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Amanda Gelb
Professional Question Asker ✍️🙋🏽♀️
Professional Background
Amanda Gelb is a dynamic and creative professional renowned for her diverse background in the nonprofit, higher education, technology, and media sectors. With extensive experience throughout her career, Amanda has consistently demonstrated a commitment to fostering community engagement and making impactful contributions through her work. Her career trajectory has been defined by her ability to empower communities utilizing a unique blend of artful research and strategic planning, all while leveraging data-driven decision-making.
Amanda has excelled in numerous roles spanning from research and user experience to teaching and leadership. She has built a reputation as a knowledgeable project manager, adept at guiding cross-functional teams from project conception to completion. This skillset not only allows her to deliver compelling presentations to varied audiences but also ensures that her insights are precisely aligned with the needs of product teams and end-users alike.
Education and Achievements
Amanda Gelb holds a Master of Professional Studies (M.P.S.) in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University, where she honed her skills in utilizing technology and communication as tools for driving community engagement. She also earned a Certificate in Experiential Jewish Education from Yeshiva University's Center for the Jewish Future, showcasing her dedication to enriching lives through education. Additionally, Amanda received her Bachelor of Commerce degree, focusing on Entrepreneurship and Social Strategy, from McGill University - an institution known for cultivating innovators and forward-thinkers in the business domain.
As part of her pursuit for knowledge and excellence, Amanda has taken on several thought leadership roles, including serving as a Discussion Leader in “Questions that Make Sense” at The Sensemakers Club. In this capacity, she has fostered engaging dialogues and driven meaningful conversations that encourage critical thinking and collaboration among participants.
Notable Professional Experiences
For Amanda, each professional experience has served as a building block in her illustrious career. She has held a variety of significant positions across leading industry organizations:
- As a Research Manager & Area Lead at Asana, Amanda leveraged her analytical capabilities to enhance team productivity and guide product development based on user feedback and requirements.
- At Lyft, Amanda served in multiple roles focusing on user experience research, including UX Research Manager for Transit, Bikes, and Scooters, as well as positions related to rider experience. Her contributions helped shape Lyft’s offerings, ensuring they remained user-centered and based on thorough research methodologies.
- At Huge, she worked as a Research Lead and Senior Researcher, where she directed research projects that informed design decisions and improved client offerings through data-driven insights. Her expertise in your user research helped solidify Huge’s reputation for understanding client needs.
- Amanda’s experience also includes significant roles at global tech giant Google as a UX Researcher, and the reputable design firm fuseproject as a Product Strategist, where her innovative thinking and strategic insight were showcased.
- Her diverse career extended to academia, having worked as an Adjunct Professor of Experience Design at New York University, where she enriched students’ learning experiences by integrating real-world applications into classroom education.
- Additionally, as the Executive Director at the Million Museum Project, she led initiatives to create accessible cultural and educational resources, underscoring her dedication to arts and education.
Skills and Expertise
Amanda’s work is characterized by robust analytical skills intertwined with a permeating creativity that treats problems as opportunities for innovative solutions. Her ability to synthesize complex data into understandable insights allows her to present to diverse audiences, effectively communicating the value of her findings and proposals.
She is also skilled in building and maintaining relationships across multidisciplinary teams, allowing for collaborative project environments that yield greater innovation and efficiency. Known for her passion for empowering others through sharing knowledge, Amanda embodies the spirit of a lifelong learner, continuously questioning the status quo and exploring ‘what could be’ in her projects.
Conclusion
As a proud graduate of prestigious educational institutions and a seasoned professional across multifaceted industries, Amanda Gelb exemplifies a blend of creativity, strategic planning, and commitment to service. Her journey reflects an unwavering dedication to community empowerment and user experience optimization. Furthermore, she is a celebrated professional in the realms she navigates, with a wealth of
Highlights
Does user research have an image problem? Many of us in user research often hear feedback from managers or stakeholders that we come across as “too negative” or that we need to be “more collaborative.” This can feel at odds with the core purpose of user research—to identify challenges and highlight areas for improvement. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
I’m excited to share that there are still a few spots available in the course I’m co-teaching with Anna Avrekh, "How to Uplevel Stakeholder Management for User Researchers." In this course, you’ll learn how to effectively engage your stakeholders while maintaining a strong research perspective.
We keep our class size small to provide personalized instruction and coaching through interactive sessions and office hours. Register now and use the code "LinkedIn" for a 10% discount.
Choose between our Tue/Thur 1-hour sessions over two weeks or a two-day intensive Sunday schedule. Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/dqChXHkJ
Join us. Tell good people to join us.
Sometimes you can "be where you are" and other times the schedule gets pushed up on a project you are leading while your child's daycare is closed and your partner is away.
And then you WFC - work from carousel 🎠.
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.