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Doug Seidman
Product Design Leader & Design Director | Previously at Instagram and Twitter
Doug Seidman is a seasoned product design leader with a remarkable career spanning over 15 years, during which he has successfully built and managed product and design teams at renowned companies like Instagram, Twitter, GQ, Condé Nast Entertainment, and VEVO.
With a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Graphic Design from West Virginia University, Doug Seidman brings a strong educational background and a deep understanding of design principles to his roles.
His expertise lies in collaborating closely with designers, engineers, and product-focused individuals to tackle intricate user experience (UX) and business challenges, showcasing a passion for problem-solving and innovation.
Doug Seidman's professional aspirations include taking on a design leadership position in a smaller organization or contributing as a senior individual in a larger one, ideally within a dynamic work environment characterized by a research and design-driven ethos and a vibrant, supportive company culture.
Known for prioritizing the well-being and collaboration with his colleagues, Doug Seidman values team dynamics and interpersonal relationships over the products being developed.
Throughout his career, Doug Seidman held pivotal roles such as Product Designer at Instagram, Design Director at Twitter, Head of Product & Design at GQ - Condé Nast, VP of Product & Design at Condé Nast Entertainment, as well as contributing to companies like VEVO and Huge in various design capacities.
Highlights
As I approach my two-year mark as an independent designer, I’ve reflected a lot on my work, challenges, the people I’ve worked with, and share what’s (hopefully) next.
MY WORK. I continue to work on many media-related products that fit my experience at Instagram, Twitter, and Condé Nast. It’s allowed me to continue working in areas I love while expanding into other verticals like crypto and cybersecurity.
BEYOND DESIGN. Running my own business has taught me invaluable lessons. I've learned to navigate the healthcare system, manage payroll, draft contracts, negotiate, and request deposits. I’m also attempting to master the art of cold emailing and follow-ups without seeming like a pest.
THE PEOPLE. The satisfaction I find almost always comes from the amazing people I work with, even if the work isn’t thrilling. This includes founders, business executives, design and product managers, designers, former colleagues, and even friends and family.
LOOKING AHEAD… I’m actively pursuing new partnerships with teams and individuals who need an independent designer. Here are some of my strengths and things that interest me.
🖼️ VISUAL DESIGN. In addition to product thinking and UX design, I like working with people who value visual design and craft. When speed-to-market is important, I enjoy working with founders and leaders at properly scoping and prioritizing work to allow for these types of projects to still meet a high-quality bar.
⭐️NEW INITIATIVES. Throughout my entire career, I’ve started almost everything from a blank canvas with lots of ambiguity. Whether it’s shipping MVPs, testing new ideas, designing concepts for pitches, building new teams from scratch, and implementing new processes is something that most fulfills me.
🕰️INVESTING MY TIME. Even as a contractor, I’m as invested as full-time team members. This mindset has been crucial to the success of each of my partnerships. I’m able to quickly integrate into projects and teams, adapt, deliver impactful results, and help them succeed.
Like many, I’m interested in products that leverage AI as a means to unlock new possibilities for companies and people. The following verticals are all interesting to me.
🏀SPORTS: I’m a basketball junkie. While these opportunities feel like few and far between, I’m intrigued by sports entertainment, stats, and analytics.
🏠HOME OWNERSHIP. As a new homeowner, I like to think about ways home projects and renovations can improve from many perspectives.
🛍️RETAIL. I appreciate quality, durable, simple, and affordable(ish) clothes, furniture, and accessories.
🛠️WEALTH, PERSONAL, AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. I’m very organized when it comes to my life, finances, and work. I’d like to unlock new opportunities for people to be more efficient with how they manage these things.
📱LETS CONNECT. I’d love to chat! Learn more at dougseidman.com. More recent design case studies are available upon request. Hit me up [email protected] or DM me here.
PROFESSIONAL NEWS After 15+ years of designing and leading teams at Instagram, Twitter, GQ, Condé Nast Entertainment, and Vevo, I’m excited to have officially kicked off my journey as an independent Product Designer, something that’s appealed to me since enjoying my initial stab at it. After leaving Instagram last year, I was eager and willing to take a risk, establish (and get acquainted with) my personal design philosophy, and tackle projects across a spectrum of industry verticals. I’m actively seeking 4-6 month engagements and would appreciate y’all spreading the word by sharing this post!
🌎 A YEAR INTO THIS ADVENTURE It's time for a recap. I’ve had a range of opportunities, clients, and projects within my first year. I designed and launched various digital platforms for Sphere (AKA that giant eyeball in Las Vegas). I improved product design operations and processes at Endeavor Streaming while designing for their owned and operated platforms like UFC Fight Pass. I developed Expel’s Documentation Hub for their Design System’s team. I also simplified and modernized the UX flow and interface of a stealth live music & audio startup’s iOS app.
📺 EXPERTISE AT THE INTERSECTION OF MEDIA + TECH Throughout my career, I’ve primarily worked at the intersection of media and technology in both individual contributor and leadership roles. I've contributed to both the consumer and business sides for various social media, music, entertainment, news, and publishing platforms. I've made significant contributions to the product and business strategy within each. I’ve designed for almost every aspect within the digital video space – most recently on short form vertical video for Instagram Reels. Additionally, I’ve led teams focused on design systems and visual design.
⌚ NOW WHAT I’m actively seeking 4-6 month engagements that compliment my experience and expertise with anything from early-stage startups to large organizations or anything in between. Please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can learn more about my work and experience at dougseidman.com and contact me directly at douglas.seidman at gmail dot com (or on LinkedIn).
🎸 FOR THOSE IMPACTED BY THE NEWS AT SPOTIFY ...or anyone going through similar circumstances at other companies – if going down this road piques your interest, I’d love to chat and offer any advice I can on my experience. 🙏
#design #productdesign #opentowork #opentoopportunities
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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:
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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.
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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.
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