Smart Design
Smart Design is an innovation and design consultancy which sought a marketing transformation. I collaborated across teams, disciplines and business verticals to rebuild their marketing stack, create top-of-funnel marketing programs, and illuminate their brand story across channels. I mentored staff and built internal processes. I opened new relationships, set standards and practices, and established a monthly communications strategy which created a dialogue with hundreds of business decision-makers.
Strategy
To transform brand marketing, I purpose-built content and programs to engage with innovation leaders, including an executive profile series, a blog to drive awareness of technology capabilities, a conversation series that generated an average 150 leads per event, and an alumni program to facilitate referrals. I launched brand collaborations, speaking and event sponsorships, and led a PR team to secure placements in Fast Company and Forbes. I negotiated and led a multi partner brand activation with NASA, Brooklyn Navy Yard, and NYCxDESIGN to build brand awareness, facilitate new collaborations, and preview a new tech platform. In the process, I built strong relationships with the leadership of these strategic partners.
Operations
To underpin the strategy, I led a UX overhaul of the digital experience to enable the sales funnel and optimize lead generation. I shepherded a marketing budget, encompassing all vendor negotiations and contract teams. I established a marketing process across teams and company leadership. I introduced and onboarded project management platforms and a CRM to segment and track engagement, and completed an SEO audit, and implemented Google Analytics, Tag Manager, and Search Console. With this foundation in place, I engaged paid media campaigns to drive inbounds, implemented landing pages and delivered weekly and quarterly lead reports. I coached leaders to develop their expert content as writers and speakers, orchestrated a schedule of published content and produced live conversation events.
Below is a list of accomplishments. Contact me for details.
Jared Bruder at Smart Design
2024
Smart Salons
Space for innovation: Is the physical environment still crucial for the creative process? - In partnership with Vitra
Democratizing Design: Bridging the gap between experts and everyday makers
Content launches
FemTech: Transforming monthly periods to diagnostic potential: An interview with Dr. Sara Naseri
In-person events
Smart Design Alumni gathering in SF
2023
Operations
Updated buyer personas
Updated Healthcare case studies
Added flip card engagement to Report format
Migration to Google Analytics - G4
Migration to new Project Management platform
Migration to new CRM
Industry report
Innovation 2.0: Healthcare. Insights for innovators, from the front lines of healthcare design
Content launches
Trending toward 2024: Where brands shake hands, styles collide, and AI gets real
From Good to OMG: How interaction design can supercharge your customer’s everyday experiences
Four insights to create a successful refillable packaging platform
Pursuing sustainability means investing in design
Design thinking isn’t design: Time to shift gears
How to make tech for good: Four lessons from the field
If you’re an innovator, you need to understand IP
Idea to Market: Physical prototypes and how to use them internally
Tech Blog
Invent before extraction: Training a proprietary machine learning model
Idea to Market: 5 kinds of physical prototypes and how to use them internally
From current event to proprietary data: How to train Chat GPT for your business needs
PR
NASA: Media, Public Invited to Meet Solvers in NASA Space Food Challenge
WWD: Design week is not just about sofas
Dezeen: The future of food by Smart Design and NASA
New York Times: The Future of Food and Beyond
Space.com: NASA serves up $750,000 to Deep Space Food Challenge winners in cook-off for astronaut eats
Vogue Business: The problem with refillable beauty
Forbes: A Great Case Study For Chief Growth Officers: The 10-Year Innovation Journey of Gatorade’s Gx Ecosystem
LinkedIn leadership voices
I’ll let you in on a secret: we don’t always put the user first
Can generative AI help us create and think?
Feeling stuck on a design project? Here are three quick tips to break a creative stalemate
Why companies need creative leaders and what designers need to do to get there
The internet of things is back, baby
It’s 2030: How electrifying everything has changed our lives – and what that meant for designers back in 2023
Case Studies
Gatorade: Gx Smart Bottle
Gatorade: Gx Ecosystem
Gatorade: Pods and Bottles
Berkshire Grey: New interface for controlling robot fleets
OXO: Good Grips Design refresh
Poursteady
Smart Salons
NASA Deep Space Food Challenge and beyond - In-person - Request results deck
EVs at scale: The race to electrify transportation - In-person
Tech & Teens: Striking a balance for optimal well-being - Virtual
Next Gen entrepreneurs: Breaking barriers and building businesses - Virtual
In-person events
Smart Design Alumni gathering
NASA Deep Space Food Challenge Innovation showcase, during NYCxDESIGN Festival - Request results deck
IDC: Open Studio
DMI: Design Night Out at Smart Design: Innovation 2.0: Healthcare
SDN at Smart Design: On design research and generative AI
Speaking engagements
IDC Main stage in NYC: Working small to think big
SDN in Berlin - On AI
DMI in Madrid: Welcome to Innovation 2.0
DMI in Boston: Innovation 2.0: Healthcare
DMI Digital Symposium: Innovation 2.0: Healthcare
DMN in Korea: Innovation 2.0: Healthcare
Awards
Fast Co Innovation Awards: Gatorade, Gx Smart Bottle (in two categories)
UX Design Awards: Berkshire Grey, Berkshire Grey Flex next-gen HMI
Core77: Gatorade, Gx Smart Bottle
2022
Operations
Updated Lead Scoring
Updated Site tagging
Industry report
Welcome to Innovation 2.0: Insights from leaders on navigating a post-crisis world
Content launches
Two startups bridging the innovation gap in women's healthcare
The data behind teamwork
Six steps to co-design: What it is and why your company needs it
Our 2022 design and inspiration list
Tech Blog
Hand detection in 3D space
The evolution of sensors
High fidelity prototypes lead to better IOT experiences
Setting up a machine vision camera for image inference
Smart Design executive profile series
12 profiles total
Case Studies
Meta: Evolving the voices of young people through co-design
Gantri: AIM - A new lighting collection designed by Smart Design, made by Gantri
Ford: Last mile delivery
OXO: The kitchen drawer organizer for everyone.
OXO: Cold brew coffee maker
PR
DMI Review: Redefining Creative Leadership & Management
Virtual Smart Salons
Coffee and ritual: Designing the coffee experience at home and at the counter
Unexpected journeys: Navigating the challenges of human-centered product design
High impact decisions: How design can help us make better life choices
Predicting the unpredictable: Using foresight to better prepare for the near and long-term future
Innovation reimagined: Leading a post-crisis transformation
Innovation 2.0: New behaviors, new opportunities
The road to well-being: Designing inclusive and thoughtful mobility experiences
Ethical interactions: How AI is influencing experience design
Awards
Fast Company Innovation by Design: Gantri, Aim Lighting Collection
Good Design Awards: OXO, Good Grips Expandable Drawer Organizer
Good Design Awards: OXO, Strawberry Huller
Good Design Awards: Gantri, Aim Lighting Collection
IDEA: Gantri, Aim Lighting Collection
IDEA: OXO, Good Grips Expandable Drawer Organizer
Core77: Gantri, Aim Lighting Collection
Red Dot: OXO, Steel Suite
2021
Operations
Refreshed Visual brand language
Launched site content collections
Industry report
Perceptions of Sustainability: Four insights for brands
Content launches
The state of design research
Personalizing tomorrow: Unlocking personalized user experiences
There’s no single pathway to success in the digital future
Your 2021 Year end wish list: Design and innovation books
PR
Fast Company
Companies are failing to do this one simple thing that could boost recycling
The stuff you buy isn’t nearly as recyclable as you think. Blame corporate America
Why everyone is confused about what ‘eco-friendly’ actually means
Why two of the world’s most innovative design firms are moving to an old shipyard
Where design can make the biggest impact in the next decade, according to over 30 experts
Whether you’re working or relaxing, these lights provide ambience for either
Forbes: The 20 most compelling examples of Innovation
Core77: Smart Design’s Light Collaboration with Gantri is a Commendable Feat in 3D Printing
Core77: Nailed It: Behind the Redesign of OXO's Good Grips Expandable On-the-Wall Organizer
IDSA: What’s next for the design studio?
Washington Post: America’s workers are exhausted and burned out — and some employers are taking notice
Product launch
Gantri: Consumer lighting collection with Gantri during NYCxDESIGN Festival
Virtual Smart Salons
Design research: Beyond the interview
Design research: People from the future
Sustainability: Perceptions of sustainability
Closing the loop: How systems enable a circular economy
Testing the limits: Designing the next wave of diagnostics
Bridging the knowledge gap in women’s health - with Core77
How social design can make products more human
Innovating today for tomorrow - at NYCxDESIGN Festival
Personalizing tomorrow: Unlocking personalized user experiences
Speaking engagements
FEI: Building new product and service ecosystems
Quirks: On Design research
Awards
Fast Company Innovation by Design: Ford Mobility, Last Mile Delivery
Fast Company Innovation by Design: Gatorade, Gx Sweat Patch and App
Fast Company Innovation by Design: Upstream USA, Birth control information toolkit
Core77: OXO, Brew compact cold brew coffee maker
Core77: OXO, Tot Silicone Tableware
If Design Awards: OXO, Good Grips expandable On-the-Wall organizer
If Design Awards: OXO, Good Grips swivel peeler
If Design Awards: OXO, Brew 8 cup coffee maker
Cribsie Awards: OXO, Tot feeding line
Cribsie Awards: OXO, Tot roll-up bib
Design Thinking Awards: Upstream USA, New patient materials
Service Design Network Award: Amplifon, CX transformation for hearing care
Beverage Digest: Gatorade, Gx Sweat Patch and App
CES: Gatorade, Gx Sweat Patch and App
2020
Operations
Established marketing operations process
Onboarded new CRM
Launched Clients and Awards page
List Segmentation and Lead scoring
Onboarded new Project Management platform
Rebuilt email templates
Implementation of Google Analytics, Tag Manager, Google Data Studio dashboards
UX Overhaul to showcase content and drive inbounds
Launched content initiative programs
Defined and launched social media strategy across three themes (Clients, Company, Culture)
Content launches
Relaunched monthly Newsletter
Designing for a better world after COVID
The Future state of Health and Wellness
Reframing the window of remote research
Solving the challenge of new product and service brainstorming when everyone is remote
On the ground in Austin with the Gatorade Gx Sweat Patch
Digital transformation is old news
Helping one non-profit take on food waste
Case Studies
Amplifon: A new customer experience for hearing health
Upstream USA: Building a patient-centric tool kit to better facilitate birth control conversations in health centers
Plano Synergy: Giving anglers the right tools with a range of innovative tackle boxes
PR
Fortune: The greatest designs of modern times
Forbes: Why inclusive product design matters
Forbes: How artificial intelligence is helping companies identify and nail new product opportunities
Fast Company: Do bike lanes actually make cyclists safer?
Packaging Digest: Psychology of refills
Core77: Constant Change: Insights from twenty years in the design industry
99U: Brainstorming from a distance: How distributed teams collaborate
New York Times: Will luxury smartwatches succeed?
Virtual Smart Salons
The organizational impact of design research
Qualitative research at scale
Ethics in design research
Awards
Fast Company Innovation Awards: Plano, EDGE Tacklebox
Fortune: OXO, Good Grips peeler
Service Design Network: Amplifon, CX Transformation for Hearing Care
Design Management Institute: Amplifon, Design Influence & Impact Hearing Care
SXSW Innovation Awards: Gatorade, Gx Sweat Patch and App
Good Design Awards: OXO, Tot Silicone Line
Good Design Awards: OXO, French Press with grounds lifter
Good Design Awards: OXO, 8-Cup Coffee Maker
Good Design Awards: OXO, Compost Bin
Good Design Awards: Plano, EDGE Tackle box