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Sam Hankins
Principal Product Designer, Coral at Vox Media, LLC.
Professional Background
Sam Hankins is a distinguished professional whose career encompasses a blend of law, design, and education. With a wealth of experience across various prestigious organizations, Sam has made significant contributions to the fields of product design and user experience, particularly in the media landscape. As the Principal Product Designer for Coral and Editorial Tools at Vox Media, LLC, Sam demonstrates a profound understanding of how design enhances user engagement and transforms digital experiences. Before this role, Sam served as a Senior Product Designer for Coral at the same company, where they honed their design skills and led projects that helped shape the future of content management.
Prior to joining Vox Media, Sam's creative journey included positions such as Lead Designer for The Coral Project at Mozilla. In this role, Sam was pivotal in developing innovative design solutions aimed at improving digital communication spaces. Their initial foray into the tech world began as a UX Design Apprentice at Bloc, which laid the groundwork for Sam's passion for user-centric design and led to a fruitful career where mentoring the next generation of designers became a key focus. As a Product Design Educator and Mentor at Bloc, Sam inspired and guided aspiring designers, sharing invaluable insights and fostering talent in the field.
Sam’s multifaceted career also includes experience in academia, where they held roles such as Assistant Director of International Law Programs and Multicultural Affairs at Hofstra University, and Associate Director of Student Affairs at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law. These positions underscored Sam's commitment to nurturing an inclusive educational environment and supporting diverse student populations.
Education and Achievements
Sam's impressive educational background reflects a diverse skill set that bridges creativity, analytical thinking, and communication. Sam earned their Juris Doctor (JD) from Gonzaga University School of Law, equipping them with a strong foundation in legal principles and advocacy. Complementing this legal education, Sam also studied User Experience Design through an apprenticeship at Bloc and Art Direction at the Chicago Portfolio School. This blend of skills informs their approach to product design, allowing them to create solutions that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also functionally effective.
Further fortifying their expertise, Sam holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications from Creighton University, with sequences in Advertising and Visual Communications. This degree provided essential knowledge on media, communication strategies, and visual design, laying the groundwork for their future endeavors in product design and user experience.
Sam's educational journey has been complemented by significant achievements, such as serving as President of the Gonzaga University School of Law Student Bar Association, where they showcased leadership and commitment to improving student life. Additionally, their role as an Ambassador to the Admissions Diversity Outreach Program reflects a dedication to promoting diversity and inclusion within legal education.
Key Achievements
- Principal Product Designer at Vox Media: Leading the design of Coral and Editorial Tools, driving user engagement and enhancing digital storytelling.
- Former Senior Product Designer at Vox Media: Contributed to the growth and functionality of Coral, impacting how news organizations interact with content.
- Lead Designer for The Coral Project at Mozilla: Innovated designs that promoted collaboration and improved the user experience across digital platforms.
- Product Design Educator at Bloc: Mentored budding designers, fostering a new generation of creative professionals.
- Leadership Roles in Legal Education: Demonstrated a strong commitment to community and equity as Associate Director at Hofstra University and President of the Gonzaga School of Law Student Bar Association.
- Diverse Educational Background: Unique blend of law, design, and communication, showcasing adaptability and a wide-ranging skill set that enhances Sam's contributions to any project or organization.
Through their extensive journey in law, design, and education, Sam Hankins embodies the values of creativity, collaboration, and inclusion. Their professional trajectory stands as a testament to the impact of interdisciplinary skills and a passion for innovation.
tags':['Product Design','User Experience Design','Vox Media','Coral Project','Mozilla','Chicago Portfolio School','Gonzaga University','Law','Education','Design Education','Advertising','Journalism','Mass Communications','Diversity Outreach'],
questions
:[ "How has Sam Hankins’ education at Gonzaga University School of Law influenced their design career?", "What notable projects did Sam lead during their time at Vox Media that demonstrate their design capabilities
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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
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- 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.
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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 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.
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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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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.
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