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Dug Falby
Service Designer
Professional Background
Dug Falby is a seasoned professional specializing in human-centered design, a field that focuses on understanding the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process. His vast experience encompasses a range of roles that highlight his career-long commitment to improving services and ensuring that organizations deliver better outcomes for their customers. Currently, he sits on the Board of Advisors at New Breed Services, where his insights help shape the strategic direction of the organization, leveraging his wealth of knowledge in user experience and service design.
Dug has held many prestigious positions in various notable organizations. His journey in the world of service and product design is marked by impactful roles such as the Director of Consulting at Nile, where he took the reins as an interim leader, steering the company towards more user-centric service solutions. Previous to this, he served as the Experience Director at Avanade Digital, playing a pivotal role in enhancing customer experiences through innovative digital solutions. Dug's contributions have had a lasting impact at Dixons Retail, where he was the Head of Customer Experience, fine-tuning the complex interplay between consumer interaction and service efficiency.
His long-standing career features extensive work in user experience, with foundational roles including Principal User Experience Manager at Vodafone and multiple consultancy positions at well-regarded firms such as BNP Paribas Fortis and Orange. This deep-rooted expertise showcases his ability to bridge technology with user-centric design principles, ultimately fostering more intuitive and effective services.
Throughout his career, Dug has consistently embraced positions that challenge the norms of user experience, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in service design. His strategic vision has led him to roles in leading agencies like TMW Unlimited, where he initially joined as a User Experience Consultant, later advancing to become their Lead Experience Architect, which allowed him to instill innovative design strategies in various projects.
Dug’s creative ingenuity was also evident during his time as the Creative Director at Offworld Industries, where he channeled his artistic sensibilities into crafting compelling narratives and experiences that resonate with users. His contributions extend to early-stage roles in organizations like Bluewave Computing and GGK London, laying the groundwork for his multifaceted career within the design and technology sectors.
Education and Achievements
Dug Falby’s educational background is characterized by a strong foundation in the humanities through his Bachelor of Arts in History and Art from the prestigious Columbia University in the City of New York. His academic achievements underscore a profound understanding of cultural dynamics and artistry, which informs his approach to design and user experience.
While he did not follow a traditional economics study path, Dug has nevertheless intertwined elements of economic theory with his design philosophy, utilizing insights from behavioral economics to optimize user interactions. This unique blend of art history and practical economics has empowered him to craft solutions that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also meaningful and effective in addressing user needs.
Achievements
Dug’s professional journey has been marked by significant contributions that have advanced organizational capabilities in design and user experience. His advisory role at New Breed Services allows him to share his extensive insights on service improvement, demonstrating his commitment to advancing industry standards. He is not just a leader in design; he is an advocate for making services more accessible and fulfilling for all users.
At companies like Vodafone and Dixons Retail, Dug has led transformative initiatives that reshaped customer experiences, helping teams navigate the complexities of digital transformation. His ability to integrate human-centered design principles has proven fundamental in creating solutions that resonate deeply with users, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
With a diverse portfolio of experience across various industries, Dug has developed a robust toolkit for addressing user experience challenges and elevating service design practices. As he moves forward in his career, his vision for a world where organizations prioritize user-centered solutions continues to shape his contributions to the design community and beyond.
Highlights
Non-work post. Am a Dad of kids who grew up in social-media on mobile, and one who went through formative years during Covid lockdown. One of my greatest fears was how will my son ever experience what a good man looks like? Just watched Andy Murray's post defeat press conference. THAT is what a good man looks like. What a role model, thank you for all your endeavours Mr Murray:-)
So I'm working alongside a hotshot agency and they are chasing their SoW, deflecting challenges and asks for divergent thinking or practitioner get-togethers, rushing ahead to the point of being able to invoice and land the next stage of the work. Well done Agency Partner Person, you'll do well in your performance review.
They are just agreeing with their stakeholder and making no effort at all to challenge her assumptions or the frame of the engagement itself...
They are making no effort at all to remind their client why they are there in the first place, what the role of the department is or indeed what threats may have surfaced and should be addressed.
Basically, this agency has landed a team of super-talented designers and researchers and briefed them to produce work that could easily have been produced by ChatGPT. The insights are not being activated and the IxD work is colouring in. This is frankly a bit soul-destroying...
Have been sharing these thoughts with colleagues and I'm not the only person to have noticed this. One colleague suggested the problem is the managed services consultancy engagement model. I sold those for years as an agency leader, so I'm reluctant to wholeheartedly agree, but I'm wondering if we need to take another look at how we procure these kinds of services...
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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:
- 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
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- 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.