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Jay Fanelli

Former Duolingo Design Manager and Cotton Bureau/Full Stop co-founder. Taking a nice long break. 🏝️

Jay Fanelli is a professional with a diverse background in design, interactive media, account management, and entrepreneurship. He studied Journalism & Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh for his Bachelor of Arts degree. Additionally, he pursued studies in Interior Design & Architecture at Drexel University for a Master's program, although he did not complete it. Jay has held various significant roles in prestigious organizations such as Duolingo, Cotton Bureau, Full Stop Interactive, Mind Over Media, Merkle | IMPAQT, and Ripple Effects Interactive.

Highlights

Jan 29 · linkedin

After 1,629 days, I decided that my streak at Duolingo would come to an end this past Friday, January 26. I’ll be taking a nice long break while I focus on physical and mental health and figure out the next move in my career (which, for the foreseeable future, will be “stay-at-home cat dad and Michelle’s personal chef). I wouldn’t entirely rule out a comeback, but that’s a conversation for another time.

I’ll be honest: when I left Cotton Bureau in 2019—a company that I’d founded in 2009 and led through a decade of its own crazy ups and downs—I didn’t think there was room enough in my heart to care as much or as deeply about another company or group of colleagues as I did about my own. It felt impossible. I can’t believe how wrong I was. In my time at Duolingo, I managed 30 people at one point or another, often as the first manager they ever had in their career (a privilege 🙏). By my count, there were 59 people involved in Product Design during my time at Duolingo (IC designers, program managers, content designers, UX researchers, role managers, directors, etc). I interviewed (or was the hiring manager for) 45 of those 59. Whoa. Beyond the stats, we went through COVID together. We went through a summer of civil unrest together. We went through a scary presidential election together. We WENT PUBLIC together. We grew from 20 to 120 together (while the whole company went from <200 to >700). I’m not only a different person than the one who walked in the door in 2019, I might be a different species (owl). I will always be a part of Duolingo, and Duolingo will always be a part of me.

Duolingo Design Dept. forever and ever. 💚🦉✌️

Sep 5 · linkedin

What if I told you there was an opening for a Senior Product Designer on the mighty Monetization team at Duolingo—the team responsible for building and packaging our many awesome premium features—and that Monetization just happened to be ✨my team✨? Wanna work together (available in NYC or PGH)?

Jay Fanelli
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Location

Greater Pittsburgh Region