Howdy, I'm Vanessa!
Howdy, I'm Vanessa!
I'm a product manager who designs and builds thoughtful software.
For the past 3 years, I’ve focused my energy on building a conversational AI platform at Humanly (YC W20), helping recruiting teams automate the busy work so they can focus on the important stuff - people. Previously, I was a freelance designer for EveryMother and before that, I co-founded a startup called BallotBox, designed to help campaign organizers grow and manage their communities.This experience sparked my curiosity for design and building products.
In 2021, I completed a Master’s in Human Computer Interaction at NYU ITP, a program that combines art + technology. I devoted my last year of school to working on my thesis - which looked at flipping the awkward gynecology visit into an delightful, patient-centered experience.
I'm a product manager who designs and builds thoughtful software.
For the past 3 years, I’ve focused my energy on building a conversational AI platform at Humanly (YC W20), helping recruiting teams automate the busy work so they can focus on the important stuff - people. Previously, I was a freelance designer for EveryMother and before that, I co-founded a startup called BallotBox, designed to help campaign organizers grow and manage their communities.This experience sparked my curiosity for design and building products.
In 2021, I completed a Master’s in Human Computer Interaction at NYU ITP, a program that combines art + technology. I devoted my last year of school to working on my thesis - which looked at flipping the awkward gynecology visit into an delightful, patient-centered experience.
A FEW THINGS THAT SET ME APART:
Design-product hybrid:
Most of my ideas start in Figma — it’s very fast both in terms of execution and how quickly we can see what does/doesn’t work. I love developing problems and ideas visually and enjoy deep technical give-n-take with designers and engineers.
Decisive action:
I’m good at taking in various perspectives, distilling a set of options, and making the call to pursue what I believe is the best option. I’m comfortable with ambiguity, sometimes getting it wrong, and taking full ownership. I optimize for trying + learning, over making perfect plans.
Building from 0 to 1:
Joining an early stage startup taught me how to ship and iterate quickly. Most importantly, it taught me how to craft a compelling vision. This means always keeping the 0-to-1 project alive and helping it spread to others, mostly through setting vision and building hype.
A FEW THINGS THAT SET ME APART:
Design-product hybrid:
Most of my ideas start in Figma — it’s very fast both in terms of execution and how quickly we can see what does/doesn’t work. I love developing problems and ideas visually and enjoy deep technical give-n-take with designers and engineers.
Decisive action:
I’m good at taking in various perspectives, distilling a set of options, and making the call to pursue what I believe is the best option. I’m comfortable with ambiguity, sometimes getting it wrong, and taking full ownership. I optimize for trying + learning, over making perfect plans.
Building from 0 to 1:
Joining an early stage startup taught me how to ship and iterate quickly. Most importantly, it taught me how to craft a compelling vision. This means always keeping the 0-to-1 project alive and helping it spread to others, mostly through setting vision and building hype.
Work History
Work History
Humanly / 2021 - Now
Humanly / 2021 - Now
As the first design-hire at Humanly, I was entrusted with all product design by our CEO. My role has since evolved into a Product Manager as our team has grown, but I've continued to be deeply invested in design and work closely with our designers. While at Humanly, I brought our AI Q&A chatbot to market, created a product from scratch, helped oversee the aquisition of Teamable and led a re-org of our engineering team.
As the first design-hire at Humanly, I was entrusted with all product design by our CEO. My role has since evolved into a Product Manager as our team has grown, but I've continued to be deeply invested in design and work closely with our designers. While at Humanly, I brought our AI Q&A chatbot to market, created a product from scratch, helped oversee the aquisition of Teamable and led a re-org of our engineering team.
My role
Since pivoting into a Product role, I've been responsible for our roadmap, shaping our product culture, setting team direction, and guarding the hearth (i.e. building momentum for projects). I'm also deeply engaged with my engineering team. I help evaluate technical tradeoffs, coordinate projects, and most importantly, make sure my team understands the "why" behind everything we do.
Core Product
Since joining, I've helped reshaped our product from a point solution (conversational recruiting chabot) to a communication platform where recruiting teams can choose how they want to engage with candidates and when they want to bring in automation vs. a human touch.
My role
Since pivoting into a Product role, I've been responsible for our roadmap, shaping our product culture, setting team direction, and guarding the hearth (i.e. building momentum for projects). I'm also deeply engaged with my engineering team. I help evaluate technical tradeoffs, coordinate projects, and most importantly, make sure my team understands the "why" behind everything we do.
Core Product
Since joining, I've helped reshaped our product from a point solution (conversational recruiting chabot) to a communication platform where recruiting teams can choose how they want to engage with candidates and when they want to bring in automation vs. a human touch.
AI Q&A Chatbot
Last year I launched an AI chatbot to help answer candidate FAQs. We set out to reduce the amount of time hiring teams spent responding to candidates and to streamline the candidate experience by offering instant answers with an AI copilot.
This launch was a stepping stone for us as most of our chatbots were rule-based. This meant that we not only had to be super thoughtful in how we integrated AI into our existing schema but we had to spend a ridiculous amount of time on prompt engineering and setting up guardrails to reduce hallucinations.
Going into this launch we knew that HR tech is generally pretty risk-averse. To create trust, we created a Responsible AI framework that sales and marketing could use when talking to prospects. We also underwent an AI audit that we published on our website.
AI Q&A Chatbot
Last year I launched an AI chatbot to help answer candidate FAQs. We set out to reduce the amount of time hiring teams spent responding to candidates and to streamline the candidate experience by offering instant answers with an AI copilot.
This launch was a stepping stone for us as most of our chatbots were rule-based. This meant that we not only had to be super thoughtful in how we integrated AI into our existing schema but we had to spend a ridiculous amount of time on prompt engineering and setting up guardrails to reduce hallucinations.
Going into this launch we knew that HR tech is generally pretty risk-averse. To create trust, we created a Responsible AI framework that sales and marketing could use when talking to prospects. We also underwent an AI audit that we published on our website.
Call Recordings
On my first day as a product design intern at Humanly, I was tasked to work on a side project that I coined "Voice". I spent the next few months intervewing candidates, recruiters and hiring managers identifying their challenges and better understanding their workflows. I learned that recording calls felt like "big brother" to a lot of recruiters but most recruiting leaders desperately wanted insight into the interviews that were happening in their organization.
Call Recordings
On my first day as a product design intern at Humanly, I was tasked to work on a side project that I coined "Voice". I spent the next few months intervewing candidates, recruiters and hiring managers identifying their challenges and better understanding their workflows. I learned that recording calls felt like "big brother" to a lot of recruiters but most recruiting leaders desperately wanted insight into the interviews that were happening in their organization.
"Interviews are a gold mine of data and they are the biggest leak in hiring." - Recruiting Leader at Tesla
"Interviews are a gold mine of data and they are the biggest leak in hiring." - Recruiting Leader at Tesla
The co-founders and I saw the potential to revolutionize the recruitment space with actionable insights similar to the transformations seen in sales through platforms like Gong and Chorus. After launching an MVP in 2021, were were able to test our hypothesis with companies like Gravity Payments and Indeed.
Fast-forward to 2023, we made a call to focus our resources on other core areas of the product. Why? Not because it was a bad idea but rather because we were doing too many things and when you do too many things, you run the risk of not doing anything great.
Jony Ives has a great quote about focus. He notes: "What focus means is saying no to something that with every bone in your body think is a phenomenal idea, and you wake up thinking about it, but you end up saying no to it because you're focusing on something else."
The co-founders and I saw the potential to revolutionize the recruitment space with actionable insights similar to the transformations seen in sales through platforms like Gong and Chorus. After launching an MVP in 2021, were were able to test our hypothesis with companies like Gravity Payments and Indeed.
Fast-forward to 2023, we made a call to focus our resources on other core areas of the product. Why? Not because it was a bad idea but rather because we were doing too many things and when you do too many things, you run the risk of not doing anything great.
Jony Ives has a great quote about focus. He notes: "What focus means is saying no to something that with every bone in your body think is a phenomenal idea, and you wake up thinking about it, but you end up saying no to it because you're focusing on something else."
Building Product Culture
I have a folder in my notes app titled "friction." Over the past two years, it's been a place to catalogue all the points of friction that I've discovered in our product.
Linear used to do something called Polishing Season, where they dedicated all of December to fixing papercuts in their product. I brought this idea to Humanly and for the past two years it's been one of the most instrumental product rituals I've instilled. Polishing Season is about giving a damn about dedicating time to quality work. It's about engineerings and designers being proud of their work, making sure products are built with quality and delight.
Building Product Culture
I have a folder in my notes app titled "friction." Over the past two years, it's been a place to catalogue all the points of friction that I've discovered in our product.
Linear used to do something called Polishing Season, where they dedicated all of December to fixing papercuts in their product. I brought this idea to Humanly and for the past two years it's been one of the most instrumental product rituals I've instilled. Polishing Season is about giving a damn about dedicating time to quality work. It's about engineerings and designers being proud of their work, making sure products are built with quality and delight.
EveryMother / 2020 - 2021
EveryMother / 2020 - 2021
Every Mother was my first opportunity to design for a large customer base in the B2C space. I was brought on as a freelance UX designer, and helped the company mature its mobile app onboarding process. I also designed a handful of landing page experiments in Unbounce. During my last 3 months, I redesigned their CMS driven blog, created an "About Us" page and designed visuals for the App Store.
My time there was incredibly rewarding as I got to experience what it’s like to collaborate with engineers, product managers and brand designers. This experience also gave me a bias toward shipping stuff and iterating fast when you inevitably don’t get it right the first time.
Every Mother was my first opportunity to design for a large customer base in the B2C space. I was brought on as a freelance UX designer, and helped the company mature its mobile app onboarding process. I also designed a handful of landing page experiments in Unbounce. During my last 3 months, I redesigned their CMS driven blog, created an "About Us" page and designed visuals for the App Store.
My time there was incredibly rewarding as I got to experience what it’s like to collaborate with engineers, product managers and brand designers. This experience also gave me a bias toward shipping stuff and iterating fast when you inevitably don’t get it right the first time.
