrepresented founders and what they need is confidence. They need to be built up, not torn down. That doesn't mean I don't bring skepticism and help them try to think evermore clearly about what it is they're doing and why; I definitely do that. But there's this baseline of I think you are capable of doing this. I think you are a person who gets to do this; that is not in question for me. And that alone I think is probably the most valuable thing you can get from an advisor, [laughs] is just someone to take you seriously. CHAD: That's great. So for folks who have been familiar with thoughtbot for a while, we have a lot of advice out there in the world for how to build products, how to validate things, exercises to run, all that kind of stuff. And we bundle all of that up in what we call our playbook. And now, as we're sort of almost 20 years into this now, that's a big resource. And so we're doing something new, which is extracting the information that we have specifically targeted towards those earliest stages of a new product or a business into a separate playbook. You're taking your wisdom, and you're going to be able to add it to that as well. And it's going to be a little bit more targeted. So we've just launched that. And you can find it at thoughtbot.com/research-strategy-playbook. I would encourage folks to check that out. Jordyn, when it comes to sharing, we're big at that at thoughtbot, and I'm excited to have you as part of that. Is there something that you think our approach from the fact that we're a consulting company or an agency makes it either in good ways or bad ways different than joining a product company and what you might do in a new role, or in sharing, or in working on things that we work on? JORDYN: Yeah. I mean, I'm sure I'll have more to say about this when I've been here for a year. Having been here for a month, [laughter] this answer might be suspect. So far, anyway, the way I think about the differences here is that our role in working with product companies is to help them build the muscles to do this work, not to do it for them because they need to be able to do it going forward. We're not going to embed with them for the rest of time. So that's a big difference, and that's both good and bad in the sense that we can maintain a certain amount of perspective because we can bring a kind of insider-outsider, like, we've done this lots and lots of times. We've seen the myriad ways that can go. And so we can bring that experience to bear while also remaining somewhat, I mean, objective is maybe a problematic word here, but some flavor of that while remaining outside of the everyday operational reality of the business. So that can be a really helpful perspective. But I think the sort of risk there that I see is not being able to fully appreciate...that's the wrong word, but it's like, maybe not having the credibility we could have because we aren't going to be around to see this thing through. There's really, especially at early stages with projects, you really need people who are in it to win it, in it for the long haul. And so, I can see this looking like a tough sell for certain founders. But from what I know so far, what I know about myself, what I know about thoughtbot so far is that that couldn't be further from the truth for us. We really are invested in folks' long-term success. And we do want to leverage our ability to focus and stand slightly outside of day-to-day operations to help them gain that perspective. But that is really the give and take, I think, of being a consultant rather than being part of the company. CHAD: Now, it does make us...there are companies out there that that's not the goal, the goal is to make you dependent on them. JORDYN: Yes, right. [laughs] CHAD: That definitely is one of the unique things about thoughtbot is that that is not our goal. Our goal is to teach people to do what we do. But we do sometimes get criticized for, in those early stages, exactly that. It's like, where's your sense of urgency or your passion about this? And actually, we do have it. It's just the analogy I often use is we're like a professional sports team. [laughs] We make it look easy because we're really good at it. And a lot of environments are ones where in order to make things happen, you need to create an environment of stress or those kinds of things. And that's what people are used to. And so when they start working with us, and they don't see that, they think something is wrong. JORDYN: Yes, yes. 100%. And that is a huge cultural challenge with working with startups in general, where there is a real fire-fighting mentality. Like, let's get in there and make some stuff happen. Things are shifting constantly, and you've got to react. And I'm working 80-hour weeks to just make sure everything gets done. And I would hope..., and I've seen this to a certain extent in my month here so far, but the goal is for us to help folks work smarter, not harder, in the sense that more output does not mean more success. We do have the experience of having worked on so many products, each of us individually and then collectively as a company. It is our goal, and it is my personal sincere hope that we can help these companies see how to do this work better and more sustainably without burning yourself out. If you happen to be successful while focused on this kind of work more output, it's only by chance you were successful there. It wasn't because you worked that hard. [laughs] And it's hard to see. There is a lot of like hustle culture stuff out there that makes you feel like unless you are burning your candle at both ends, you're not doing it right. I think thoughtbot has the depth of experience to say," No, we can say otherwise," and to help companies figure out how to do that. I can absolutely see what you mean that people are like; these people don't have the fire in their belly, which couldn't be further from the truth. But it does feel very different from the inside. CHAD: I feel like I could talk to you all day, [laughs] but we have to keep the episode somewhat within our normal constraints. Jordyn, thank you so much. If folks want to follow along with you or get in touch with you, where are the best places for them to do that? JORDYN: So I am @skybondsor S-K-Y-B-O-N-D-S-O-R pretty much everywhere that you might want to... [laughter] A friend of mine gave me that nickname years ago. That's my handle pretty much everywhere. I spend a lot of time on Twitter, so that's probably the best place if you want to follow me or interact with me. But I'm also on LinkedIn and a lot of other places. CHAD: And you can subscribe to the show, find notes along with a complete transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. If you have questions or comments, email us at hosts@giantrobots.fm. You can find me on Twitter at, not as an exciting username as @skybondsor, but @cpytel. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll see you next time. ANNOUNCER: This podcast was brought to you by thoughtbot; thoughtbot is your expert design and development partner. Let's make your product and team a success. Special Guest: Jordyn Bonds.

Today on No Straight Path, we are joined by startup entrepreneur, Harvard Law lecturer, and metaverse mogul Memme Onwudiwe. Like many of the esteemed guests on this show, you can certainly call Memme a multi-hyphenate! He serves as Executive Vice President of Legal and Business Intelligence at Evisort, a legal tech AI company that he helped build via the Harvard Innovation Lab while in law school. Memme also teaches a course on innovation and entrepreneurship at Harvard with Evisort CEO Jerry Ting, and if that wasn't enough, he is the co-owner of the African Museum of the Metaverse; one of the first multi-metaverse museums in the world.  Fascinated by legal issues around AI, space technologies, and innovation on the African continent, Memme is a digital nomad with a purpose. Listen in as we discuss why you don't need to get good grades to make valuable contributions to society and Memme offers some insight into his entrepreneurial story, which was set in motion because he was receptive to unconventional opportunities. As always, we touch on some of Memme's pain points and what you can learn from them, as well as why it's critical to make mistakes and take risks earlier rather than later, how even the most niche focus can earn you visibility as you build your business, and much more! Memme's focus on niche topics in legal tech, crypto, and Web3 has earned him notoriety at a young age, and anyone listening is bound to walk away with some valuable insights. So, tune in today! Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: Memme Onwudiwe Memme Onwudiwe on LinkedIn Evisort African Museum of the Metaverse ‘Africa and the Artemis Records' Ashley Menzies Babatunde Ashley Menzies Babatunde on Instagram Hubspot Podcast Network

One of the biggest challenges facing the adoption of machine learning and AI in Data Science is understanding, interpreting, and explaining models and their outcomes to produce higher certainty, accountability, and fairness. Serg Masis is a Climate & Agronomic Data Scientist at Syngenta and the author of the book, Interpretable Machine Learning with Python. For the last two decades, Serg has been at the confluence of the internet, application development, and analytics. Serg is a true polymath. Before his current role, he co-founded a search engine startup incubated by Harvard Innovation Labs, was the proud owner of a Bubble Tea shop, and more. Throughout the episode, Serg spoke about the different challenges affecting model interpretability in machine learning, how bias can produce harmful outcomes in machine learning systems, the different types of technical and non-technical solutions to tackling bias, the future of machine learning interpretability, and much more.