TheBridge profile: Yemi Adewunmi
Name: Yemi Adewunmi
Current city: Washington, DC
Current job: Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder, Civic Eagle
Past job: Designer at Andela; Product Designer at Jopwell; Policy Analyst at the New York State Assembly
Q. Favorite spot for a coffee meeting? Busboys & Poets on 14th.
Q. Describe how a skill you learned in a previous job helped you in your current job. Research and analysis skills have been crucial across my career - especially for my transition from public policy to product design. I started my career as policy staff for the NYS Legislature, and information-gathering and critical thinking skills were necessary for my work collaborating with lobbyists and advocates to introduce proposed legislation. These same skills have become invaluable in my new field of user experience design and product development. I believe that the cornerstone of good design and user experience is good research about the problem that you're designing the solution for.
Q. Job advice in three words? Stay curious, [insert your name]!
Q. How are you (or your company, org, nonprofit) currently bridging the gap between innovation and regulation? My company, Civic Eagle, has built a legislative intelligence and policy management software tool for policy and GR teams. It tracks state and federal legislation in a really user-focused and data-driven way, so we've been able to help our users (advocates and lobbyists) better communicate with their stakeholders remotely and save time in their workflow. Specifically, over the past few months, we've been rounding up legislative information about coronavirus response bills and police reform legislation and making it available for our community. We're obsessed with the intersection of technology and policy, and the opportunities for change that it creates for communities.
Q. What can innovators learn from policymakers? Policymakers are typically good at looking towards the long-term effects and impacts of the policy they are designing. They look across the various areas of community life before they make decisions. Innovators and technologists often build technology in stealth-mode, away from the public and without open feedback channels. There are some good reasons for this, but it ultimately limits their ability to truly assess the long-term implications of their work.
Q. What can policymakers learn from innovators? Innovators move quickly through experimentation and iterative processes, which allows them to "fail fast" and make improvements at low costs. I believe there are opportunities for policymakers to experiment with new ways of creating impact for communities. And they can start by adopting new technology tools that improve their workflows, help them reach constituents in better ways, leverage relevant data, and save them time and effort.
Q. Favorite book/podcast/long-form article you recommend? My favorite business-related book: Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim.
Q. Everyday is probably different, but can you describe a "day in the life" of your job? In my role as co-founder and Chief Product Officer of a startup company (we're a team of 12 FTE), my days never look the same. However, I'm accountable for establishing the roadmap of features in our legislative intelligence software; designing what the screens of the software look like; and designing the experience that our users have, from when they first interact with our brand to when they become customers and users. And when I'm not doing design work, I'm helping to steer the company in the right direction alongside my management team, from planning team-bonding experiences to hiring new employees.
Q. Why are you part of TheBridge community? This community is so important. I haven't seen any community like this. The members of this community are quite literally changing the world - or at least having a tangible impact on how important decisions about society are being made. I think it's super important that we create and encourage more connections within and across our sectors. As the world continues to shift with technology, being policy-minded is even more critical, and we'll need communities like this one to be a resource.
Q. What's one piece of advice you are still trying to master? Done is better than perfect. As a designer and strategist for my company, it can be hard for me to finally launch a project. But I've learned that in order to make continuous progress, you have to start somewhere and you can't start until you launch.
Q. Morning routine? I wake up sometime between 6 and 7 am, spend about an hour and a half prepping for the day, reading, journaling, and making my coffee. Around 8:30, I'll try to do either yoga or cardio (lately I've been cycling, but pre-COVID I was at OTF #iykyk). Shower, get dressed, then jump into my work for the day around 11 am.
Q. Favorite app? Squarespace. They make it really easy for me as a designer to spin up websites and landing pages for personal and professional projects.
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