TheBridge profile: Shola Farber
Name: Shola Farber
Current city: Washington, D.C.
Current job: Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, The Tuesday Company
Past job: Regional Director for Hillary for America
Q. Favorite spot for a coffee meeting? Compass Coffee
Q. Describe how a skill you learned in a previous job helped you in your current job. I've always been a people person and an old soul. I think that combination of extroversion and emotional intelligence has been critical to my career path.
Q. Job advice in three words? Four words, technically, which I think are valuable for both job seekers and those who are making hires: humble, hungry, and emotionally intelligent.
Q. How are you (or your company, org, nonprofit) currently bridging the gap between innovation and regulation? As a “political tech company”, we hire experienced professionals from both politics and the tech world. Teaching technologists about politics, and introducing politicos to tech, means we’re are a bridge by definition! We have been intentional about bringing the best practices of software engineering, product design, and agile development into the political realm. We build tools that facilitate civic engagement by empowering millions of Americans to conduct digital outreach to family and friends.
Q. What can innovators learn from policymakers? Innovators should invest time up front to ask: what challenges am I solving? Who am I building for, and why? What unintended consequences might come from this innovation, and am I comfortable with those side effects?
Q. What can policymakers learn from innovators? Policymaking tends to be a slow process, where the work done in government buildings is extremely far removed from the communities where policymakers hope to have an impact. On the other hand, technologists tend to work closely with their customers to iterate fast enough to beat competitors and maintain positive cashflow. There are logical structural reasons why policy is a tortoise game, but sometimes we can learn from the hare! For example, consider focus groups and conversations with folks on the ground at the front end of your research to help inform the number crunching and data analysis that goes into policy planning.
Q. Favorite book/podcast/long-form article you recommend? The Victory Lab for those interested in progressive campaigns and data. The Hard Thing About Hard Things and/or Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, for those interested in building a business.
Q. Why are you part of TheBridge community? Why do you think it's important this community exists for tech, policy and political professionals? As a former policymaker turned political campaigner and tech entrepreneur, this community feels like it was custom built for me! I see really strong parallels across these industries, and I feel it is super important that we know one another and collaborate whenever possible.
Q. Most underrated virtue in an employee? Curiosity.
Q. Morning routine? Ideally, my routine consists of a workout followed by a little breakfast and 10 minutes of meditating. This is aspirational most days, but we have to have goals.
Q. How do you unwind after work? Trivia!
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