Telling authentic stories
I take the time to understand what's unique about a candidate or product that will resonate with my target audience. Then, I amplify those core qualities across diverse channels using designs that attract attention. On the Engardio campaign, I created a brand based on my candidate’s career as a journalist holding government accountable. I drafted the designs, wrote the script, and supervised production for all our advertising materials. We used the classic film noir style in our hard-to-miss TV spot.
Making data actionable
There’s more data available than ever before, but it’s difficult to use well. I identify relevant data and use statistical analysis to determine who my target audience is and how to best interact with them. On the Engardio campaign, I learned who voters planned to support with door-to-door canvassing and phone surveys, and appended our voter file with demographic and consumer information provided by vendors. Using R, I created a model that predicted the candidate choice of every voter. I used this data to set advertising and turnout priorities, deploying resources to where they would be most effective. On election day, the top finishing candidates attained a share of the vote within three percentage points of what the model had predicted.
Empowering with software
I’ve been there to witness software’s positive impact on the world, helping organizations like Polaris use a text message API to provide a discrete lifeline to victims of human trafficking with text messages. Software’s ability to affect the world in a positive way has never been greater, and has never been easier to use. At Twilio.org, I showed non-profits how our API and other web services could help them fulfill their missions, guided their web developers as they built solutions, and communicated with our customers and the public about how an innovative mindset in the public sector can make the world a better place.
Organizing for what I believe in
As an early supporter of Barack Obama, I felt duty-bound after college to help re-elect him to a second term, and moved to the swing state of Nevada to serve as a field organizer. The next four months took more effort and sacrifice than I knew I had capacity to give, but were rewarding beyond all prior comparison. I personally recruited, trained, and led a team of 70 active volunteers to get out the vote in northwest Las Vegas. Together, we knocked on doors, made phone calls, and registered new voters to achieve evolving team metrics each week. I also trained two new field organizers in the campaign’s final weeks. This campaign reinforced the importance of having mission-driven goals in my work.
